'Gay rights' - we hear you Premier Tsvangirai

Tomorrow marks that tragic day in Zimbabwean history when in 1965 during this eleventh month ("the month of the goat  declared sacred by our people), on the eleventh day and eleventh hour, the renegade Rhodesian leader Ian Douglas Smith proclaimed the Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

History has since shown that Smith's defiance was done on a day set aside to remember their kith and kin that fell in the 20th century's two world wars.

With this unilateral act, he extended the quarrel started by his ancestors when they colonised Zimbabwe in 1890. This week, I look at a current issue in the context of UDI, and why it continues to be a devil in our detail. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's level of political correctness is once again under  the spotlight. This reminded me of the eighties British TV satirical comedy, "Yes, Prime Minister/Yes Minister".

The setting was right - Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex; so was the audience - women of Zimbabwe, who have always proudly stated through song and dance:
Samadzimai omuZimbabwe
Takamirira zvakaoma
Hazvina mhosva, nyange zvorema,
Takamirira zvakaoma
Kurema, kurema kwazvo
Kunoda, kunoda madzimai.

The occasion was the belated 2010 commemoration of the International Women's Day.

Yes, Prime Minister, looking back, Zimbabwean women who constitute the majority and are the real kingmakers, (52 percent in your own words) feel used in order for you to get political mileage.

Prime Minister, you reassured those thousands of women in Harare's bedroom town that homosexuality has no place in Zimbabwean society: "The issue of a man breathing in the neck of another man is a no, no.

"Why should it be when we have 52 percent of our population made up of women? We don't want gay people, no we don't. Actually men are few in Zimbabwe". They sang, ululated and danced as you spoke about core values of our cultural make-up, buttressing what President Mugabe had said.

Yes Prime Minister, you touched a subject that has caused so much consternation - homosexuality.

The following day, newspapers globally carried headlines like, "Tsvangirai speaks against homosexuality"; "Tsvangirai agrees with Mugabe on homosexuality"; "Tsvangirai homophobic"; "Tsvangirai gay bashing", etc.

However, barely days after saying this Prime Minister, you did a somersault and started qualifying your statement - dissociating yourself although it's on candid camera. Yes, Prime Minister, although we are so used to your U-turns, it spoke volumes. The one percent that occupied our land and its resources in 1890 today wants to occupy our bedrooms and prescribe their sexual orientation.

And, Prime Minister, you buckle in to their bullying tactics and renege on the promises you made to the mothers of our land. The one percent once again becomes so important to you that unilaterally (like Ian Douglas Smith) you promise them through the BBC to uphold gay "rights" in Zimbabwe's constitution.

You told the BBC Newsnight viewers that homosexuality, although controversial, should be decriminalised. "My attitude is that I hope the constitution will come out with freedom of sexual orientation", you maintained. Yes Prime Minister, you also told the BBC viewers, "For as long as it does not interfere with anybody, who am I to define what individual opinion would be as far as their sexual preferences are concerned? ... To me it's a human right. It's something that individuals must be allowed to make a choice."

You even confounded Professor Welshman Ncube who was the MDC secretary-general before the break-up of your party in 2005. Professor Ncube said, "As a party (MDC), we support what the people of Zimbabwe want and they have said that they do not want gays."

He added, "The people of Zimbabwe have spoken, we are privy to the data from COPAC (parliamentary select committee that gathered views on the new constitution) that indicates that it is almost unanimous that with our cultural background, this is something that we should not even be debating about as Zimbabweans just do not want gay rights recognised in the country."

Earlier, he had accused you Prime Minister of wanting to please Westerners: "Today you say this, tomorrow you say that, even contradicting what you said yesterday because you want all people to view you as if you are the one who is good . . . When you get to where there are whites only, you say it is good that the constitution of Zimbabwe enshrines homosexuals' rights, simply because whites support that practice. When you are with blacks, you say you don't know where homosexuals are getting that practice from."

The Peter Tatchels must have had one huge party, celebrating what they believe is a conquest against President Mugabe.

