UK theatre producer David Cecil: Most Ugandans are not homophobic and it is not a terrible place
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I think he’s living in fantasyland, most black people are deeply homophobic and use the bible as an excuse for their homophobia, the same bible that was used to justify the transatlantic slave trade for centuries!
I think you are possible mixing two causalities:
Many third world countries are homophobic due to their entrenched traditional beliefs. A great deal of the third world is black.
Those two facts may not be directly attributable to each other.
The term ‘third world’ refers to a formula wherein the ‘second world’ was the Communist bloc. As the latter no longer exists, it is now redundant and meaningless. People today refer, if anything, to ‘the developing world.’
(I know you cherish your prejudices, so I don’t expect this will mean anything to you.)
Don’t tell me – are your best friends black?
I think he’s too forgiving. Or too gullible. Place bets now!
I think he’s living in fantasyland, most black people are deeply homophobic and use the bible to excuse their homophobia, the same bible that was used to justify the transatlantic slave trade for centuries!
I posted this twice as there seemed to be an error the first time.I’m new to this and still getting the hang of it.
Well, he lives in Uganda and you don’t: so tell us, on what basis do you consider yourself expert enough to comment on how “most black people” think?
I’m going on the attitudes of most of the black people I know about in America and Britain and the African Anglican bishops.The afrocarribeans are also deeply hostile to gay men,batty boys and such like.If you don’t agree you must be in cloud cuckoo land.And I said MOST blacks,not all.I know there are exceptions like Desmond Tutu whom I admire very much.
I know how and why people make such generalisations, but it’s also worth noting that no fewer than four stories on PN today alone are based around black or mixed-race people taking a positive and principled public stance in favour of gay rights: Christiane Taubira in France, Michel Togue in Cameroon, Sir Michael Barnett in The Bahamas and Kenneth Faried in the USA.
Rehan, don’t you know that Colin is an expert in blackness and, having met almost every black person in the world, knows exactly how their blackness makes them think?
Colin, just to be clear on your expertise, do you also know how dark brown people and slightly coffee-coloured people think? That is, how black is “black”?
/s
Please don’t imply that I’m racist, I just think that people shouldn’t excuse their homophobia by hiding behind their race/religion/culture.Many do and too often we just put up with it and don’t fight back.
Well, that’s true enough. I myself would still steer clear of making generalisations based on skin colour though. I’m told, for example, that Trinidadian culture if very different from Jamaican when it comes to acceptance. Also, it might be worth evaluating just what proportion of ‘white’ society is hostile towards gay rights, a statistic that would depend on the degree to which you consider Russia and other Eastern European nations ‘white’.
I think it’s hard to know what a given situation is like from the shallow perspective of an onlooker.
If you look objectively at the circumstances in the UK before 1967 they were far from good: but it didn’t stop gay people from living useful and enjoyable lives here, did it?
David Cecil evidently has more experience of living in Uganda than most of us. Yes, it all seems pretty dire to us, reading what we do in the press. But it’s useful to know that what we read isn’t always the whole story.
But as someone in foreigner a heterosexual relationship in/near the capital city how much does he really know about what it’s really like to be gay in (teh rest of) Uganda?
Is he on medication? If most are not anti gay why have they not voted the other scum out of power or held a rally in protest of his removal from the county.
I have a friend there currently doing volunteer dental work for the citizens. He’s a white, Canadian gay dentist, and the organization is something like Doctors Without Borders.
Interesting how these poor countries always have money for armaments, though, eh?
I wouldn’t go there for all the tea in China.
Hmm. I don’t believe him. Why would Uganda be so different from other African countries which are completely homophobic? I appreciate his experience of Uganda is far greater than mine (never been there) but he doesn’t know “most people in Uganda”. I wouldn’t even be able to say that most people in the UK are not homophobic. Here, polls help with this information but they are not carrying out those polls in Uganda. How does he know?
I too dont belive his words,maybe they never wanted to show their true coloures to a British citzen, but i speaking was a victim, the arrest was similer but the treatment was differ, i was sexually abused by the people claiming to be the ant- activities and my boyfriend was killed during the process after they said we should show them how we do it and due to faliuer they dragged a water pipe inside him and at of blood cameout of him sadnelly he died in my arms.and what they do after they put bodies of victims in places where people can see the body, so when its found they can suggest he was attacked by robbers, hitmen etc.right now im reading Uganda news papers to see if i can spot him out.but Cecil , they just respected you in fear of attacks from the British government.so dont brain wash the activits for ending such things in UGANDA.
