The recent documentary Call Me Kuchu was a terrifying look at what it’s like to be gay in Uganda – the country where the so-called ‘Kill the gays’ bill is currently being debated by parliament and could see the death penalty attached to the ill-defined offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’.
Thile Call Me Kuchu looked at the people affects, the new documentary God Loves Uganda, which premieres today at Sundance, is more interested in why homosexuality has become such a hot button issue in Africa, with several countries saying they want to strengthen laws against what is already a criminal offence. Director Roger Ross Williams suggests, as several have before him, that much of the impetus comes from anti-gay American preachers, who head to Africa and whip up hatred there.
In a statement he says, ‘I thought about following the activists-brave and admirable men and women-who were fighting against these policies. But I was more curious about the people who, in effect, wanted to kill me. (According to the provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, I could be put to death or imprisoned.) Notably, almost every evangelical I met – American or Ugandan – was polite, agreeable, even charming. Yet I knew that if the bill passed, there would be blood on the streets of Kampala.
‘What explains that contradiction? What explains the murderous rage and ecstatic transcendence? In the well-known trope about Africa, a white man journeys into the heart of darkness and finds the mystery of Africa and its unknowable otherness. I, a black man, made that journey and found – America.’
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