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Mail & Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- Mail & Guardian
African values under threat: African Commission must defend them
Organisations such as CitizenGo, Family Watch International, Family Policy Institute and Christian Council International promote opposition to abortion, LGBTI rights, reproductive healthcare and comprehensive sexuality education. A poster featuring an all-white male panel of speakers from Europe, the US and other regions circulated online, promoting a pan-African conference on African Family Values. The line-up was a tell-tale sign of yet another event underwritten by Global North actors with a clear anti-rights agenda. The organisers were The main speakers were from organisations such as CitizenGo, Family Watch International, Family Policy Institute and Christian Council International, as well as churches and parliamentarians. These were also among the supporters and sponsors for the event. These organisations are known for conservative family and societal values advocating for what they call 'traditional family values'. The event organisers, African Christian Professionals Forum, has deep ties with these organisations including some of its board members At its Event participants not only advocate in their countries on these topics but also at regional forums, including the African Union, and at the international level. Civil society has The 2025 Convention on Eliminating Violence against Women and Girls is thought to be their next advocacy target. They will probably argue that this treaty This conference comes at a time of The conference was attended by MPs from Uganda and Malawi and Kenyan lawyers. This is unsurprising since there have long been reports that US groups have The language of 'African values' emerged at the regional level in 2018 when the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), the continent's highest human rights body, at the instruction of the African Union, In 2022 the ACHPR, this time on its own accord, then But what does it mean to be African? What are African values? The African Charter empowers the ACHPR to undertake studies and research to address such questions. The ACHPR then uses these studies as a basis for principles and rules to guide African governments. In this vein, in 2023 the African Commission In answering this question, there are three key areas the ACHPR should consider. First is a recognition that African families are incredibly diverse. The drafters of the African Charter acknowledged that African society is far too complex to be neatly compartmentalised. It was for this reason that the charter deliberately fails to define the notion of 'peoples', in clear recognition of the diversity of African families, societies and communities. The ACHPR must likewise not confine African identities to cis-gender and heterosexual, nor restrict the concept of the African family to a nuclear model. Second is that the principle of non-discrimination permeates the charter and provides the touchstone of the African concept of human rights. The charter affirms that 'every individual shall respect and consider his fellow beings without discrimination and to maintain relations aimed at promoting, safeguarding and reinforcing mutual respect and tolerance'. The charter's drafters entrenched the idea of non-discrimination because, at the time, African leaders were focused on liberation from colonialism and racism. Indeed, the document broke new ground by prohibiting ethnic discrimination, a prohibition not found in other international agreements at the time. Non-discrimination against LGBTI people is firmly within both the letter and spirit of the African Charter's values. And finally that LGBTI identities are firmly ensconced in African values historically. Same-sex sexualities and gender diversity were With anti-rights actors co-opting African values using neo-colonial tactics, there is greater urgency for the ACHPR to reclaim African values and redefine them in accordance with the African Charter. Drawing on the wisdom of our forebears, the ACHPR must affirm that discrimination has no place in African societies. It should root its approach in both our pre-colonial histories and the present reality of millions of LGBTI Africans who are entitled to the same human rights as anyone else, no matter what opportunistic western anti-rights actors might say. African values must be used to advance inclusion, non-discrimination and equality, not exclusion and discrimination. Khanyo Faris is a senior researcher on civic space at Amnesty International, East and Southern Africa.
