The issue of homosexuality in Africa is complex and multifaceted, influenced by historical, cultural, religious, and political factors. While many African nations today have laws criminalizing same-sex relations, historical evidence suggests that diverse sexualities and gender expressions have existed throughout the continent's history.
Today, Africa is by far the continent with the least legal support for LGBTI people. Only 9 out of 54 African countries offer some kind of legal protection. The three main reasons for this are the legacy of colonial laws, the role of religion and political homophobia, labelling homosexuality as “un-African”.
A global backlash against the human rights of LGBTI people has been reported by many for over half a decade. Furthermore, the recent global crises have strengthened nationalistic and militaristic narratives worldwide, emphasising traditional gender values and fuelling disbelief in multilateralism, democracy, and human rights. A worrying trajectory causing shrinking spaces for civil society and human rights activists, increasing uncertainty and danger for many vulnerable groups, not least the LGBTI community.
Let's delve into the various aspects of this complex topic.
Legal Landscape
The legal status of homosexuality varies significantly across Africa.
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Homosexuality has never been criminalised in Benin, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, and Rwanda. It has been decriminalised in Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, and South Africa.
However, in five of these countries (Gabon, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Congo, Niger, and Madagascar), the age of consent is higher for same-sex sexual relations than for opposite-sex ones. In addition to criminalizing homosexuality, Nigeria has recently enacted legislation prohibiting the support of LGBTQ rights.
Burundi became the first country in the 21st century to criminalize sodomy in 2009, followed by Chad in 2017, Mali in 2024, and Burkina Faso in 2025. Previously, these countries never had any laws against consensual same-sex activity. Conversely, some African states have abolished sodomy laws in the 21st century.
Cape Verde in 2004, Lesotho and São Tomé and Príncipe in 2012, Mozambique in 2015, Seychelles in 2016, Botswana in 2019, Angola in 2021, Mauritius in 2023, and Namibia in 2024.
Legalization is proposed in some African states like Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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In November 2006, South Africa became the first country in Africa and the fifth country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, and Botswana, Mauritius, and South Africa are the only countries in Africa in which discrimination against the LGBTQ community is constitutionally illegal. LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws exist in eleven African countries: Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, and South Africa.
In a 2011 UN General Assembly declaration for LGBTQ rights, nation states were given a chance to express their support, opposition, or abstention on the topic. Only Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, and South Africa expressed their support. A majority of African countries expressed their opposition.
South Africa's three largest cities, Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town, are frequently promoted as tourist destinations for LGBTQ people. There are large LGBTQ communities in South Africa's urban areas, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Pietermaritzburg, Kimberley, and George.
Travel advisories encourage gay and lesbian travelers to use discretion in much of the continent to ensure their safety.
Nicholas Hersh reports that LGBTQ asylum-seekers and refugees in Morocco often fear for their lives. Queer Moroccan Refugees have been subject to social discrimination and violence, including rape and imprisonment.
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In recent years, although many countries have made progress with decriminalization, some countries in which homosexuality is illegal have introduced harsher penalties. In addition to criminalizing homosexuality, Nigeria has recently enacted legislation prohibiting the support of LGBTQ rights.
In Uganda, recent efforts against LGBTQ+ rights culminated in the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 on March 22, 2023, making it illegal allowing to identify as LGBTQ, punishable by life in prison, and allowing the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality".
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the European Union, as well as several local and international NGOs have condemned the act. However, it was sponsored by American Pentecostal communities in Uganda, who have a strong base in the country, and have supported previous anti-gay legislation passed in 2014.
British newspaper The Guardian reported that President Yoweri Museveni "appeared to add his backing" to the 2023 legislative effort by, among other things, claiming "European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa", and describing gay relationships as against God's will.
In a 2014 interview with CNN, Museveni described homosexuals as "disgusting" and "unnatural", although he stated he would ignore them if it was proven that "[he] is born that way". He further said that he had appointed a group of scientists in Uganda to determine if homosexuality was a learned orientation.
