Home / Contact / Stories, News & Reports / Photos

Gay Sudan News & Reports 2004-08

About Sudan
Official name: Republic of the Sudan
Capital: Khartoum
Head of state: President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR (since 16 October 1993);
State: Government of National Unity
Population: 39,379,358 (July 2007 est.)
Independence: from Egypt and Britain in January 1, 1956
Languages: Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English
Religion: Sunni Muslim 70% (in north), indigenous beliefs 25%, Christian 5% (mostly in south and Khartoum)

Legal status of homosexuality: illegal
Age of consent: NA
Laws covering homosexual activity: In 1983 a new penal code was promulgated; ostensibly it is based on the shari'a without adherence to any special school. Article 316 defines zina [fornication] as penetration with the penis (or part thereof) into the vagina or the anus of a person on whom one has no legal right to or as granting permission to someone without legal right to penetrate one's vagina or anus. For a muhsan [married man] capital punishment is described, for a gair muhsan [bachelor] 100 lashes. The law was seldom applied. No cases of executions for sodomy were reported prior to April 1985, when the government of an-Numairi was overthrown and these rules were temporarily put aside.
Between September 1983 and April 1985 hundreds of men and women were lashed for "intended" unlawful heterosexual intercourse, but none, as far as is known, for sodomy.
In February the military government of Hassan al-Basir reinstated shari'a law.
(See: Arno Schmitt and Jehoeda Sofer "Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in Moslem Societies")

1 The rape of slave boys in Sudan 6/04

2 A Sudanese gay man tells what life is like in Arab Africa where homosexuality is intolerated 10/04

3 The rape of slave boys in Sudan 6/04

4 In Sudan's Nubian and Cushite societies---homosexuality was also an intricate part of the society. 3/05

5 "I tell people I have HIV so they can know it's real" 12/07

6 Gay Africans and Arabs come out online 2/08

7 Boy refugees in Chad sold as child soldiers 6/08 (non-gay background story)

Contemporary Review
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_1661_284/ai_n6140462

June 2004

1
The rape of slave boys in Sudan
by Maria Sliwa
As hebegan speaking, Majok lowered his small cocoa-coloured eyes and stared intensely at the ground. It was the summer of 2002 and I had just flown thousands of miles deep into the war zone of Sudan to interview former slaves.

Majok, then 12, tightly hugged his long, bony legs, as we sat on the parched termite-infested earth. His ragged black shorts and ripped oversized T-shirt hung loosely on his spindly, dust-covered body. A continuous flow of tears poured down his adolescent face, as he spoke of the way he was repeatedly raped and sodomized by gangs of government soldiers. 'They raped me', Majok cried. 'And when I tried to refuse, they beat me'.

After taking care of his master's cattle all day, Majok said he was often raped at night. He told me that his rapes were very painful and he would rarely get a full night's sleep. He also spoke about the other slave boys he saw who suffered the same fate. 'I saw with my eyes other boys get raped', Majok said. 'He [the master] went to collect the other boys and took them to that special place. I saw them get raped'.

Yal, another adolescent, had multiple scars on his arms and legs that he said came from the numerous bamboo beatings he received while in captivity. He told me he saw three slaves killed and one whose arm was hacked off at the elbow because he tried to run away. Yal also said he saw other boys raped by his master at his master's house.

'At the time they were raped they were crying the whole day', Yal said. He then told me that he, too, was raped. Since 1989, Sudan's Muslim extremist government, which is seated in the North, has been waging a declared jihad against ethnic and religious communities that resist Arabization and Islamization. The battle is over land, oil, power and religion, by a government that is made up of some of Africa's most aggressive Arab Islamists, says Jesper Strudsholm, the Africa correspondent for Politiken.

Animist and Christian black Africans in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, have paid a price for refusing to submit to the North. Over two million have died as a result of this war, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees. Often trapped in the fray are surviving victims whom the government soldiers capture as slaves. Human rights and local tribal groups estimate the number enslaved ranges from 14,000 to 200,000 people.

