Ugandan president denounces pro-gay lobbying by Europe in Africa: The Church of England Newspaper, June 11, 2010 p 6.

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The President of Uganda, Mr. Yoweri Museveni has dismissed Western claims that conservative American evangelicals are manipulating Africans into adopting an ‘anti-gay’ agenda, saying homosexuality was un-African and contrary to the continent’s moral scruples.

The Ugandan president was joined by the Bishop of Harare, Dr. Chad Gandiya at the Anglican Shrine to the Uganda Martyrs in Namugongo outside Kampala on June 3, in denouncing homosexuality as un-Christian and un-African.

The president denounced Western pressure on Uganda to conform to European views on morality.  “Europeans are putting pressure on us because of homosexuality. They say it is the religious groups which are against the practice but this is not true. Even before we got religion, our culture was against homosexuality just like it was against girls getting pregnant before marriage,” the president said on the feast day of the Anglican martyrs.

Upholding traditional moral standards was a “way of bringing discipline in our society. Bad things must be done away with and we only retain and improve the good ones. Uganda is one of the few countries standing against such decadence,” he said.

The president said that Europe was washed up.  “Europeans are falling, if we follow them, they will lead us to Sodom and Gomorrah. I salute the martyrs who stood against homosexuality. They stood for what they believed in with cleanliness on Christianity and our heritage,” President Museveni said.

A statement released by the president’s office said that the King of the Buganda, Kabaka Mwanga “had learned the practice of homosexuality from Arab traders and used it against his subjects. When the Christians refused he ordered their killings. The martyrs were killed between 1885 and 1887, many of them burnt to death at Namugongo.”

The Ugandan martyrs were beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964.  Their feast day of June 3 is a major event for the Catholic and Anglican churches of Uganda with an estimated one million pilgrims from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo visiting the shrines.

Pro-gay pressure groups in the US, UK and Europe have claimed that conservative Americans are the driving force behind Africa’s repulsion of homosexuality, while a number of newspapers have editorialized against African laws on these issues.

The guest speaker at the ceremony, Bishop Gandiya of Harare bewailed the assertiveness of the gay movement.   “We are living in a world which is upside down. Some people talk about wicked things as if they are good. We need people to stand up for the truth and reject homosexuality,” Bishop Gandiya said, according to the Kampala Monitor.

The confusion of “right with wrong” has “destroyed the morals in the young population,” Bishop Gandiya said.

The Primate of Uganda, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Kampala applauded President Museveni’s stance of placing principle before political expediency, and urged Anglicans to model their behavior on the Uganda Martyrs and commit themselves to service to God, their family and Uganda.