Al Jazeera
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
The Nairobi family values conference: When tradition is a colonial trap
Across Africa, debates about cultural preservation and traditional values are increasingly being influenced by forces that promote conservative social agendas rooted in colonial and missionary legacies. These movements, often backed by generous Western funding, seek to impose rigid, exclusionary values that contradict the continent's diverse and historically dynamic cultures. A recent example of this dynamic played out last week in Nairobi, where the second Pan-African Conference on Family Values organised by the Africa Christian Professionals Forum sparked controversy by claiming to defend 'traditional' African family values. The event's foreign supporters, including the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) and Family Watch International, are known for their opposition to LGBTQ rights, reproductive health, and comprehensive sex education. These organisations, some classified as hate groups by the United States-based Southern Poverty Law Center, often present their positions as inherently African, despite their deep connections to Western conservative funding. This duplicity came to the fore ahead of the conference in Nairobi when it was revealed that the preliminary list of speakers consisted entirely of white men. During the event, participants were urged to 'resist growing trends that seek to redefine marriage, weaken the institution of family, or devalue human sexuality' and to rise up to defend the African family from a 'new colonialism'. Yet the fact is that the narrative of preserving tradition that was on full display at the conference is far from organic. Instead, it itself continues a pattern established during the colonial era, when imperial powers imposed patriarchal norms and strict social hierarchies under the guise of paradoxically both preserving and 'civilising' indigenous cultures. In doing so, missionary and colonial institutions both reimagined and reframed African social structures to align with Victorian ideals, embedding rigid gender roles and heteronormative family models into the social fabric and inventing supposedly ancient and unchanging 'traditions' to support them. The latter were themselves built on self-serving ideas of Africans as 'noble savages', living in happy conformity with supposedly 'natural' values, trapped by petrified 'culture', and undisturbed by the moral questions that plagued their civilised Western counterparts from whose corruption they needed to be protected. As the conference demonstrated, local political actors and governments often support these agendas, either for political expediency or due to genuine alignment with their conservative worldview. There is also support from some quarters of the NGO sector, which gives the movements a veneer of legitimacy while obscuring their colonial roots. The Nairobi conference put the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) in the spotlight when it was accused of endorsing the event by allowing it to be hosted at the Boma Hotel, which it co-owns. Though KRCS has denied any direct involvement in the event, pointing out that it was not involved in the day-to-day decisions of the hotel management, the controversy still highlights the challenges and dangers even well-meaning humanitarian organisations can face. Humanitarian institutions have historically been complicit in the colonial enterprise, and it is perhaps not surprising that they struggle to see through narratives that seek to solidify colonial agendas under the guise of protecting indigenous values. Part of the problem is that there is increasing confusion about what approach needs to be taken to address growing calls to 'decolonise' the activities of the aid industry. One aspect of this process is a recognition of the primacy of indigenous values and local practices of mutual aid. However, when organisations fail to critically examine whether the values coded as indigenous or, in this case, 'African', in reality reflect and embed colonial logics and assumptions about indigenous societies, they may inadvertently find themselves perpetuating harmful agendas. That is why, when faced with narratives such as the ones propagated at the Pan-African Conference on Family Values, it is important to understand the difference between decolonisation and decoloniality. Though related, the two frameworks are distinct. The first largely focuses on transferring power to the formerly colonised, while the latter deals with the logics and values that are the legacy of colonisation. In the aftermath of the 1960s' decolonisation, the failure to address coloniality left many African countries saddled with elites, states, and governance arrangements that upheld colonial frameworks and approaches. Kenya itself was a case in point. In 1967, nearly four years after independence, Masinde Muliro, a prominent Kenyan politician, observed: 'Today we have a black man's Government, and the black man's Government administers exactly the same regulations, rigorously, as the colonial administration used to do.' Similarly, aid organisations focusing solely on empowering local actors could end up reinforcing the deliberate reframing of regressive, colonial-era values as authentic African traditions. Confusing decolonisation for decoloniality risks legitimising harmful ideologies by allowing them to masquerade as cultural preservation. Recognising the historical roots of these supposed traditions is essential, not just for humanitarian agencies but for societies at large. Without this awareness, we risk enabling movements that use tradition as a weapon to oppress, rather than as a tool to heal and unify. The lesson is clear: to genuinely move forward, we must be willing to constantly reflect on how colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary cultural and social norms and debates. Only then can we build a future rooted in genuine, diverse, and inclusive understandings of African identity. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
France 24
17-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
‘A direct attack': US, European anti-rights groups descend on ‘family values' events in Africa