Though thousands still remain enslaved in the North, since 2003, the genocide and slave raiding in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains has been suspended because of a ceasefire. Amnesty International, however, reports that the government continues to attack black African Muslims in Darfur, Western Sudan. According to an expert on Sudan, Eric Reeves, more than 1,000 people are dying every week in Darfur because of government attacks, and 'the numbers are sure to rise'. Amnesty also reports that surviving victims have been raped and abducted by government soldiers during these raids. International law recognizes both slavery and rape in the context of armed conflict as 'crimes against humanity'.

As I questioned the former slaves, village leaders, my translators, and many Sudanese immigrants living in the United States, it became apparent that the tribal society in which Majok and the other slaves were born has strict taboos about sex, especially male-to-male sex. I was told that although many villagers are aware that young male slaves are raped while in captivity, it is not discussed because of the cultural prohibitions on all forms of homosexuality including rape. In fact, male-to-male sex is considered such an egregious act in South Sudan that if two males are found guilty of having consensual sex with each other they are killed by a firing squad, according to Aleu Akechak Jok, an appellate court judge for the South.

Jok's description of Southern Sudan's punishment for consensual homosexual sex is not too different from the Muslim Sharia law in Northern Sudan, which imposes a death penalty on those found guilty of homosexuality. Village leaders told me that male rape victims, who are able to escape slavery in the North and return to their villages, often consign themselves to a life filled with guilt and suffering and do this silently and alone.

'This affects their minds badly', Nhial Chan Nhial, a chief of one of the villages in Gogrial County said with anger. 'When they return to us, many of these boys have fits of crying, mental problems, and are unable to marry later on in life'. I worried about Majok and the other boys I had interviewed. These boys were all adolescent and pre-adolescent. Many of them told me that their violent experience of rape was their very first introduction to sex.

When captured, Ayiel, 14, said he was forced to watch the gang-rape of his two sisters and says he too was raped numerous times. He described his experience as 'very painful' and said he never saw his sisters again after that incident. Perhaps the most graphic account of male rape was given by Aleek. 'I watched my master and four Murahaleen [soldiers] violently gang-rape a young Dinka slave boy', Aleek said. 'The boy was screaming and crying a lot. He was bleeding heavily, as he was raped repeatedly. I watched his stomach expand with air with each violent penetration. The boy kept screaming. I was very frightened, and knew I was likely next. Suddenly the boy's screams stopped as he went completely unconscious. My master took him to the hospital. I never saw him again'.

Many of the boys told me that in order to avoid rape some of the male slaves tried to escape, but were quickly hunted down by their captors. They said that the punishment for resisting rape is severe beatings, limb amputation or death. Mohammed, a Bagarra nomad, who has helped to free slaves, broke down in tears as he spoke. 'What they are doing in the North is against the Koran', he explained. 'Allah says that no man should be a slave to another man, but all should be a slave to Allah'. Mohammed said that as a Muslim he was heartbroken that the extremists have perverted his religion into a political weapon to torture and oppress people.

When I arrived in Sudan, Ngong--one in a group of five former female slaves that I interviewed--told me that children were raped while in captivity. 'Yes, I saw with my eyes them raped, boys and girls', Ngong said.

Though I knew about the rape of slave girls, I did not know this could also be happening to boys. I decided to investigate this further when two females from the same group said they had seen slave boys taken away at night to the 'special place' for rape.

I interviewed a total of fifteen male slaves, for one to two hours each. Six of the boys interviewed said they were raped and the majority of these six said they were eyewitnesses to other boys being raped. Most of these six boys said they were raped numerous times, by more than one perpetrator. Some of the boys gave the full names and the home towns of the men they said had raped them.

Though five in this group of fifteen boys said they were not raped, they did say they were either sexually harassed or were eyewitnesses to other slave boys being raped. Only four of the fifteen boys interviewed said they were not raped or sexually harassed, and were not eyewitnesses to the rape of other boys. All the boys said they were never sexually abused or raped prior to their enslavement.

