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REPUBLICANISM: AN EXAMINATION OF THE LGBTQ+ DEBATE IN GHANA
BY SAMIRA MOHAMMED IBN MORO
Ghana’s Parliament has been considering before it a bill titled “Promotion of Proper Human
Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021” that seeks to criminalize identification
as a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Allies (LGBTQIA+). The bill
also seeks to criminalize support and empathy for the community( p. 1). Avery (2021)
describes it as a retrogressive copy of similar laws active in Russia and Nigeria.
The bill was a culmination of a sustained effort by some politicians, civil society
organizations, traditional institutions, and religious bodies who raised reservations with the
interpretation of the freedom of association to include the right to identify with the LGBTQ+
community. This followed a public event in February 2021 where a facility meant to be an
office to direct pro-gay-rights campaigns as well as shelter victims of stigma and violence
was shut down by the Ghana Police Service(Kojo,2021).
What this paper seeks to argue is that the bill falls flat in the face of democratic
republicanism while tackling the religio-cultural arguments in the face of democratic-
republican conceptions of nationhood (Bellamy, 2008). The language of the law that
establishes the political dispensation in Ghana establishes a republic where the constitution
relies on a secular interpretation (Sajo, 2008). This paper will show that the bill and its
proponents rely on a fundamentally religious conception of Ghanaian constitutionality which
is inimical to secular state values.
The paper will also reveal that the bill is, by and large, an undemocratic proposal (Hamamoto, 2007) that hopes Ghanaian public antipathy towards gay rights is enough to criminalise a minority group of people and afford the government leeway to remove protections for such
people.
The bill and its advocacy
The bill was first read in the Parliament of Ghana on August 2, 2021(Bhalla,2021). It is
sponsored by eight legislators from the two main political parties: the perceived left-leaning
National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the perceived right-leaning New Patriotic Party
(NPP). The Christian Council of Ghana – an umbrella body of Christian churches in Ghana
and the Office of the Islamic National Chief Imam also support the bill; a country where an
the overwhelming majority are either Christian or Muslim (Heaton, James & Oheneba-Sakyi,
2009), the position of the two religious bodies is significant.
Sexual rights, if the bill is passed, can only be legitimately claimed by those who subscribe to
the binary sex categorisation of male and female identity assigned at birth (p. 23). A range of
punitive measures, including custodial sentencing of up to ten years, are prescribed for those
who identify with any of the initials so captured by the bill.
Secondly, the bill intends to criminalise associations as well as the advocacy or support for
those who identify with any of the initials in the queer community and as enlisted by the bill.
Proponents of the bill have also intriguingly made the case that the bill offers help to queer
people. That is to say, queerness is in essence abnormality and this abnormality could be
treated. (Ghartey,2021)However, what is worthy of note is that the threat to punish those who
do not adhere to “proper human sexual” behaviours relies on a conception of Ghanaian
family values as inscribed in the bill. The bill makes no mention of scientific bases as the
reasons for which it frowns upon the LGBBTTQQIAAP+ community, rather, the reasons are
cultural(Manuh,2021).
Defining Ghanaian culture
The main objective of the bill claimed by proponents is to show that neither LGBTQ+
humanity nor sexual relations between non-heterosexual individuals are fixtures of traditional
Ghanaian culture and as a result, non-Ghanaian family values should never be protected
under the law.
Amoaning(2021) asserts that, if Africans had the concept of homosexuality, they would have
had a word for it. It is an ontological argument that is of the view that we can affirm or deny a
claim if the rational possibility was sufficient evidence. Albeit the faults of this thinking,
including how it overlooks historical evidence, the cultural argument is quite popular, even
outside Ghana (Heerden,2019). Alimi (2015) asserts that the historical argument aimed at
dismissing homosexuality as non-African is unfactual and seems like a convenient myth as
historian Harari (2016) points out that, myths serve social utilities, and their scientific
veracity may never be necessary.
Republicanism and Ghana
When “republic” is termed as a people’s periodic opportunity to use their national
sovereignty without the overbearing impediment of authority, Ghana’s current republic is the
fourth since the country gained independence from Britain in 1957. The current dispensation is also the longest ongoing phase of democratic stability in the country’s history and even one of the longest in Africa(Dovlo,2006).
Schwelb (1960) holds that republicanism is more than just the absence of totalitarian and
colonial governments. Tentatively, there is an expatiation of three ingredients of
republicanism as proposed by scholars in the Western canon where the concept is buoyed by
a healthy interplay of opinions The ingredients are: the sovereignty of citizens,
constitutionality and institutionalism, and civic morality and public participation. (Rodgers,
1992; Zuckert, 1992; Kerber, 1985).
Classical republicans such as Adams (1788) emphasised the need for nations to be
constituted by individuals whose decision-making was neither forced nor in fear of powers
external to them. The themes of non-domination, non-interference, and autonomy run through
the treatises of the earliest republicans. The republican ideas of constitutionality and
institutionalism go hand-in-hand. Republicans favour an explicit and supreme rulebook that
spells the rules and regulations in a given polity. Institutions must also be created as part of
republican jurisprudence to inure to the rule of law and protect the sovereignty of the citizens
in different matters from the corruption of leaders, a threat to minority rights, and the
destruction of the environment (Pettit, 1996).