However, a sample of the Zimbabwean feeling is that no matter how you Prime Minister digs in, "it can't". Those who studied long division at primary school know the popular expression: "It can't". Just like "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again".

Prime Minister, I realised that you changed tact and continued to dig in because the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia was discussing sexual orientation.

It is unthinkable that CHOGM had to set aside time to be lectured and be threatened by British Premier David Cameron about what their people should do in their bedrooms, especially when former

African colonies are the majority and still give glory to the lost British empire.

Any wonder then that Zimbabwe refuses to rejoin the Commonwealth? Cameron threatened to withhold British aid from countries that refused to recognise "gay rights". How ironic that Britain has aid money for gay rights, but as Europe and the United States burn to cinders financially, Albion cannot come to their rescue.

Prime Minister, I hope that you recall the British riots in August, and that students are demonstrating in London as I write. Not for gay rights, but "against cuts to higher education funding".

Africa did not waste time and neither did it want to play the British's ball game, despite the threats. Yes Prime Minister, they had no time to be cuddly with them as you did.

Below is a sample of what Africa said about homosexuality. Ghanaian president John Atta Mills set the tone: "No one can deny Prime Minister Cameron his right to make policies, take initiatives or make statements that reflect his societal norms and ideals but he does not have the right to direct other sovereign nations as to what they should do especially where their societal norms and ideals are different from those which exist in Prime Minister's society."

The tough talking president added, " . . . while we acknowledge all the financial assistance and all the aid which has been given to us, we will not accept any aid with strings attached . . . or the utilisation of that aid with strings attached would rather worsen our plight as a nation or destroy the very society that we want to use the money to improve".

The Ghanaian Parliament backed him fully.

A prominent legal practitioner Kwame Akuffo told Cameron that his threats were racist and added: "We (Ghana) have to respect ourselves, I believe that this economy has enough resources that if properly managed we should be able to feed ourselves without any aid from Britain.

"The time has come for us Africans to rise up and protect our rights and dignity as a people . . . Britain obtains substantiate advantage from Africa and so if Africa stands as a whole against this oppressive conduct, Britain will not have its way . . . Let Africa unite on this position for once and fight these oppressive tendencies of the West."

The Nigerian government also unveiled a draft law which makes it an offence for anyone to support same sex marriages.

Zanzibar's president Ali Mohamed Shein rejected Cameron's calls: "We have strong Islamic and Zanzibari culture that abhors gay and lesbian activities, and to anyone who tells us that development support is linked to accepting this we are saying no . . . That is an issue not acceptable in this society and we are not going to amend or introduce any laws to grant such rights.

"Changing the law simply because we need aid is next to impossible. We have our values. That is not acceptable; we would rather do without it," he declared.

Tanzania said it will not legalise homosexuality even if that means losing aid from Britain.

"Tanzania will never accept Cameron's proposal because we have our own moral values. Homosexuality is not part of our culture and we will never legalise it . . . We cannot be directed by the United Kingdom to do things that are against our set laws, culture and regulations," foreign affairs minister Bernard Membe said.

He added, "We are not ready to allow any rich nation to give us aid based on unacceptable conditions . . . and, we can do without UK aid."

Ugandan presidential adviser John Nagenda said Cameron showed a "bullying mentality" and Ugandans were "tired of these lectures" from Britain.

Prime Minister, we know that Malawi is already reeling under conditional aid after the British government cut aid when a gay couple who wanted to have same sex marriage had been jailed.

I rest my case Prime Minister, but also maintain that the power of the tongue is immense and in Power Street, it is very easy to entangle yourself. Wasn't it King Solomon who said, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who loves it will eat its fruit."

The Saturday Herald's Manheru also had the last laugh with his mouthful "More gay; moo-gay or muGay". Zimbabwe is too rich, and does not need to demean itself to powers that are now moving around with begging bowls in order to be bailed out of their debts.

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The Arena with Hildegarde Manzvanzvike