In 2004, the rape of boy slaves is not unique to young Sudanese males, as recently exposed in a 'CNN Presents' documentary 'Easy Prey: Inside the Child Sex Trade'. Sadly, the ugly arm of slavery reaches far beyond Sudan and shockingly touches every continent except Antarctica. One slavery expert, Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FreeTheSlaves.net), says there are approximately 27 million slaves worldwide. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive report on how many male slaves have been traumatized by rape.

Maria Sliwa, founder of Freedom Now News (FreeWorldNow.com), lectures on slavery, and is preparing the interviews she conducted while in Sudan for publication.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Behind the Mask
http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=sudan&id=571
GHM gay Middleeast.com

October 27, 2004

2
A Sudanese gay man gives an account of what life is like in Arab Africa where homosexuality is intolerated

I am Arab, Sudanese national and I am writing to you with regard to the homosexuality in Sudan. In Sudan a kiss can cost you your life. First of all to begin with, I must confess I do not have the word expression to express to you the horror and the fear I am going through.

This is my best friend I am grieving about, it's all happened very quickly, I didn't had the chance to say good bye. It was last year when my friend G (I am not saying his name for my own safety) called me he asked me to meet some where. From the way he sounded I can feel he is in trouble, we have met and he told me that his brother saw him kissing another guy, he told me I think he is going to kill me as he is very anti homosexuality.

So I was trying to calm him dawn & I told him don't be ridiculous no body is going to kill you just because of that & if at the time of the incident he did nothing I think he is not going to harm you, I told him to go back home and act as nothing was happened. I wish I said nothing.

Well the next 2 days my friend is been reported missing, I really thought that my friend is hiding some where & I never thought he is gone forever. Sadly the 3ed day he is been found stepped to death near by the river Nile. How sad & furious is that? such loving and caring person didn't deserve to die like that, every body loved him & he had no enemy whatsoever, he is just been condemned to death without no conviction, just like all gays in Sudan. I am going through a severe depression of what happened to my friend, knowing who did this crime I just want people to know about what is going over here, about how human life is so cheap& how intolerant & homophobic people in Muslim countries.

I just wonder is being gay is the only one thing about us? Or is it defines our whole being? Unfortunately for some people the answer is yes. You could be awarded with a Nobel Prize. (You know what I mean!) And for them you'd be just gay. So let me emphasis that our whole being is human being & being gay is only a small part of our being.

Contemporary Review

June, 2004

3
The rape of slave boys in Sudan

by Maria Sliwa
As he began speaking, Majok lowered his small cocoa-coloured eyes and stared intensely at the ground. It was the summer of 2002 and I had just flown thousands of miles deep into the war zone of Sudan to interview former slaves. Majok, then 12, tightly hugged his long, bony legs, as we sat on the parched termite-infested earth. His ragged black shorts and ripped oversized T-shirt hung loosely on his spindly, dust-covered body. A continuous flow of tears poured down his adolescent face, as he spoke of the way he was repeatedly raped and sodomized by gangs of government soldiers. 'They raped me', Majok cried. 'And when I tried to refuse, they beat me'.

After taking care of his master's cattle all day, Majok said he was often raped at night. He told me that his rapes were very painful and he would rarely get a full night's sleep. He also spoke about the other slave boys he saw who suffered the same fate. 'I saw with my eyes other boys get raped', Majok said. 'He [the master] went to collect the other boys and took them to that special place. I saw them get raped'. Yal, another adolescent, had multiple scars on his arms and legs that he said came from the numerous bamboo beatings he received while in captivity. He told me he saw three slaves killed and one whose arm was hacked off at the elbow because he tried to run away. Yal also said he saw other boys raped by his master at his master's house. 'At the time they were raped they were crying the whole day', Yal said. He then told me that he, too, was raped.

