THE recent incident where a teacher at a ‘prestigious’ private school resigned after his admission that he was gay following furious backlash from parents cannot go without serious interrogation, bearing in mind that it may well be a tip of an iceberg.
And even if it were a mere isolated case, still it constitutes a serious affront to the African cultural conscience to be allowed to go scot-free.
There are two main serious concerns that go with this observation.
First is the worry that revelations of such pernicious sexual tendencies are marketed at schools against the clear constitutional position of the country.
Our Constitution does not allow this.
Our culture as Africans, as Zimbabweans, considers homosexuality an outright abomination, a taboo, an extreme violation of our sense of who we are.
Second, such reckless affront against both our Constitution and our valued culture demands a definite intervention, as dramatic and as swift as the mischievous revelation to ensure that this propensity is nipped in the bud before it plunges our country into a cultural cul-de-sac.
Yes, even this article is a call for immediate deterrence.
It is a serious call for the preservation of our educational and cultural hygiene.
There is neither room for condonation nor forgiveness.
Africa has learnt enough of the dangers of entertaining pernicious ideas to its own peril.
The outrageous confession of one Dr Neal Hovelmeier, the then deputy headmaster at St. John’s College, Harare, that he is gay, could not have been a mere publicity stunt.
He was under no pressure from any known quarter to reveal this private status of his.
Nobody prompted his utterances.
They had no bearing on the curriculum he was hired to deliver to our children.
Worse, his position as one of the deputy headmasters demanded that he be a shepherd of our children by way of upholding our culture and our Constitution.
I am quite sure anyone in such a position would not require to be reminded of adherence to critical terms of reference which include inter alia observance of the constitutional requirement of the Official Secrets Act.
What it means is, if he was aware of all the above, then the announcement was clearly deliberate and intentionally calculated to cause moral misdirection and damage to our children.
It is a deliberate act of dissidence which should not be taken lightly at all.
That he has no regret for what he did is confirmed by his reason for resignation – that “…he had been left no choice but to quit after threats were made against him and his pets and a vocal section of the parent body threatened legal action.”
In fact, he proceeds to affront us by transferring blame to responsible parents who he describes here as “…a vocal section of the parent body…” as if these parents are complaining for the mere sake of complaining.
What virulent audacity is this?
What careless vindictiveness is this?
Such abuse of privilege cannot go unpunished, so, both the law of nature and that of the state should be invoked immediately to bring this rascal to account and ensure sanity is restored.
Restoration of moral hygiene is important because of a number of imperatives.
Paramount is the realignment of the Zimbabwe education system so that it speaks to the values and aspirations of our people.
This means that we disinfect our educational curricula from kindergarten to university to clear it of moral impurities.
This also means that the people to whom we entrust our children should be trained not only in pedagogy but also in the right attitude.
Is it not strange that instead of inviting condemnation from all quarters of society, Dr Hovelmeier’s disclosure has, in fact, sparked discussions about homosexuality in the country, with some commending his ‘bravery’ for coming out while others are only but enraged by his decision to do it in front of students?
One tweeter even makes light of such a grievous matter as quoted: “I’m curious how it will all play out considering that homosexuality is against the law in Zimbabwe.
I think he is brave and has timed his announcement wisely just as the 2nd Republic is beginning.
It allows us the opportunity to discuss this societal issue openly.”
Such sentiments confirm my earlier submission that this diabolical testimony was calculated to cause such outrage and set in motion national and international debates to pressure the Second Republic to revise its stance on such pernicious tendencies as gayism in Zimbabwe.
May our ancestors forbid!
The issue of gay rights has always been both controversial and emotive within Zimbabwe’s conservative society.
It was one of the most contentious matters as a new Constitution – adopted in 2013 – was being drawn up.
The majority of Zimbabweans appeared to support the continued outlawing of homosexual acts – and a clause banning same-sex marriage was added to the country’s laws.
Zimbabwe’s gay community is small and largely operates underground.
Secret gay bars do exist and the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) is formally registered and recognised as a civil society group, unfortunately.
Former President Robert Mugabe was most outspoken against gay rights, describing gay people as “…worse than pigs and dogs.”
More recently, when asked whether he would champion gay rights, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the Constitution voted for by the people was in place, hinting that homosexuality was against the law.
Nothing can be more telling than that, even as it comes from our soft-spoken President.
It is a violation of our Constitution and our cultural fabric will not allow tweaking this our valued stance even in future constitutional amendments.
Zimbabweans need to be reminded that homosexuality is only but one of the many approaches by which our erstwhile enemies target defiling and destroying our identity for their gain.
Below are examples of Western institutions which continue to fracture the African consciousness and you can see that sex, in particular its subversion, is among the notorious list.
Pillars of global imperialism
– Religion;
– Education;
– Media;
– Technology;
– Foreign-styled Constitutions;
– Foreign-styled political ideologies and configurations;
– Food;
– Sex;
– Foreign-styled music;
– Money and the international monetary system;
– Cartography;
– Political manipulations;
– War.
