It is Sunday late August and the weekend carnival that is the beginning of the end of Accra’s week-long Chale Wote Street Arts Festival is on full display. In one of the alleyways of Jamestown (the rundown British colonial quarter of the city where the carnival takes place), women dance suggestively with each other. A man wearing a rainbow train and a vertical ponytail tries to weave through the crowd, abruptly stopped by festival revelers for photographs.
Aside from the murals and music, a present fixture at the festival is the city’s queer subculture. Cross dressing, drag and other aspects of gay culture are proudly on show here but as dusk sets on the annual festival, and so it does to this celebration of pride and a rare public safe space for a people relegated to the doldrums of underground parties—at least until next year, hopefully. That is because outside the confines of this festival, the mob stopping to pose with rainbow-vertical-ponytail-man could be the same ones turning on him the next Monday if he walked on the streets dressed like that.
When Nana Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party won strongly at the December 2016 general elections, many in human rights advocacy expressed optimism that the West African nation, often described as a beacon of democracy on the continent, would see an expansion of personal freedoms. After all, many of the rights Ghanaians enjoy today were won because of the activism of president Akufo-Addo either on the streets or in the courts as an esteemed human rights lawyer.
In a November 2017 interview with Al Jazeera, the president said the decriminalization of homosexuality was “bound to happen” if advocacy increased with a critical mass of people demanding rights. The 74-year old president cited his own upbringing in Britain at a time when homosexuality was still illegal and the changes that have occurred there in his lifetime due to concerted activism. Read more via QZ
Ghana will never legalize homosexuality no matter the pressure - Mustapha Hamid
The Information Minister Dr. Mustapha Hamid, has strongly stated that Ghana will not legalize same-sex marriage despite pressure from foreign nations.
The Minister at a press briefing held to react to a statement issued by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights stressed that, homosexuality is unacceptable in Ghana.
He told journalists that our laws do not only frown on it because it is not accepted based on our cultural and religious beliefs.
He was reacting to statements made by the Professor who indicated at a press conference on Wednesday that, the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye was living in delusion hence his stance on gay rights.
The speaker of parliament had earlier revealed that homosexuality is not in Ghana and that it is a strange activity that will not be accepted in the country but the UN official says Ghana's speaker of parliament has no idea of what is happening in Ghana. Read more via Ghana Web