Date:         Sat, 3 Aug 1996 15:54:24 +0200
From: Bjoern Skolander <skolander@BAHNHOF.SE>

REPORT AUGUST 3, 1996 FROM HARARE, Report nr 6
by Mai Palmberg,
co-author of the report "Human Rights and Homosexuality in Southern
Africa"

REPORT FROM THE LAST DAY OF THE BOOK FAIR - VIOLENCE THREATS
************************************************************

As I am writing this on Saturday shortly after ten the gates have just
opened for the last day of the book fair. This is the day when the
greatest number of people are exprected to be here. Among them some
homophobic students from the University of Zimbabwe, and possibly
also young men from the suburbs.

Yesterday GALZ were not here at all, since a number of aggressive
young men were standing at their stand, and Galz felt that there was not
enough security to protect them or visitors to their stand. Their double
stand remained empty the whole day, with only two bouguets of flowers as
a sign of support.

I must say that there are some absurd elements in the whole situation.
The government censors what it has not seen and some students riot
against people who are not there.

But today they have come, but their stand has been removed, at their
own demand, away from the book fair proper to the so called Mayor Garden,
which is also inside the gates, but which is a ground that has been used
for big meetings and receptions. There are also two food places there.
This place will make it possible for those at the Galz stand to escape
through a back gate if the situation becomes nasty.

Even before the fair opened, while Galz were decorating their stand
with two paper figures supposed to be a pair of women and a pair of men,
some reading material, and clippings from the Zimbabwean press, there
was a crowd of people listening and putting questions to Keith Goddard,
the spokesman for Galz at the fair. Keith Goddard is a small and
gentle man, whose profession - ironically - is to promote traditional
culture. The atmosphere was friendly, and some of the guards also got
into the crowd to listen. There were also some Zimbabwean journalists,
who wanted to hear the other side of the story, and were concerned
about the safety of the Galz members.

Yesterday, when this kind of journalists were walking around the Galz
stand, in vain looking for some gays and lesbians to interview, some of
them turned to me, as they had seen my booklet "Human Rights and
Homosexuality in southern Africa", which is for sale at the book fair
in the Nordic Africa institute stand. These three black journalists
represented different community media in Zimbabwe and southern Africa,
i.e. media closer to the people in the countryside than the few daily
papers we see here in Harare. In the middle of the interview they asked
me if I was gay, and after two seconds of hesitation I said: Yes I am.
(So I have made the feat of coming out in Zimbabwe!) What followed was
an interview which of course showed a lot of ignorance, but also a
very warm human concern and a great willingness to listen.

This is what I have met over and over again during my stay here. Lots of
people come to my stand to see or buy my booklet. The few times
that anybody from Galz have been here they are surrounded not only
by media but also by people who really want to know and listen.

The aggressive ones are some (in no way all) young males, who are set on
gay-bashing. As it is Saturday many of them are expected to be drunk,
which does not make them more peaceful. I think it is not insiginificant
that the gay-bashers are young men. As in many places in Africa,
changing times hits the men's traditional roles particularly severely.
But this is a long story, I will not go into it now.

The reasoning of the aggressive students is an acceptance of violence.
Yesterday I engaged in discussions with some of them. I pointed out that
Galz had a legal right to have a stand, since the court had overturned
the government banning order. "Ah, the courts", he said, "they can allow
anything. This is not a case of the law, but of culture."

Rumours say that there are groups that would like to kill people in the
Galz, groups that supposedly the government knows about. The most
disgusting thing about the situation is that the gay-bashers beleive that
they have the government and particularly the president of the country
behind them. It is a lack of moral leadership that the government
and the president (who now is back from his trip to Malaysia) does
not speak up in face of the threats and ask people to refrain from
physical violence.

Mai Palmberg