massive gay arrests in Senegal

[young11]

14 hours ago, NIrishGuy said:

 

Or just some cash 😂 

[forrestreid]

On 2/22/2026 at 1:46 AM, PeterRS said:

I fully accept you are the expert here. However, if Britain and other colonial powers had not introduced anti-sodomy laws and not only had them on these countries' statute books for around a century but also rigorously enforced them, might today's anti-gay sentiments be less? Might not those African countries which had been colonised just continue what they had been practising before the colonial powers arrived (and I frankly do not know if homosexuality was encouraged/tolerated/banned in any of these countries before then)? Just curious as to your thoughts. 

 

I think that’s true, and I’m definitely not trying to defend British colonial‑era laws. But I do think their lingering effects have faded quite a bit over the last decade or two.These days, the bigger factor seems to be how religious each country is—especially the influence of conservative Islam and evangelical Christianity.

Take Senegal, Mali, and Niger. All three were French colonies, so they didn’t inherit laws criminalising homosexuality at independence.

- Senegal later made homosexual acts illegal. Around 97% of the population is Sunni Muslim, and surveys show the same percentage saying homosexuality shouldn’t be accepted. With numbers like that, liberalisation doesn’t look likely anytime soon.

- Mali also started out without anti‑gay laws, but according to Wikipedia, homosexuality was made illegal in December 2024. It seems to have been a political move aimed at appealing to the overwhelmingly Muslim population at a time when the government is under pressure from ISIS‑aligned rebels. 

- Niger likewise inherited no such laws. But again, Wikipedia notes that while same‑sex activity is currently legal, criminalisation is pending.

 

Now compare that with the formerly British colonies of Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda.

- Nigeria did inherit British anti‑gay laws. In the Christian south, the federal criminal code (which would have copied a lot a British laws at inception) punishes sex between men with up to 14 years in prison. In many northern, Islamic states that have recently adopted Sharia‑inspired laws (under pressure from Muslim preachers) the penalty can be death. 

- Ghana also inherited British laws banning male homosexual activity. But then in February 2024 things got much worse as the legislature—backed by both major political parties—unanimously passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which would criminalise even identifying as gay, with penalties of up to three years in prison. It’s currently tied up in court.

 - Uganda inherited British laws too. They went largely unenforced for decades, but from the 1990s onward (according to Wikipedia) there’s been a push to revive and strengthen them. That eventually led to the Anti‑Homosexuality Act, 2023, which includes up to twenty years in prison for “promotion of homosexuality,” life imprisonment for “homosexual acts,” and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” Uganda is about 75% Christian and 15% Muslim, and evangelical churches in particular have been strongly anti‑gay. Interestingly—and worryingly—surveys show younger generations are more homophobic than older ones, which is the opposite of global trends. Presumably the older generation would have been more affected in their attitude by the inherited British laws, but they are ironically somewhat less homophobic.

Therefore I think that harking back to British colonial laws banning homosexuality (unfortunate though they were) is increasingly irrelevant when talking about the legal status of gay people in Africa. Now you could argue that it was under the British that Christian missionaries got a foothold in certain countries, leading to the situation today where a more evangelical Christianity is spreading. But if it had not been for the Christian missionaries, I think it likely that Ghana, Nigeria and probably Uganda would be almost entirely Muslim now. This would have led to worse outcomes gay people today in those countries  - after all, I would prefer to live in the Christian-dominated south of Nigeria subject to the draconian Federal Criminal code, rather than Sharia-ruled north, facing the death penalty.

Edited 16 hours ago by forrestreid
clarity

[Alex_Berl]

That's counterfactual historical analysis, which in my opinion is pointless. And yes: Of course, the Europeans, and incidentally also the Americans from 1898 onwards, committed injustices in the colonized countries and are responsible for many problems (through border demarcations that didn't take local conditions into account, monocultures, etc.), but not everything these countries decide today is a direct consequence of that.

[PeterRS]

14 hours ago, forrestreid said:

if it had not been for the Christian missionaries, I think it likely that Ghana, Nigeria and probably Uganda would be almost entirely Muslim now. This would have led to worse outcomes gay people today in those countries  - after all, I would prefer to live in the Christian-dominated south of Nigeria subject to the draconian Federal Criminal code, rather than Sharia-ruled north, facing the death penalty.

I think we often tend to forget that following in the wake of the colonial powers' militaries the Christian missionaries were not far behind. I cannot speak for Africa, but in China, for example, the power of the missionaries, the propaganda they spread usually without hindrance, and the results of their actions is often forgotten. By the mid-19th century China was economically in a desperate state. One young man who had seen the pamphlets handed out by Protestant missionaries had merely put them to one side. He then failed the all-important civil service examinations four times. Realising he had little future in bettering himself in the country, he re-read the pamphlets. After studying the bible with an American Baptist missionary, he  became convinced that he was the brother of Jesus Christ, born in the land of China to rid it of the rot and corruption that was enveloping it internally.  

This resulted in his starting a movement that was soon to become known as the Taiping Rebellion. This started in 1850. Within 10 years it had gathered a force of tens of thousands and laid siege to Shanghai for 15 months. That was finally repulsed by the Qing rulers, but the Taiping army continued its drive north towards Beijing. The Qing finally defeated the rebellion after 14 years of warfare. The total death toll will never be known but reliable estimates put it at between 20 and 30 million covilians and soldiers. 

Christians were therefore in large part responsible for these deaths. Of course it can be argued that had the economically prosperous China not descended into relative chaos over the previous century, the Rebellion could not have happened. Equally, though, had the far superior forces of Britain not started war on China over a right to import opium as payment for its exports instead of silver (which also resulted in several million Chinese deaths) and then forced it to open up treaty ports along its coastline, the missionaries would never have arrived.