In the context of constitutions and institutions, Adams (1788) advised that states would be
better served by treating politics as a “science of social happiness”.By this, Adams (1788)
meant a non-ideological approach to governance where laws are made following scientific
methodology. In the affairs of the people, politicians are encouraged to stick to empirical
conclusions as the purpose of republicanism is to build a rational society.
Adams’(1788) “scientific” republicanism is shared by many modern thinkers including
Habermas (1971). This should be seen in the light that republican thinkers attempt to
advocate self-rectifying measures by first principles. While Habermas (1971) preached a
conceptual framework that made sure individuals utilised their autonomy for the benefit of
public sovereignty, others urged a wider democracy as a way to combat corruption by leaders.
Public participation is deemed necessary for the goals of the republic. Indeed, Pettit (1996)
postulates that citizens are encouraged to find fulfillment in participating in the communalism
of the republican project. People have free will and are urged to express it in conformity to
what the laws and institutions say.
As hinted above, Ghana’s republican projects have been interrupted by coups but in the last
three decades, the country has maintained a constitution that declares in Article One: “The
The sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare
the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down
in this Constitution” (Constitution of Ghana, 1992). Also, in Article Three, Clause Five, the
Constitution of Ghana (1992) empowers all citizens to defend the republic: “Any person or
group of persons who suppresses or resists the suspension, overthrow, or abrogation of this
Constitution as referred to in clause (3) of this article, commits no offense”.The above are the clearest indications that the country continues to aspire to a system that holds the features of republicanism in the highest esteem.
LGBTQ+ rights in Ghana
Ampaw (2021), maintains that when it comes to Ghanaian cultural and traditional values, the
Bill’s sponsors deliberately ignore the fact that not all Ghanaian cultural and traditional values
can withstand the rigours of inclusivity, diversity, and fundamental rights in a democratic
republic like Ghana. Therefore, just because these are part of Ghanaian and African cultural
and traditional norms and values, they are not acceptable in a modern democratic republic
like Ghana. It is the view of this paper also that Ghana stands to realise a better future should
the values of the democratic republic triumph over any assertions of traditional values and
culture.
Secondly, republicanism saves Ghanaians from answering to laws enacted based on religion.
The proponents have never hidden this agenda and some MPs have publicly touted the
support of religious bodies in their quest to criminalise queer humanity. The constitution of
Ghana notes that the country is a secular republic, and thus, no religion is to be given
prominence over others(Manuh,2021). The Ghanaian law must be based on a set of provable
axioms and empirical conclusions. Ampaw (2021) postulates that enacting laws based on the
evidence of faith cannot be a credible practice in a republic and it is bound to show itself as a
myopic yardstick. As argued by Adams (1788), organizing the state according to empirical
truth is a virtue in itself. Empirical truths are effectively ideology-free and we must not shy
away from the social utility of such truths.
Lastly, civic life requires the cultivation of public ethos that is not only defensible in the
long-term but goes further than the parochial identities of ethnicity, cultures, and religions.
Lovett (1970) opines that in republican societies, laws do not simply protect freedoms but
enable them. This is a fundamental legal framework for determining what a good republic is.
The laws made in Ghana must clarify the requirements of civic participation. These
requirements cannot be borne of the likes and dislikes of those with sectoral interests. Ethnic
and religious identities are too narrow and simply do not cut them. The law must enable the
humanity of all citizens.
Conclusion
The threat to the humanity and freedoms of queer people in Ghana is its most extreme form,
never before seen in the history of Ghana. Further from everyday and commonplace
homophobia, lawmakers are looking to put the final nail in the coffin on what it means to
exist as a self-owning and self-determining person in Ghana, as far as sexuality is concerned. The queerphobic politics of polite society has also invigorated the animosity shown toward queer
people by common society. There seems to have been a marked rise in violence unleashed
against queer people, and it is not known if these acts are coming to light because we have
become more attentive to the plight of that marginalized group or whether there is a statistical
increment to these violent acts.
The anti-LGBTQ Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill,2021 is not
ambiguous about what it wants to achieve. As argued above. The bill seeks to criminalise the
humanity of queer people, criminalise association with individuals who identify as queer, and
establish a religion-biased understanding of humanity and rights in a republic.
These cannot be allowed to stand.
Thankfully, within the Ghanaian constitution rests the legal tools to fight the agenda of the lawmakers who are bent on dehumanizing queer people. Ghana is a democratic republic to the extent that it entertains the non-domination of citizens, constitutionality, and the permission to organize the state in such a way to allow for the full humanity of its people and their uninhibited participation in the civic process.
To propose laws that truncate the full humanity of people is to act in contravention to the
spirit of and letter of the constitution of Ghana. There is absolutely no proof, secular or
religious, that encourages the truncation of the sexual liberties of some people in the empiric
interest of the republic. The challenge that remains obviously, is how many will come to
identify with the promise of Ghanaian republicanism vis-à-vis the attempt to institute a
religio-fascist legal regime.
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