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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2021
Some years back, around 2013, I was asked to write an article on the uses of the Bible in African law. Researching references to the Bible and biblical law across the African continent, I soon learned that, besides support for arguments by a few states in favor of declaring themselves “Christian nations,” the main use was in emerging debates over homosexuality and same-sex relationships—almost exclusively to condemn those relationships. In January 2013, the newly formed African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS) held its first international conference at the University of Ghana Legon. There, African sexuality debates emerged forcefully in consideration of a paper by Sylvia Tamale, then dean of the Makarere University School of Law in Uganda, who argued pointedly, “[P]olitical Christianity and Islam, especially, have constructed a discourse that suggests that sexuality is the key moral issue on the continent today, diverting attention from the real critical moral issues for the majority of Africans . . . . Employing religion, culture and the law to flag sexuality as the biggest moral issue of our times and dislocating the real issue is a political act and must be recognised as such.”
1 Green, M. Christian, “Modern Legal Traditions: Africa,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law, ed. Strawn, Brent (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)Google Scholar, http://doi.org/10.1093/acref:obso/9780199843305.001.0001.
2 For more information on the African Consortium for Law and Religion studies, see the organization's website, https://www.aclars.org.
3 Tamale, Sylvia, “Exploring the Contours of African Sexualities: Statutory, Customary and Religious Laws,” African Human Rights Law Journal 14, no. 1 (2014): 150–77Google Scholar, at 158.
4 van Klinken, Adriaan and Chitando, Ezra, eds., Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa (London: Routledge, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chitando, Ezra and van Klinken, Adriaan, Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Africa (London: Routledge, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Ezra Chitando and Adriaan van Klinken, eds., Religion and Human Security in Africa (London: Routledge, 2019).
6 Bongmba, Elias Kifon, “Homosexuality and the Law in Africa: South African Case Law as a Paradigmatic Example,” in Religious Pluralism, Heritage and Social Development in Africa, ed. Christian Green, M., Hackett, Rosalind I. J., Hansen, Len, and Venter, Francois (Stellenbosch: African Sun Media, 2017), 291–312CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Other papers from the ACLARS Morocco conference were published in M. Christian Green, T. Jeremy Hill, and Mark Hill, eds., Religion, Law and Security in Africa (Stellenbosch: African Sun Media, 2018).
8 For examples of the emerging international discussion of SOGI rights as human rights, see Hellum, Anne, ed., Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity (London: Routledge, 2016)Google Scholar; Dondoli, Giulia, Transnational Advocacy Networks and Human Rights Law: Emergence and Framing of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation (London: Routledge, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Halloran, Kerry, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Human Rights (London: Routledge, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 World Health Organization, “Constitution,” accessed February 17, 2021, https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/constitution. The definition is among the principles set forth in the preamble to the World Health Organization's constitution, in force since 1948.
10 Amy Howe, “Case Preview: Court Will Tackle Dispute Regarding Religious Foster-Care Agency, LGBTQ rights,” SCOTUSblog, October 28, 2020, https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/10/case-preview-court-will-tackle-dispute-involving-religious-foster-care-agency-lgbtq-rights (previewing the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia).
11 Lydia Polgreen, “Nigeria Turns from Harsher Side of Islamic Law,” New York Times, December 1, 2007; Karin Brulliard, “In Nigeria, Sharia Fails to Deliver,” Washington Post, August 12, 2009, A10; Peter Kirkwood, “Moderate Muslim's Wisdom for Nigerian Extremists,” Eureka Street, May 14, 2014, https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/moderate-muslim-s-wisdom-for-nigerian-extremists.
12 Parsitau, Damaris, “Law, Religion, and the Politicization of Sexual Citizenship in Kenya,” Journal of Law and Religion 36, no. 1 (2021) (this issue)Google Scholar.
13 Minister of Home Affairs & Another v Fourie & Another 2006 (1) SA 524 (CC) at 2 (S. Afr.).
14 Bongmba, Elias Kifon, “Same-Sex Relations and Legal Traditions in Cameroon and South Africa,” Journal of Law and Religion 36, no. 1 (2021) (this issue)Google Scholar.
