by Melanie Nathan, Country Conditions Expert Witness for Ghanaian asylum seekers, September 27, 2024, commissionermnathan@gmail.com
Ghana will hold a presidential election in December 2024. The election will be decided between the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party, and its nominee Mahamudu Bawumia, the incumbent Vice President, versus the National Democratic Congress contender, John Mahama, a past President from 2012-2017. In a country where over 90% of the population believe homosexuals should be eradicated from society, LGBTI people are the obvious pawns that will unite all religions in the support of a candidate. So the scapegoating is inevitable.
Both contenders are virulently anti-homosexuality and are compelled in their campaigning to make that clear to constituents, especially as the current president refuses to receive the new Anti-homosexuality law passed by the Ghanian Parliament earlier this year, for assent, pending a challenge to its constitutionality that is currently before the Supreme Court.
Anti-LGBTI attitudes predominate society in Ghana and manifest as discrimination and persecution in all aspects of life. These attitudes impact those who are perceived as LGBTI, imputed as such, as well as their allies and often emanate from highly traditionalist adherents to the Christian and Muslim faiths.
In a CNN interview, Audrey Gadzekpo, a professor at the University of Ghana in Accra whose expertise includes gender and media, said, “Ghana is a conservative and religious country. So when Ghanaian politicians and leaders quote the Bible or the Quran about the sins of homosexuality, many people ‘buy into’ it.” She continued, “Some of the bill’s supporters have conflated homosexuality with pedophilia, and paint the [anti-LGBTI] bill as a protection of children and, of course, Ghanaian culture.”
Ghana is a community-oriented society where communities connect and are formed largely through religious connections. Religion also impacts politics. In Ghana Politicians are now scapegoating LGBTI people as a mechanism to unite different religious factions in their voting. Campaigning against homosexuals aligns both Muslims and Christians, and is of particular danger for LGBTI people during and around an election year.
During the 2024 presidential campaign the issue of homosexuality is front and center of campaigning, because of the attention the new Family Values Act brought to Uganda. The law criminalizes the very identity of LGBTQI+ people as well as their allies and advocates. People can go to jail for merely "holding out" as LGBTQIA. The law has yet to be signed by President Nana Akufo-Addo who refuses to receive it pending the outcome of the Supreme Court challenge to the law.
Here is video of Vice President Bawamia - a contender for the presidency:
Comments