A DESPICABLE BRITISH-colonial era law, supported to hilt by the inordinate number of Christian fundamentalists who infest the impoverished southern African state of Malawi, was used today to impose a 14-year jail sentence, with hard labour, on two young gay men who committed no crime other than to love each other.
According to this report, the conviction of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga  for “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency” shows a growing divide between human rights groups that fight for more tolerance of homosexuals and conservative Christian churches that combine with traditional values to demonise and persecute gays.
Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga
Like Ugandan Christians who have pushed through an anti-gay bill that originally would have executed homosexuals accused of sex with a minor, and like Kenyan Christian churches that seek to derail a new Constitution because of its supposed encouragement of abortion, Malawian society continues to ban homosexuality on legal, moral, and cultural grounds.
The two men fell foul of the law when they courageously and publicly took part in an engagement ceremony. Chimbalanga, a 20-year-old hotel janitor, and his unemployed partner were arrested on December 27, the day after they celebrated their engagement with a party at the hotel where Chimbalanga worked — an apparent first in Malawi.
Writing for the Huffington Post from Malawi, Mia Kirshner raged:
I am angry. I am angry because the right to marry is the choice of an individual rather than a state. I am angry that a dusty law book decides who we have a right to love. I am angry because I know it’s hard to find love in the world and no one should ever stand in love’s way. I am angry because no one should be asked to have relationships in secret. I am angry that so many are forced into the closets, furthering shame and stigma.
What I know is true is that there is no shame in being gay. Love does not understand gender.
These two men did something brave. They spoke up and they spoke out.
No one in Malawi has done this publicly before.
They are fierce and brave.
Before the men were sentenced, Tiwonge was quoted as saying:
I love Steven so much. If people or the world cannot give me the chance and freedom to continue living with him as my lover, then I am better off to die here in prison. Freedom without him is useless and meaningless.
Kirshner is now imploring people to sign a petition calling on the Malawi authorities to overturn the sentence.
Please. I ask that the international community of activists, the United Nations, politicians in Malawi and international human rights lawyers speak up and help these men.
By doing this, protection of individual rights will be served and precedent set to in order to open the doors for other couples to be able to stop living in fear.
Malawi gets most of its foreign aid from the United Kingdom. Earlier this month the Malawi Government expressed hope that the new UK coalition government led by new Prime Minister David Cameron of Conservative and his deputy Nick Clegg of Liberal Democrats would continue injecting financial aid to the country.
Dr Francis Moto, the Malawi High Commissioner in London
Deputy Minister in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Nicholas Dausi told Capital Radio that Britain has been providing financial assistance to the country since the 1960s despite changes in its leadership.
As government we expect the usual flow of British aid to Malawi. The British government has given substantive amount of aid to this country and we expect more.
The Malawi High Commissioner in London is Dr Francis Moto. You can communicate your outrage to him by writing to the Commission, which is located at 70 Winnington Road, London N2 0TX, United Kingdom, or by telephoning +44(0) 20 8455 5624. The fax no is +44(0) 20 3235 1066 and the Emails are malawi@malawihighcommission.co.uk/ malawihighcom@btconnect.com
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 20th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
It’s sad people continue to endure persecution, prosecution and worse merely for loving one another.
May 20th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Another victory for US evangelism and Rekers
May 20th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I have sent them an email stating I shall be contacting my Member of Parliament and the Department for International Development urging them to cut off all aid to Malawi until this law is repealed.
May 20th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Hit them where it hurts! Cut all aid at once; imploring these ‘people’ to adhere to Human Rights seems a big waste of time.
May 20th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I sent an email asking for the High Commission to intervene and speculating on the effects of a boycott of companies who invest in Malawi.
It got spat right back at me with a failure to deliver notice. Perhaps somethign to do with the mens name being included and some software rejecting it?
Perhaps I’m paranoid. The second email address seems to have worked.
May 21st, 2010 at 1:33 am
Malawi has a terrible history of genocide and religious extermination. As does Sudan, Niger, Congo, Somalia, etc. Nearly the entire continent of Africa is under some form of martial law. It seems a poor time to press the issue of civil rights, especially since even western cultures continue to stuggle with gay rights.
To me, the word “marriage” represents a religious institution and should be willed back to the shitwit fundies. That being said, I support the right of a catholic priest to marry a knothole in his outhouse. If two people want to fuse their fortunes and their futures, then they can come to an agreement and live by it. But, if you want to carve out equal rights with married couples, Africa is a piss poor place to do it. If you want to become a martyr for the cause, Africa also sucks. With entire villages of women being raped as a weapon of attrition on a continental scale, AIDS epidemic, widespread starvation, I think the chances of their case receiving international attention is slightly less than zero. One needs to choose one’s battles carefully, and timing is critical.
NeoWolfe
May 21st, 2010 at 11:53 am
>Malawi get’s most of its foreign aid
Please get rid of the unnecessary apostrophe.
May 21st, 2010 at 12:31 pm
On the foreign aid question – yes, cutting it off altogether hurts the innocent more than the thugs , but maybe there’s a middle line here some of us could push.
If you look at the agencies getting the aid (because oyu might notice our goverments somehow don’t trust dark-skinned folk to look after the money directly), you might be startled to see how many are evangelical charities. There are a couple fundraising in local schools round here that I know of, and they’ve certainly been hitting the overseas aid government committees of places like Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man, so I’d guess they do the same in UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland committees if they exist).
Isn’t it reasonable to demand higher scrutiny of such aid agencies before public funding, as it’s pretty obvious the evangelicals are adding to the hate?
May 21st, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Your Excellency,
I am writing to express my disgust at the jailing for 14 years with hard labour of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga.
All these two brave young men have done is to express their love for one another publicly, and have been dealt with more harshly than many violent criminals.
Please tell me, Your Excellency, who has been harmed by these two young me? Who will be harmed by them in the future? How is anyone adversely affected by their acts?
I implore you, as the representative of the government of Malawi, to implore your government to repeal these harsh laws, and to pass new legislation which does not make it a crime to love another human being.
Please ask the government to free Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga so that they may enjoy the same happiness with each other as you do with your wife, and I do with mine.
I ask this in the spirit of humanity, that we all share, and we all know what it is to love another human person.
Yours respectfully
Nick Pullar
May 21st, 2010 at 1:48 pm
It’s gone, Our Sally, but how it got there in the first first place is beyond me.