Africa: Off The Hook

An excellent piece from the New Statesman by Osita Mba argues that; "The coverage of the recent conviction of two gay Malawians for homosexuality was dominated by a self-serving - but ultimately self-defeating - dismissal by Western human rights activists of African homophobia as 'the desperate defense of Western mores in indigenous clothing.'"
Mba disputes the simplistic notion that homophobia in Africa should be seen as just a legacy of its imperial past, and notes the irony that; '"Western activists persist in challenging the prejudiced claims by some Africans that homosexuality is "un-African" with the equally prejudiced counterclaim that homophobia is "un-African".'