Gambia President Yahya Jammeh threatens to behead gays

[Unicorn]

ECCENTRIC Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has threatened to behead gays unless they leave the country, according to reports.

"The Gambia is a country of believers ... sinful and immoral practices (such) as homosexuality will not be tolerated in this country," the president told a crowd at a political rally on May 15, local journalists said today.

He went on to say he would "cut off the head" of any gay person caught in The Gambia.

The anti-gay campaign continued in the Gambian pro-government media this week with the Daily Observer publishing a virulent editorial.

"We have said it before and we will say it again. This is a Muslim and Christian country. Both the Koran and the holy Bible condemn homosexuality - pure and simple," the paper wrote on Monday.

British gay rights group Outrage today said the Gambian leader's comments came as no surprise.

"Jammeh has a long history of homophobia," spokesman Peter Tatchell said.

"If he tries to carry out these threats, international aid donors are likely to withdraw their support, and foreign tourists will stay away in droves, thereby damaging the Gambian economy," he added.

The tourism industry is vital to Gambia's economy as the West African nation lacks other natural resources.

Mr Jammeh drew condemnation from African AIDS groups after he claimed in January to have found a "miracle" treatment for HIV/AIDS.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23745361-1702,00.html

[MarxSchmarx]

Homophobia is a serious problem throughout West Africa.

What I find curious is the attitude is often tied to anti-colonial sentiment. Indeed, there is a lot of resentment against Africans who grow up in Europe and subsequently come out of the closet. Moreover, there is concern that European tourists and foreigners encourage homosexuality among Africans, and are insensitive to local prejudices.

By and by, more evidence that homophobia divides the working class.

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

what a ****.

Do you think he is doing this for + popularity or because he himself is genuinely homophobic?

[RHIZOMES]

what a ****.

Do you think he is doing this for + popularity or because he himself is genuinely homophobic?

No he's just an idiot.

Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Jammeh#HIV.2FAIDS_cure_and_other_health_clai ms

[Dyslexia! Well I Never!]

Maybe he's just a monsterous, raving theo-loon with a bible in one hand and a koran in the other, being indecisive of exactly which of them to ram up the arse of his country with a mallet he instead in the depths of his desperation, clings to the few things these two books can agree on. Though only insofar as they allow him to be an utter ****.

Of course being a total arsehole has it's drawbacks namely that everyone thinks you're a total arsehole and hates your guts. Though as we know in extreme circumstances people are attracted to the extremes of political thinking (ahem Hitler). You could almost believe they genuinely care not a jot what they do as long as they are doing something (like a nice rally everyone likes a rally don't they? Book burnings and executions are good too.)

In a single policy President Jammeh has turnd the majority of the (supposedly rational) western world against him.

Way to fuck your country Yahya, a real masterstroke.

[Zurdito]

unfortunately, though probably inevitably, the left in the west reflects our wider society in our general ignorance about Africa. I will admit I do not know much about The Gambia, though isn't it one of the wealthier countries in the region?

In any case if we look for the material roots of ideologies like this, then we have to say that religion represents an attempt by the ruling class to fetishise existing hierarchies, something that in more wealthy countries might be more avoidable, because there are more pragmatic arguments the rulign class can make. In any case, homophobia is an important part of this, because the family is after all the building block of any society built on private property, and an important site for the reproduction of the hierarchies of that society.

So we should probably not see this primarily as about the madness of President Jammeh, rather, see it as a consequence of the hieghtened need for hard-line reaction to get around the increasingly glaring contradictions of capitalism in the third world at a time when the already poor are becoming poorer, and the ranks of the desperately poor are swelling in number, due to a global food crisis. Expect bourgeois reaction to rise aggressively - both in ideology and in practice - throughout this crisis. President Jammeh is just one example.

Now despite the hypocritical lip-service some western pwoers may pay against some of these leaders, at the end of the day, the imeprialist borugeosie depends on their puppet states in the third world to uphold the system of private property by any means possible. It's unliekly that any serious repurcussions will be taken against a govedrnment which is "holding the line" against the masses. Action will only be taken if there is a good chance of replacing one dictator with an even more pro-imperialist one.