Abstract
This chapter critically examines Zambian responses to European interventions with regard to the human rights of sexual minorities in the country. It specifically focuses on one particular incident occurring in 2013. The chapter, first, discusses the background and context of this incident, which emerged after the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Zambia launched a call for funding proposals specifically mentioning the promotion of LGBTI rights. This is discussed in relation to wider EU involvement in Africa, especially in the area of the politics of sexuality. Second, the chapter discusses the way in which Zambian political and religious leaders responded to the EU call for proposals, providing a critical analysis of the discourse of “Zambian Christian values” and “traditional beliefs,” as well as the invocation of democracy and human rights, by prominent spokespersons. We conceptualize the Zambian response in a postcolonial framework as a case of “the empire speaking back,” while drawing critical attention to the ambiguity of this.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
At the time of writing still a member state although preparing for its departure from the EU.
References
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 2002. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge.
———. 2007. Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge.
Ban Ki-moon. 2012. “Remarks to the National Assembly of the Republic of Zambia.” Lusaka, February 24, 2012. http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=5881.
Couvaras, Jean. 2013. Criminological Evaluation of Gay Rights Under the Zambian Criminal Justice System: A Comparative Human Rights View. MA dissertation, University of Zambia, Lusaka. http://dspace.unza.zm:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3235/Jean.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Zambia. 2013. Zambia—Country Based Support Scheme.https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?ADSSChck=1534607679040&do=publi.detPUB&searchtype=AS&Pgm=7573843&zgeo=35649&ccnt=7573876&debpub=01%2F01%2F2013&finpub=01%2F01%2F2014&orderby=pub&orderbyad=Desc&nbPubliList=25&page=1&aoref=134189.
Epprecht, Marc. 2004. Hungochani: The History of Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa. Montreal: McGill Queens University Press.
———. 2008. Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Gegout, Catherine. 2017. Why Europe Intervenes in Africa: Security Prestige and the Legacy of Colonialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gifford, Paul. 1998. “Chiluba’s Christian Nation: Christianity as a Factor in Zambian Politics 1991–1996.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 13 (3): 363–81.
Gordon, David M. 2012. Invisible Agents: Spirits in a Central African History. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Hawthorne, Sian, and Adriaan van Klinken. 2013. “Catachresis: Religion, Gender, and Postcoloniality.” Religion and Gender 3 (2): 159–67.
Kapembwa, Julius. 2018. “A Critical Appraisal of Heterosexism in Zambia.” South African Journal of Philosophy 37 (3): 245–60.
Kulpa, Robert. 2014. “Western Leveraged Pedagogy of Central and Eastern Europe: Discourses of Homophobia, Tolerance, and Nationhood.” Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 21 (4): 431–48.
Long, Scott, Widney Brown, and Gail Cooper. 2003. More Than a Name: The Spread of Homophobic Rhetoric in Southern Africa. New York: Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/safriglhrc0303.pdf.
Lusaka Times. 2013. “Kabimba Urge Zambians Reject and Denounce People and Institutions Championing Homosexuality.” April 22, 2013. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/04/22/kabimba-urge-zambians-reject-and-denounce-people-and-institutions-championing-homosexuality.
Mailafia, Obadiah. 2014. “Europe Seen from Africa.” In Rethinking the Future of Europe: A Challenge of Governance, edited by Stefan Schepers and Andrew Kakabadse, 214–42. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Morgan, Ruth, and Saskia Wieringa, eds. 2005. Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-Sex Practices in Africa. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.
Muwina, Derrick M. 2016. “Christianity, Homosexuality and Public Politics in Zambia.” In Christianity and Controversies Over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa, edited by Ezra Chitando and Adriaan van Klinken, 85–97. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Mwanza, Pukuta N. 2013. “Re: Call for Proposals in Support of Homosexuality.” Lusaka: Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia. April 2, 2013. http://www.efzsecretariat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108%3Acall-for-proposals-in-support-of-homosexuality&catid=14%3Arecent&Itemid=61&limitstart=1.
———. 2015. “Biblical Reflections on the National Symposium on the Church and Human Rights.” Lusaka: Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia. June 2, 2015. http://www.efzsecretariat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117:biblical-reflections-on-the-national-symposium-on-the-church-and-human-rights&catid=14:recent&Itemid=61.
Ndjio, Basile. 2013. “Sexuality and Nationalist Ideologies in Post-Colonial Cameroon.” In The Sexual History of the Global South: Sexual Politics in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, edited by Saskia Wieringa and Horacio Sivori, 120–43. London: Zed Books.
Phiri, Isabel A. 2003. “President Frederick J. T. Chiluba of Zambia: The Christian Nation and Democracy.” Journal of Religion in Africa 33 (4): 401–28.
Puar, Jasbir K. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Next Wave: New Directions in Women’s Studies. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Rao, Rahul. 2014. “The Locations of Homophobia.” London Review of International Law 2 (2): 169–99.
Shoraka, Kirsten. 2010. Human Rights and Minority Rights in the European Union. London: Routledge.
Spivak, Gayatri. 1990. “Poststructuralism, Marginality, Postcoloniality, and Value.” In Literary Theory Today, edited by Peter Collier and Helga Geyer-Ryan, 219–44. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
US Department of State. 2017. “Zambia Human Rights Report.” US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Zambia.pdf.
Van Klinken, Adriaan. 2013. “Gay Rights, the Devil and the End Times: Public Religion and the Enchantment of the Homosexuality Debate in Zambia.” Religion 43 (4): 519–40.
———. 2014. “Homosexuality, Politics and Pentecostal Nationalism in Zambia.” Studies in World Christianity 20 (3): 259–81.
———. 2017. “Sexual Orientation, (Anti-)Discrimination and Human Rights in a ‘Christian Nation’: The Politicization of Homosexuality in Zambia.” Critical African Studies 9 (1): 9–31.
———. 2018. “Sexual Citizenship in Postcolonial Zambia: From Zambian Humanism to Christian Nationalism.” In Christian Citizens and the Moral Regeneration of the African State, edited by Barbara Bompani and Caroline Valois, 133–48. London: Routledge.
Wahman, Michael, and A. Cooper Drury. 2018. “Leverage, Diplomacy, and African Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Intersex Rights: Malawi and Zambia Compared.” Journal of Human Rights 17 (5): 622–41.
Wieringa, Saskia. 2009. “Postcolonial Amnesia: Sexual Moral Panics, Memory, and Imperial Power.” In Moral Panics, Sex Panics: Fear and the Fight Over Sexual Rights, edited by Gilbert Herdt, 205–33. New York: New York University Press.
Worldometers. 2018. “Zambia Population.” http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/zambia-population.
Yong, Amos. 2010. In the Days of Caesar: Pentecostalism and Political Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans.
Zambian Watchdog. 2013. “Edgar Lungu Tells Off EU Over Gay Rights Advert in Zambia.” March 25, 2013. https://www.zambiawatchdog.com/edgar-lungu-tells-off-eu-over-gay-rights.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Klinken, A., Phiri, E. (2020). The Empire Speaks Back: Zambian Responses to European Union LGBTI Rights Diplomacy. In: Derks, M., van den Berg, M. (eds) Public Discourses About Homosexuality and Religion in Europe and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56326-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56326-4_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56325-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56326-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)