In Ethiopia, where same-sex activity is criminalised with up to fifteen years of life imprisonment under the Penal Code Article 629, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church plays a significant role in maintaining anti-gay attitudes, with some members forming anti-gay movements.
In much of north Africa, Islam has played a significant role in informing socially conservative attitudes hostile to queer rights. Despite not finding punishment for homosexual acts prescribed in the Quran, regarding the hadith that mentioned it as poorly attested, Egyptian Islamist journalist Muhammad Jalal Kishk personally disapproved of homosexual acts. However, he believed that Muslims who abstained from sodomy would be rewarded by sex with youthful boys in paradise.
Across the world, countries that have improved their LGBT rights records have done so because of the hard work, organising and leadership of local LGBT groups and communities, and the case of Africa is no different. Enforcing top-down change from the West would do little to change the attitudes of Africans towards homosexuality; this is a struggle that must be led by local LGBT communities who know best what they need and how to fight for it.
The Untold History of Homosexuality in African Kingdoms | History For Sleep
Historical Context
Ancient Egyptian attitudes towards towards homosexuality remain unclear. There are no records condemning or penalising homosexuality, but documents that make reference to sexuality do not clearly reference specific sexual acts.
The best-known case of possible homosexuality in ancient Egypt is that of the two high officials Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Both men lived and served under Pharaoh Niuserre during the 5th Dynasty (c. 2494-2345 BC). Both Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep had wives and children, but were buried together in one mastaba tomb. In this mastaba, several paintings depict the men embracing and touching the tips of their noses together. In ancient Egypt, this gesture typically represented a kiss.
There has been much disagreement between Egyptologists and historians over how these paintings should be interpreted. There is well-documented evidence of homosexuality in Northern Africa - particularly from the period of Mamluk rule. Arabic poetry emerging from cosmopolitan regions describes the pleasures of pederastic relationships, including accounts of Christian boys sent from Europe to become sex workers in Egypt.
Accounts of early twentieth-century travellers, frequently include accounts of homosexuality in the Siwa Oasis in Egypt. British anthropologist Siegfried Frederick Nadel wrote about the Nuba tribes in Sudan in the late 1930s. He noted traditional roles amongst the Otoro Nuba where male-assigned people would dress and live as women and marry men.
Among the Baganda, Uganda's largest ethnic group, homosexuality has traditionally been treated with indifference. The Luganda term abasiyazi refers to homosexuals, though usage nowadays is typically considered pejorative.
Not unlike neighbouring Uganda, male homosexual relations were acknowledged and tolerated in precolonial Kenyan society. Swedish anthropologist Felix Bryk has noted active (i.e. penetrative) male homosexuality and "homo-erotic bachelors" among the pastoralist Nandi and Maragoli (Wanga) people.
Writing in the 19th century in an area roughly adjacent to southwestern Zimbabwe, David Livingstone asserted that the monopolisation of women by elderly chiefs was primarily responsible for the "immorality" practised by younger men.
Edwin W. Smith and A. Murray Dale described one Ila-speaking man who dressed as a woman, did women's work, and lived and slept among, but not with, women. Marc Epprecht's review of 250 court cases from 1892 to 1923 found cases of various cases of alleged homosexuality spanning the period. Five 1892 cases involved exclusively black Africans. A defense offered was that "sodomy" was a part of local "custom". In one case a chief was summoned to testify about customary penalties and reported that the penalty was a fine of one cow, which was less than the penalty for adultery.
Across the period, Epprecht found the balance of black and white defendants proportional to that in the population. He notes, however, that consensual relations in private did not necessarily provoke notice by the courts. Some cases were brought by partners who had been dropped or who had not received promised compensation by their former sexual partner.
Here is a summary table of the legal status of homosexuality in different African countries:
| Status | Countries |
|---|---|
| Never Criminalized | Benin, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda |
| Decriminalized | Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, South Africa |
| Criminalized | Many other African countries |
Factors Contributing to Homophobia
Homophobia and anti-LGBTI attitudes exist in every society and country on the planet. However, attitudes, perceptions, and levels of tolerance differ substantially. Three reasons for homophobia, of relevance to the dynamics in Africa, are brought to attention here.