The Pan-African conference on Family Values began in Nairobi on Monday with a call to wage a 'biblical' fight for the family unit from Anne Mbugua, chairperson of event organiser the Africa Christian Professionals Forum. The conference is one of several planned across Africa this year, backed by wealthy US ultra-Christian groups, including Family Watch International, Christian Council International, the Center for Family and Human Rights, and the Family Policy Institute. Together the groups have spent more than a decade channelling millions of dollars into funding anti-LGBT and anti-abortion narratives in Africa in a bid to spread influence and change laws to align with their conservative values. 'There is nowhere that they have been anywhere in Africa where good has followed,' says women's rights lawyer and Amnesty International Kenya board member, Tabitha Saoyo. Their presence in Nairobi this week likely means 'they will influence law and they will influence policy", she adds. In a first, they are publicly joined at the conference in Kenya by European counterparts. Listed as speakers at the event are France's Ludovine de la Rochère, president of anti-LGBT group La Manif Pour Tous, Poland's Jerzy Kwasniewski, president of anti-abortion organisation Ordo Iuris, and Margarita de la Pisa Carrion, an MEP for Spain's far-right Vox party. 'An alignment of businesses' Billed as a networking event for global organisations ' committed to shared values ', Kenyan rights activists say the conference is an attempt to impose Western far-right values that endanger women, girls and the LGBT community. 'It's a direct attack on women and girls,' adds Elsy Sainna, associate director of advocacy and external relations for Africa at the Center for Reproductive Rights. 'Kenya already has national values of dignity, human rights and family values. The conference is a Trojan horse trying to impose a religious perspective on our Constitution.' Under Kenyan law, there is legal provision for abortion in emergencies or if the life or health of the mother is at risk. Sex between two people of the same sex is illegal in Kenya. However, advocacy groups point out that it is not illegal to identify as LGBT and cite a 2023 ruling enabling LGBT advocacy organisations to register as NGOs in the country as a significant sign of progress. When the five-day 'family values' conference was first announced promotional materials showed a panel composed entirely of white men, none of whom were from Africa; proof to critics that the event was an attempt to import values that are not part of the Kenyan national debate. 'The protection of family values does not look like what they're trying to force upon us. These are not the concerns of everyday Kenyans,' says Ivy Werimba, communication and advocacy officer at GALCK+, a coalition of Kenyan LGBT organisations. 'This event highlights that homophobia is an importation being pushed by Western thought to gain control politically and socially, while putting LGBTQ+ lives at risk.' Even so, the conference has attracted influential figures from national politics. Among the attendees in the first few days were Kenyan politicians Joseph Mogosi Motari and Peter Kaluma, who in a speech on Wednesday accused international actors of 'recruiting' young Kenyan university graduates and paying them to take up LBGT lifestyles. His approach typified a narrative that has long been championed by foreign ultra-conservative organisations 'that African people do not want queerness or queerness is un-African', says Werimba. 'They are using African bodies and African voices to push this narrative and build credibility.' Kaluma is currently spearheading a drive to get a Family Protection bill through Kenya's parliament that would outlaw same-sex relationships, queer activities and related advocacy campaigns. An influx of support from powerful international backers may give his campaign a boost. 'There is a genuine, legitimate fear amongst groups like the queer community that the conference will lead to their criminalisation in law,' says Saoyo. Kaluma has been through an acrimonious divorce and spoken in favour of adultery, making him an unlikely ally for advocates of radically conservative Christian values. Saoyo says their partnership is 'not an alignment of values, but an alignment of businesses' that is replicated across Africa. In Uganda, a 2023 conference sponsored by US ultra conservatives was attended by first lady Janet Museveni. The following month President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world's toughest anti-homosexuality acts into law. Ugandans now face life imprisonment for sexual acts between two people of the same sex and the death penalty for cases of 'aggravated homosexuality'. 'Emboldened' Directly prior to this week's conference in Kenya, the Uganda hosted its third edition of the African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference, once again attended by the president. In the coming months similar meetings are planned in Sierra Leone, where first lady Fatima Maada Bio will attend the Strengthening Families conference, in Rwanda where the Advocates Africa conference will take place in Kigali, and in Ghana at the African Bar Association annual meeting in October. The timing of the Sierra Leone conference coincides with a ground-breaking bill to legalise abortion up to 14 weeks currently being debated by parliament – a natural target for the ultra-conservative groups. 'They've mapped out who are their strategic partners in the countries they want to go, and they mobilised participants to attend,' says Sainna. 'It's a very clear agenda and very well calculated, whether it's in Uganda, Kenya or West Africa.' While the ultra-conservative groups have been championing the same anti-rights messages in Africa for years, they are now 'emboldened', Saoyo says. 'This is the highest number of conferences we've had from these groups in Africa in a year.' The programme for the conference in Nairobi clearly lists the foreign groups sponsoring the event and names individuals speaking. 'The US organisations used to work very silently in Africa, now their logo is on the programme,' Saoyo says. 'European organisations like Ordo Iuris have never had any interest in Africa, but we saw its president here addressing us on Monday.' As many of the US groups are in league with President Donald Trump, she sees 'a direct link between [the far-right initiative] project 2025, Trump's re-election and what we are seeing in Africa today'. But the groups are also working in alignment with 'African states that are increasingly becoming not only dictatorial but authoritarian, and hugely influenced by religious movements", Sainna says. 'These groups are capitalising on that, accelerating and gaining more momentum.' On the ground, activists and lawyers are braced for what's to come. 'Human rights lawyers watching this space are clearly aware of the agenda,' Sainna adds. 'We are intentional around defending the grounding principles of our Constitution, our laws and our policies.'