Space here is limited to permit a detailed unpacking of each of these but suffice to indicate that our enemies do not tire in their efforts to confuse and confound us through a variety of toxic foreign influences, all but to kill our humanity and thus expose us to their unbridled exploitation.
Homosexuality is one such import.
It is presented as if it has been part of the African psyche from time immemorial when in fact there is nothing in our history that celebrates such an aberration.
It is conveniently presented as an authentically ‘African’ worldview, to cunningly suggest that any other understanding of this issue is somehow ‘un-African’.
This is nothing less than subtle cultural extortion by a band of aristocrats clamouring for relevance and survival.
They use the lack of education and exposure of their ‘subjects’ to steal the identity of millions for personal gain.
A perverted education system controlled by the enemies of Africa’s progress has been in the forefront of affronting the African identity.
The African identity has become hotly contested terrain in recent years because of this.
It has graduated from being the most undesirable of identities to being the most powerful political currency in the hands of skilful ideological gangsters bound to confuse and confound our culture for reasons I have already stated.
Africans have suffered and endured throughout history, for no reason other than their African-ness.
The absurdity of the reasoning for so venomous and prolonged hate of Africans, by different oppressors of every colour, including Africans themselves, is in fact the reason African-ness has been interrogated by people who have no clue what it is.
Some people may quote the Bible, some may quote the Qur’an and yet others may draw inspiration from their African ancestors.
But there are African civilisations that survived longer than anything we have ever seen in our untested modernity.
The book of coming forth as well as a reference and oldest source of African moral catechism, The Principles of Ma’at, provide a detailed account of a testament of a morality that scoffs at homosexuality, even in antiquity.
They speak with wisdom and instructed that long surviving civilisation about morality — and in it, homosexuality was taboo.
There was also a Concept of Ma’at that survived in all the African and Abrahamic faiths.
Let us quickly re-visit the 42 Principles of Ma’at which are the bedrock of our hunhu/ubuntu.
Below are the moral guides as inherited from antiquity:
1. I have not committed sin.
2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men or women.
5. I have not stolen food.
6. I have not swindled offerings.
7. I have not stolen from God/Goddess.
8. I have not told lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not cursed.
11. I have not closed my ears to truth.
12. I have not committed adultery.
13. I have not made anyone cry.
14. I have not felt sorrow without reason.
15. I have not assaulted anyone.
16. I am not deceitful.
17. I have not stolen anyone’s land.
18. I have not been an eavesdropper.
19. I have not falsely accused anyone.
20. I have not been angry without reason.
21. I have not seduced anyone’s wife.
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have not terrorised anyone.
24. I have not disobeyed the Law.
25. I have not been exclusively angry.
26. I have not cursed God/Goddess.
27. I have not behaved with violence.
28. I have not caused disruption of peace.
29. I have not acted hastily or without thought.
30. I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern.
31. I have not exaggerated my words when speaking.
32. I have not worked evil.
33. I have not used evil thoughts, words or deeds.
34. I have not polluted the water.
35. I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly.
36. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds.
37. I have not placed myself on a pedestal.
38. I have not stolen what belongs to God/Goddess.
39. I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased.
40. I have not taken food from a child.
41. I have not acted with insolence.
42. I have not destroyed property belonging to God/Goddess
Written at least 2 000 years before the 10 Commandments of Moses, the 42 Principles of Ma’at are one of Africa’s, and the world’s, oldest sources of moral and spiritual instruction.
Ma’at, the Ancient Egyptian divine Principle of Truth, Justice and Righteousness, is the foundation of natural and social order and unity.
Ancient Africans developed a humane system of thought and conduct which has been recorded in volumes of African wisdom literature, such as these declarations from the Book of Coming Forth by Day (the so-called Book of the Dead), The Teachings of Ptah-Hotep, the writings of Ani, Amenemope, Merikare and others.
These laws are captured by the moral constitution of hunhu/ubuntu which categorically states: “I am because we are.”
If we abolish the individual together with the Western philosophy of individualism, we live for each other and when we do so, we cease to be capable of iniquity.
Homosexuality is iniquitous.
It threatens the African race with extinction by defiling procreative continuity.
Where will Africans of the future come from if men marry other men.
Our ubuntu/hunhu is under siege.
Homosexuality is a virus targeting the extinction of Africans.
Hunhu/ubuntu is an African moral code which, if globalised, can lead all mankind back to righteousness and thus heal the world.
Hunhu/ubuntu is a social philosophy which embodies virtues that celebrate the mutual social responsibility, mutual assistance, trust, sharing, unselfishness, self-reliance, caring and respect for others among other ethical values.
It means behaviour patterns acceptable to Zimbabwean indegens.
It may be known by different nomenclatures depending on languages but the bottomline is that this philosophy is clearly understood by all Africans.