Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Africa Month: Uganda anti-gay law contradicts African Union goals

31 May 2023 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

UFS Federation of African Law Students Panel Discussion — The passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda has raised concerns about human rights violations.

Uganda recently passed its Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law, sparking condemnation from the international community. This development coincides with the continent commemorating Africa Month as is customary in May.

The timing of Uganda’s signing of the anti-gay bill into law on the 60th anniversary of the African Union (AU) raises concerns about the contradiction between the AU's objective of promoting unity, nation-building, and freedom from discrimination and the enactment of legislation that violates these principles. It highlights the ongoing struggle to achieve equality and respect for the rights of all individuals, including those in the LGBTQ+ community, across the African continent.

Contravening intercontinental conventions

As a member of the AU, various international human rights treaties and instruments have been signed and approved by Uganda, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. These instruments promote equality, non-discrimination, and the protection of human rights for all individuals. The passing of such legislation contradicts the country's commitments to these international agreements.

LGBTQ+ intolerance is widespread in several other African nations. For instance, 32 of the 54 African nations forbid same-sex relationships. In fact, the death sentence is still applied to homosexuality in some nations. This includes Mauritania, Somalia, and a few Nigerian states that adhere to Sharia law. Homosexuality is a crime in Kenya, where the maximum sentence for incarceration is 14 years. It carries a minimum sentence of 13 years and a maximum of life imprisonment in Tanzania as well. Although there are anti-gay attitudes in many African nations, Uganda has gone too far by drafting legislation that is so reprehensible that it grossly violates human rights.

Providing an academic magnifying glass

On 24 May 2023, the University of the Free State (UFS) chapter of the Federation of African Law Students (FALAS), in collaboration with the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Office, hosted a panel discussion on the Bloemfontein Campus, based on the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Leading the panel discussion were UFS experts such as Prof John Mubangizi, who is the former Dean of the Faculty of Law and current Research Professor in the Free State Centre for Human Rights; Prof Mikateko Mathebula, Associate Professor in the Centre for Development Support; Khanya Motshabi, Senior Lecturer in Advanced Human Rights; as well as Akhona Komeni, Peer Mentor Supervisor at Free State Rainbow Seeds.

Factors contributing to anti-gay sentiments

Prof Mubangizi presented a summary of an article he recently submitted for publication in a scientific journal, titled: Uganda’s unrelenting opprobrious legislative efforts to criminalise same-sex relations: implications on human rights.

By way of introduction, Prof Mubangizi highlighted a few possible reasons for anti-gay sentiments in Uganda. “Firstly, many Ugandans are deeply religious and hold traditional beliefs that view homosexuality as immoral, unnatural, and contrary to the will of God – these beliefs are enforced by conservative interpretations of religious texts that condemn homosexuality. The second reason is political opportunism – some politicians in Uganda are using anti-gay sentiments to rally support and divert attention from other issues. Thirdly, there is a general lack of information about what homosexuality is.”

Human rights implications

FALAS Chairperson, Ntsako Khoza, said the organisation believes that the bill is a gross violation of human rights. “The student group opposes this legislation and is adamant that it unfairly discriminates against the LGBTQ+ population and is therefore backwards for society. Promoting good governance, respect for human rights, peace, and justice in Africa is the objective of our organisation,” he said.

It is important to note that the condemnation expressed by FALAS and the international community at large is based on the recognition that laws criminalising same-sex relationships are a violation of human rights and contribute to discrimination and persecution. Upholding human rights, promoting good governance, and fostering respect for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation, is crucial for building inclusive and just societies.

News Archive

Code-switching, tokenism and consumerism in print advertising

2014-10-27

Code-switching, linguistic tokenism and modern consumerism in contemporary South African print advertising. This is the current research focus of two lecturers from the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS, Prof Angelique van Niekerk and Dr Thinus Conradie.

The act of switching between two or more languages is replete with socio-cultural meaning, and can be deployed to advance numerous communicative strategies, including attempts at signalling cultural familiarity and group affiliation (Chung 2006).

For advertising purposes, Fairclough’s (1989) seminal work on the ideological functions of language remark on the usefulness of code-switching as a means of fostering an advertiser-audience relationship that is conducive to persuasion. In advertising, code-switching is a valuable means with which a brand may be invested with a range of positive associations. In English-dominated media, these associations derive from pre-existing connotations that target audiences already hold for a particular (non-English) language. Where exclusivity and taste, for example, are associated with a particular European language (such as French), advertising may use this languages to invest the advertised brand with a sense of exclusivity and taste.

In addition, empirical experiments with sample audiences (in the field of consumer research) suggest that switching from English to the first language of the target audience, is liable to yield positive results in terms of purchase intentions (Bishop and Peterson 2011). This effect is enhanced under the influence of modern consumerism, in which consumption is linked to the performance of identity and ‘[b]rands are more than just products; they are statements of affiliation and belonging’ (Ngwenya 2011, 2; cf. Nuttall 2004; Jones 2013).

In South African print magazines, where the hegemony of English remains largely uncontested, incorporating components of indigenous languages and Afrikaans may similarly be exploited for commercial ends. Our analysis suggests that the most prevalent form of code-switching from English to indigenous South African languages represents what we have coded as linguistic tokenism. That is, in comparison with the more expansive use of both Afrikaans and foreign languages (such as French), code-switching is used in a more limited manner, and mainly to presuppose community and solidarity with first-language speakers of indigenous languages. In cases of English-to-Afrikaans code-switching, our findings echo the trends observed for languages such as French and German. That is, the language is exploited for pre-existing associations. However, in contrast with French (often associated with prestige) and German (often associated with technical precision), Afrikaans is used to invoke cultural stereotypes, notably a self-satirical celebration of Afrikaner backwardness and/or lack of refinement that is often interpolated with hyper-masculinity.

References

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept