Ugandan church waged rebellion against tradition – today's homophobic views are at odds with history
The bill’s aim is to protect the “cherished culture of the people of Uganda, (and the) legal, religious, and traditional family values of Ugandans”.
- The bill’s aim is to protect the “cherished culture of the people of Uganda, (and the) legal, religious, and traditional family values of Ugandans”.
- In the name of family values the law punishes “serial offenders” with the death penalty.
- The Church of Uganda’s archbishop, Stephen Kaziimba, has supported the bill, and when it was signed he expressed his church’s gratitude to the president.
- Anita Among, the speaker of parliament, celebrated the new law’s defence of “the sanctity of the family”.
The east African revival
- The formative influence on Uganda’s Protestant church is the east African revival, a conversion movement that began in northern Rwanda and southern Uganda in 1936 and spread through Kenya, Tanganyika, Sudan and other parts of eastern Africa.
- The revival was led by African evangelists, many of them women.
- They burned their fathers’ shrines, destroyed the equipment of diviners, and flouted traditional standards of decorum.
- One of southern Uganda’s most emphatic revivalists was a young woman named Julaina Mufuko.
Counter-cultural beliefs
- Revivalists distanced themselves from their families, rejecting their kin and refusing to honour their ancestors.
- They refused to take part in funerals, brushing off their obligations with the saying “Let the dead bury their own dead”.
- Revivalists were among the many who suffered and died, most famously the Janani Luwum, archbishop of the Church of Uganda.
- In the wake of Amin’s fall in 1979 a new generation had to plot a path forward.
Why this matters today
- Since he came to power in 1986 Museveni has brought his government into an alliance with the Protestant church.
- Today, Museveni uses the power of government to author other people’s salvation.
- This history of Christian nonconformism should lead church leaders to look with sympathy on gay Ugandans’ situation today.