Healthy Glow: Healthy Eating, La Mode & Ramblings
My African Culture: BBC Documentary, ‘The Worst Place To Be Gay’
In a documentary broadcast recently on the BBC, the British DJ Scott Mills travels to Uganda and reports on the rampant homophobia there. Technically, Uganda may not be the very worst place to be gay. Homosexuality can get you beheaded in Saudi Arabia for example, and there are several other places with similar policies. Nevertheless, Uganda’s pretty bad.
Mills’ film is depressing viewing as he discovers the breadth and depth of rabid homophobia in Ugandan society. Perhaps because he’s a DJ and not a journalist, I found Mills annoying at times, as he tends to focus on himself and his own reactions a bit too much. But at other times his naive and good natured manner is quite endearing.
At one point, Mills comes out of the closet to Ugandan MP David Bahati, the sponsor of the notorious anti-homosexuality bill. After that, things turn rather sinister.
The documentary does a good job of highlighting the dire situation in Uganda, but I found myself wishing Mills had confronted some of his subjects with something a little more intellectually challenging than simply the fact of his own gayness. For example, interviewee after interviewee insists homosexuality is un-African, and then goes on to quote the Bible. But Mills never asks any of these people just what is so African about Christianity – a religion introduced by colonialists.
Mills does mention the role of American evangelists in whipping up anti-gay fervour but I think that deserved a lot more emphasis. The film also leaves one with the false sense that nobody besides a handful of gay men is trying to do anything about the situation. Many Ugandans are in fact against the anti-homosexuality bill, and a number of strong civil society organisations continue to speak out against it.
The documentary forms part of a BBC series, focusing on various places that are the ‘worst places to be…” I see there’s another on the DRC, as the “worst place to be a woman.”
Part 1 is above. —The Review is from African Is A Country Blog by Brett Davidson
The Obama administration made history today, appointing the first man and openly gay man as White House Social Secretary. The administration announced today that the job will be filled by Jeremy Bernard who currently serves as the chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to France.
picture courtesy of Clutch Magazine
In 1965, Malcolm X, a civil rights activist and nationalist, was assassinated following a bombing at his home. To learn more about X visit his official website. Picture courtesy of caraway1965 blog
—Malcolm X
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For Your Information:
MAHALIA JACKSON Live late 1960’s We Shall Overcome
Today is a day to celebrate the Black Civil Rights movement with solemn reflection, respect, joy, sorrow, regret, progress and how far we have to go as a country. We shall overcome. Happy Martin Luther King Day. Today is a day on not a day off.