Since 1989, Sudan's Muslim extremist government, which is seated in the North, has been waging a declared jihad against ethnic and religious communities that resist Arabization and Islamization. The battle is over land, oil, power and religion, by a government that is made up of some of Africa's most aggressive Arab Islamists, says Jesper Strudsholm, the Africa correspondent for Politiken. Animist and Christian black Africans in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, have paid a price for refusing to submit to the North. Over two million have died as a result of this war, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees. Often trapped in the fray are surviving victims whom the government soldiers capture as slaves. Human rights and local tribal groups estimate the number enslaved ranges from 14,000 to 200,000 people.

Though thousands still remain enslaved in the North, since 2003, the genocide and slave raiding in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains has been suspended because of a ceasefire. Amnesty International, however, reports that the government continues to attack black African Muslims in Darfur, Western Sudan. According to an expert on Sudan, Eric Reeves, more than 1,000 people are dying every week in Darfur because of government attacks, and 'the numbers are sure to rise'. Amnesty also reports that surviving victims have been raped and abducted by government soldiers during these raids. International law recognizes both slavery and rape in the context of armed conflict as 'crimes against humanity'.

As I questioned the former slaves, village leaders, my translators, and many Sudanese immigrants living in the United States, it became apparent that the tribal society in which Majok and the other slaves were born has strict taboos about sex, especially male-to-male sex. I was told that although many villagers are aware that young male slaves are raped while in captivity, it is not discussed because of the cultural prohibitions on all forms of homosexuality including rape. In fact, male-to-male sex is considered such an egregious act in South Sudan that if two males are found guilty of having consensual sex with each other they are killed by a firing squad, according to Aleu Akechak Jok, an appellate court judge for the South.

Jok's description of Southern Sudan's punishment for consensual homosexual sex is not too different from the Muslim Sharia law in Northern Sudan, which imposes a death penalty on those found guilty of homosexuality. Village leaders told me that male rape victims, who are able to escape slavery in the North and return to their villages, often consign themselves to a life filled with guilt and suffering and do this silently and alone.

'This affects their minds badly', Nhial Chan Nhial, a chief of one of the villages in Gogrial County said with anger. 'When they return to us, many of these boys have fits of crying, mental problems, and are unable to marry later on in life'. I worried about Majok and the other boys I had interviewed. These boys were all adolescent and pre-adolescent. Many of them told me that their violent experience of rape was their very first introduction to sex. When captured, Ayiel, 14, said he was forced to watch the gang-rape of his two sisters and says he too was raped numerous times. He described his experience as 'very painful' and said he never saw his sisters again after that incident.

Perhaps the most graphic account of male rape was given by Aleek. 'I watched my master and four Murahaleen [soldiers] violently gang-rape a young Dinka slave boy', Aleek said. 'The boy was screaming and crying a lot. He was bleeding heavily, as he was raped repeatedly. I watched his stomach expand with air with each violent penetration. The boy kept screaming. I was very frightened, and knew I was likely next. Suddenly the boy's screams stopped as he went completely unconscious. My master took him to the hospital. I never saw him again'. Many of the boys told me that in order to avoid rape some of the male slaves tried to escape, but were quickly hunted down by their captors. They said that the punishment for resisting rape is severe beatings, limb amputation or death.

Mohammed, a Bagarra nomad, who has helped to free slaves, broke down in tears as he spoke. 'What they are doing in the North is against the Koran', he explained. 'Allah says that no man should be a slave to another man, but all should be a slave to Allah'.
Mohammed said that as a Muslim he was heartbroken that the extremists have perverted his religion into a political weapon to torture and oppress people. When I arrived in Sudan, Ngong--one in a group of five former female slaves that I interviewed--told me that children were raped while in captivity. 'Yes, I saw with my eyes them raped, boys and girls', Ngong said. Though I knew about the rape of slave girls, I did not know this could also be happening to boys. I decided to investigate this further when two females from the same group said they had seen slave boys taken away at night to the 'special place' for rape.