These are 1) the legacy of colonial law, 2) religion and 3) political homophobia. These explanations are not exclusive to Africa (or uniformly applicable to every context on the continent), but all three are present.
Legacy of Colonial Law
The consequences of colonialism have been far-reaching, also for legal systems. When European powers colonised Africa they imposed their penal codes. These included punishments for sodomy, ‘unnatural’ acts, and homosexuality. The major colonial powers in Africa were France and the UK, the latter being particularly committed to criminalising homophobia.
No anti-LGBTI legislation that pre-dates colonialism has been found. Historical and archaeological sources predating colonisation tell of a continent with a wide record of non-heterosexual and non-heteronormative sexualities and gender identities, including records of acceptance and purpose, across Africa. Note that these relationships and identities might not fall within today's perceptions of queer or gay identity, or Western understandings of homosexual relations at the time of colonisation.
Studies show that colonial penal law has had significant effects on the legal rights and protections for LGBTI people. After independence, many African countries kept the colonial penal code. Research further indicates that countries colonised by the UK are more likely to have, and uphold, anti-LGBTI laws, while countries colonised by France are less so.
A reason for this is that France removed the anti-sodomy laws in the 1790s, while the UK removed the laws in 1967. In 2020, approximately 66% of Commonwealth states still criminalised homosexuality compared to 33% of the countries predominantly colonised by France.
The Role of Religion
The second explanation for widespread homophobia and anti-LGBTI attitudes is religion. Its impact on the LGBTI community is relatively well studied and research has found that higher levels of religiosity tend to result in higher likelihood to reject homosexuality, and by extension LGBTI people. The least accepting religions are Christianity and Islam, both dominant in Africa.
When missionaries of these religions arrived, they condemned all non-heterosexual sex practices as illegitimate, deviant, and criminal. These perceptions have since been sustained through the high levels of religiosity across the continent. Most recently, anti-LGBTI attitudes from the clergy have been surfacing during the Covid-19 pandemic, with African religious leaders blaming the pandemic on the LGBTI community, claiming the virus was caused by “their sins”.
Political Homophobia
A third explanation is political homophobia. The difference between homophobia in general and political homophobia is that the latter is used as a strategic tool to achieve political power or goals. Not least, political homophobia has labelled homosexuality as un-African.
This labelling strategy, reiterated by politicians, religious leaders, and nationalists across the continent, argues that homosexuality, and other sexual orientations and gender identities, are Western imports destroying the African culture, values, and society. It is presented as Western cultural imperialism, imposing sexualities and values on Africans.
Several African leaders are proudly declaring homosexuality to be un-African. Not least Presidents Museveni, Buhari, Jammeh, Kenyatta, Jonathan, and Fattah El-Sisi, to mention a few. In June, Botswana overturned colonial-era laws which criminalised homosexuality, with the judge, Michael Leburu, declaring that “the anti-sodomy laws are a British import” and were developed “without the consultation of local peoples”.
Consequences of Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies
Physical violence, long prison sentences, death penalty laws, and in some cases state violence force many Africans to live in fear of their identity being exposed.
Anti-LGBTQ+ policies also reinforce societal rifts, placing LGBTQ+ people at increased risk of violent hate crimes. Even in countries where homosexuality is decriminalized, such as Egypt, LGBTQ+ people face state-sanctioned violence.
Limits on freedom of expression are some of the most significant restraints on LGBTQ+ rights. Several countries ban LGBTQ+ community organizing. Pride events are often raided by police and targeted for violence by the public.
Even where same-sex activities are legal, almost no African countries have laws in place to protect LGBTQ+ populations from discrimination, which is pervasive in schools, workplaces, health-care facilities, and other social settings.
LGBTQ+ populations, especially men who have sex with men, are disproportionately burdened with serious illnesses such as HIV. Studies show that the high prevalence of these diseases is at least in part linked to homophobic laws, as fears of being identified as LGBTQ+ prevent individuals from seeking medical attention.
Some attempts by Western governments, including the United States, to punish an African country for enacting anti-LGBTQ+ laws can actually backfire.
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