insight
Global activism
Cruel to be kind → More than a year after international pressure helped win a reprieve for a Malawian couple sentenced to 14 years hard labour, we examine the pros and cons of trying to help our LGBT brethren around the world Story & photography Denis Calnan
“W
here are you from?” asks the security guard at a downtown Blantyre hotel while I wait for a taxi. “Canada,” I say. “Canada,” he repeats. “I hear in your country men can marry men.” “Yes, that’s true,” I say, anticipating a tense conversation. “That is not Malawian culture,” he says. “You people come here and try to impose your culture on us.” Malawi is a conservative country in southern Africa where locals like
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January 2012
to describe themselves as “Godfearing” and where human rights groups struggle to defend LGBT people. Malawi made international headlines in 2010 when a queer couple was sentenced to 14 years hard labour after holding a wedding party. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were convicted under anti-gay statutes, though Chimbalanga identifies as a trans woman. Human rights groups, including the local Centre
for the Development of People, got involved, attracting international attention. The president gave the couple a pardon in order to forestall the threat by certain countries to withhold international aid. This past year, governments in the UK, Canada and, most recently, the US, have stepped up their calls for countries like Malawi who receive international aid to do more to protect their LGBT citizens. The result in Malawi has been a palpable tension on the streets of
Blantyre, Malawi’s financial centre and second-largest city. “The situation is a bit… tough. It’s very tough,” says Thandekn, a 23-year-old gay man. He and two other gay men, Amanda and Barbara, are sitting in the offices of the Centre for the Development of People in Blantyre, one of the few places they feel safe in this country. All three are using pseudonyms (the latter two choose to use female names). “We are living in a country as if it