The way David Cecil has been treated by Ugandan authorities is disgusting. However, he is in a somewhat ‘privileged’ position of being heterosexual and non-Ugandan when he says most people in the country are not homophobic and that the problem is the pastors who preach hate. The reality is that the proposed law in Uganda will mean the death penalty for homosexuality, so the problem lies with the legislators, whatever most Ugandans think and whatever the pastors preach. He underestimates the level of homophobia and the seriousness of it and the ultimate punishment facing gay Ugandans will be much more disgusting than the treatment he has received.
Unfortunately I beg to differ. I saw Scott Mills’s documentary on homophobia when it was shown on BBC TV. The first impression of Kampala, the capital of Uganda is that it is a happy, carefree place full of friendly people but once that thin veneer is stripped away the true picture of that country is revealed. The Worst Place To Be Gay can be seen on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV0tS6G8NNU
Out of 192 countries world-wide, I can pretty safely bet that in at least 2/3, the majority of people ARE homophobic. I would safely bet that Uganda is not in the better third. For sure he could have been led to feel this way by his social network there, which is probably rather progressive.
I very much hope that he can get back to his children and girlfriend soon.
Isn’t it interesting that the authorities there feel the need to not just carry out censorship to prevent people from thinking about the issues, but to go as far as deporting him. A tolerant, open-minded view point must be very dangerous to their position. I find that encouraging as there may lie the thin end of the wedge that will eventually dislodge oppressive prejudice. They can’t hope to hold back time, it just doesn’t work that way (though they’ll try and it’ll take a long time).
I see a heavy-handed deportation as a sign that anti-gay views cannot be defended. I am very encouraged that David Cecil is going to fight the deportation. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that the whole process will encourage people in Uganda to discuss the issues. Nothing worse than complete silence versus hate preaching by the religious extremists.
Well, to put a cynical slant on it, he would probably have to say something like that. He lives there with his Ugandan wife and children. How do we know the Ugandan government wouldn’t retaliate against his family if he said Uganda is a homophobic hell hole which it probably is anyway.
The Ugandan government appears to be made up of such nutcases that they probably find being not considered homophobic insulting. (They’re probably like those people in the US who consider the word ‘liberal’ insulting.)
While you were here I guess you ever watched talk shows on English channels like NTV and WBS or radio show on Sanyu and Capital FM. Didn’t you here the anger and fire and poison and venom being spit by the seething public against homosexuality during talk shows concerning homosexuality, which have been so many over the years?? Do you know how much we’re suffering at the hands of bigots in this deeply homophobic country where people see us as social misfits, evil, and a menace to society who must be eliminated at any cost? Do you know how much, I for one, has been hunted and haunted and persecuted and how I am suffering now and Isolated without family or a friend apart from a few fellow gays? Really, you faced some rough patches here in Uganda because of something concerning homosexuality, when moreover you’re not gay yourself, but still you have the guts of trying to cover up the horrible and dangerous atmosphere we Ugandan gays are in in a country like The UK which has been trying
Hello David,
I have just read a past story from The Pink Paper about what you uttered in The UK and I am so upset, devastated, disgusted, and furious! “Most Ugandans are not homophobic and it is not a terrible place”. You’re so out of your mind, an idiot, and an opportunist to say the list. Good enough none of the comments below the story talked in your favor or said anything positive about you. After living here for 10 years seeing and hearing what’s taking place in this country, reading newspapers like the Red Pepper and the defunct Rolling Stone, and what’s now taking place in parliament with a bill seeking to be made a law so that they can put us behind bars for life or even murder us, you have the audacity to say Uganda is not a terrible place for gays?? I am even shivering and looking at your picture here on Facebook really makes me feel like strangling you. Have you ever come any straight Ugandan, young or old, male or female, who say anything positive about gay people or homose
Have you ever come any straight Ugandan, young or old, male or female, who say anything positive about gay people or homosexuality?? While you were here I guess you ever watched talk shows on English channels like NTV and WBS or radio show on Sanyu and Capital FM. Didn’t you here the anger and fire and poison and venom being spit by the seething public against homosexuality during talk shows concerning homosexuality, which have been so many over the years?? Do you know how much we’re suffering at the hands of bigots in this deeply homophobic country where people see us as social misfits, evil, and a menace to society who must be eliminated at any cost? Do you know how much, I for one, has been hunted and haunted and persecuted and how I am suffering now and Isolated without family or a friend apart from a few fellow gays? Really, you faced some rough patches here in Uganda bec