I interviewed a total of fifteen male slaves, for one to two hours each. Six of the boys interviewed said they were raped and the majority of these six said they were eyewitnesses to other boys being raped. Most of these six boys said they were raped numerous times, by more than one perpetrator. Some of the boys gave the full names and the home towns of the men they said had raped them. Though five in this group of fifteen boys said they were not raped, they did say they were either sexually harassed or were eyewitnesses to other slave boys being raped. Only four of the fifteen boys interviewed said they were not raped or sexually harassed, and were not eyewitnesses to the rape of other boys. All the boys said they were never sexually abused or raped prior to their enslavement. In 2004, the rape of boy slaves is not unique to young Sudanese males, as recently exposed in a 'CNN Presents' documentary 'Easy Prey: Inside the Child Sex Trade'. Sadly, the ugly arm of slavery reaches far beyond Sudan and shockingly touches every continent except Antarctica. One slavery expert, Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FreeTheSlaves.net), says there are approximately 27 million slaves worldwide. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive report on how many male slaves have been traumatized by rape.

Maria Sliwa, founder of Freedom Now News (FreeWorldNow.com), lectures on slavery, and is preparing the interviews she conducted while in Sudan for publication.

From: http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/7242/4277.html?1113012235 (Blog site)

March 16, 2005

4
In Sudan's Nubian and Cushite societies---homosexuality was also an intricate part of the society. In Sudan, there were "homosexual" tribes in Cush and Nubia before the invasion of the White and Arab religions.

Why do people INSIST that Africa was some perfect paradise devoid of human behavior? Why do we always have to "MAGICAL Superhumans" with Christian or Muslim Values?

First of all....Africans are Human Beings, and we existed long before the White Race came into being (which is the final race that emerged 6,000 years ago---Sudan itself is 26,000 years by our count). Anything under the SUN....happened first in Africa to Africans.

" Goat-fucking" and "cow-fucking" were much-practiced in ancient Africa. Just read Nurudin Farah's book "SECRETS". Here in the West, you have these "Afrocentrics" who don't really know Africa---they use their insecurity and their JUDEO CHRISTIAN upbringing in the "Christian Slave World" when discussing customs and life in the ancient "African world". On top of that...you have Africans in Africa who are now "Christian" or "Muslim"----and therefore, can no longer be TRUTHFUL about the history and lifestyles of African people before the White and Arab invasions.

Homosexuality....has ALWAYS been present in Africa, just as sunlight and water have. It's the height of STUPIDITY for these Ultra-Black Nationalists to keep saying that "homosexuality" is some abnormality produced by a WHITE gene. Homosexuality is NOT abnormal. It is a normal part of the atmosphere, the landscape and is present in all living creatures----dolphins, lizards, lions, humans, doves---they ALL have gay members. You also have to remember that you are asking a person who comes from the most "sensuous" area in Africa, the "NILOTIC" valley---Nilotic meaning Black People of the Nile River. These cultures, in ancient times, were the cultures of GODDESS WORSHIP, RAH and ISIS. Homosexuality was an intricate part of the religious ceremonies of RA (the Sun Diety), ISIS and all Nilotic Religions and Societies.

In ancient Egypt---the male Priests of RA were sequestered once a year to engage in sex with each other and to Re-create "RA" (The Sun God) ejaculating the universe into being. Wealthy Egyptian men had "slave boys" 9, 10 and 12 whose faces were "painted like girls" and regularly "sodomized"---and very often, these men would be having a conversation with their wife and sodomize the slave boy at the same time, with the wife looking on and thinking nothing of it. Egyptian Women took baths together and Queens like Nefertiti and Cleopatra had "slave girls". Queen Hatshepsut ruled Egypt dressed as a man and was a known lesbian. Ditto Queen Nok of Nubia.

