Once again the visit of the most powerful
president of the most powerful nation on earth to Africa as expected has
elicited both excitement and resentment in equal measure. If you are from Kenya
this is read as a contempt card to the people of Kenya and the leadership of
this beautiful country. Kenyans feel their son owes them a visit especially after
key economic sectors like tourism have taken a beating since the post election
violence in 2007/08. However, many have also been quick to dismiss the whole
visit and its significance either to the countries visited or the general
economic wellbeing of the African continent as a whole, the jury is still out there.
Perhaps, what most people are likely
going to remember is this statement reported in some Kenyan Media and
attributed to President Obama, “My basic view is
that regardless of race, regardless of religion, regardless of gender,
regardless of sexual orientation, when it comes to the law, people should be
treated equally,” Mr Obama said in Senegal (http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Cardinal-Njue-criticises-Obama-gay-stance/-/1056/1897702/-/lxexc0/-/index.html).
Mark the word regardless of sexual orientation. This may as well have been
taken out of context and the emphasis may have been elsewhere. But these has
been seen by many and rightly so as a veiled attempt to push and arm-twist the
African countries to legalize gay marriages. The first and perhaps the most
vocal voice from this, is the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya
Cardinal John Njue and his advise to the good president “forget”.
For most Africans whether
Christians or non-Christians the debate on gay issues raises very varied
reactions with those in support being in the minority or even never heard.
Obviously, I am not going to voice their concerns in this platform. However,
for me this call by President Obama, raises a very fundamental question to us
as Africans. We can all rise up in arms and claim how African we are and how
immoral this is, but as in many other issues when it comes to the West and standing
up against Western influences we are poor students of history, remember the
Anti-terrorism bill and subsequently Anti-terrorism Act?
Cardinal John Njue may have
called it as it is, but we really need to rise and stand for our African
culture and what is morally right whether religious or otherwise. There are
many other moral issues that Africa has fallen short and leaves a lot to be
desired but gay marriage and gay unions is just not one of those that we need
to accept just because it is a norm in the West. Obama’s father may have hailed
from Kenya and as he has stated his opinion may have evolved over time, but we
cannot let our guards down just for the sake of promised financial aid.
As a Christian, however, I
have to be moved by love and compassion for the sickness of the human soul and
the more need for human redemption. I have to fervently pray for these
individuals whether they be my brothers or sisters, friends or neighbours or
even my children. But my human weakness does not reduce me to an emotional
moving robot, which has to do what is politically correct at the expense of my
own faith and culture. I believe in a real faith and in a real God and that is
what I have to teach and preach, despite my shortcomings in articulating or in
living the same.