In Sudan's Nubian and Cushite societies---homosexuality was also an intricate part of the society. In Sudan, there were "homosexual" tribes in Cush and Nubia before the invasion of the White and Arab religions.
____________
I am not "lesbian"---yet, I have been accused of it--because I write positively about gay people and have very close friendships with gay women writers and activists....and I admittely refute these ignorant people in America claiming that Homosexuality was "brought to Africa" by outsiders. Black American women praise Queen Nzingha. But do they realize that she went topless every day and slept with more than ONE THOUSAND men? Do they realize that Nefertiti and Cleopatra and Tiye and Hatsepshut were...PAGANS? Not christians in the least. What you think of as "unnatural behavior" is all part of Human Experience, starting from day ONE. And DAY ONE starts in Africa.

Queer Muslim Revolution
http://queermuslimrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-tell-people-i-have-hiv-so-they-can.html

10 December 2007

5
"I tell people I have HIV so they can know it's real"

Juba (PlusNews) - Angelina Lino, 23, works as a volunteer at People Living with AIDS in Southern Sudan (PLASS), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Juba, the provincial capital. A trained mechanic and driver, she discovered that she was HIV-positive in March 2007 and declared her status in an effort to keep more young people from contracting the virus. She shared her story with IRIN/PlusNews.

"I am the last-born and was only three months old when my parents separated. Mum tilled other people's land to provide for nine siblings and me. It was during the war, and it was very hard for her to put food on the table and pay school fees. I was still in school when I met him. He worked for an international NGO based in Yambio, my hometown [close to Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo]. The neighbourhood children fetched water from a borehole in his compound, so everyone knew him. He was a senior officer [in the Sudan People's Liberation Army] and drove around in this big [Toyota] Land Cruiser. He must have heard about my situation, so he sent people to me asking that I visit him. When I inquired of his intentions they all said he was a good man, willing to help and to pay my school fees.

"For about a month I resisted his advances - I was 15 and uninterested in men - but one evening he dispatched his driver and security guard, I sneaked out, hopped into the Land Cruiser and in minutes was dropped off at his place. He was happy to see me; he excitedly told me many things - that he loved me and wanted to pay my school fees. He took me to his bed saying, 'Do not fear, I will be your father and mother, and will take care of you.' He promised to meet Dad the following day to announce that he is my boyfriend. We had sex. It was my first time and very painful. I did not enjoy it but figured that God had found me a caring man to love and see me through school.

"He kept his word and met my family. I moved in with him. He paid my school fees balance in Yambio and also paid for my secondary school in Arua, northwestern Uganda. He even bought me a plot in Yambio and built me a two-roomed brick house. I was happy. During one of the school holidays, he brought me a gift - a small Toyota Corolla. We were a happy couple and I felt I had all that I needed. The next school holiday I went home [from Arua] to find he had been transferred to Nairobi. He sounded a different man. He said he would continue paying my school fees but would never come back to Yambio. I was devastated.

"2003 was the last time we talked. Later, I tried calling and e-mailing him, but it was in vain. Reality sank in painfully in March this year when I suffered a bout of tuberculosis, fever and malaria. The doctor suggested I take an HIV test. I never felt alarmed - after all, I had only known one man. The news that I was HIV-positive was hard to believe. The doctor at Mulago Hospital [in the Ugandan capital, Kampala] admitted me for a month and put me on antiretrovirals (ARVs) - he said my CD-4 count [which measures the strength of the immune system] was very low. Recently, in Juba, I met my ex-boyfriend's best friend and former workmate at Yambio. He confirmed that my ex-boyfriend had all along known his status and was on ARV treatment. He was previously married, before we met. In fact, he had lost his wife and two children to HIV-related complications.

"I felt cheated and naïve that I had had sex without protection. I was young and knew nothing about condoms or HIV/AIDS. I feel betrayed by the only boyfriend I ever had. He infected me knowingly, and I will never forgive him. My people in South Sudan know very little about HIV/AIDS, its transmission and prevention. Some associate it with witchcraft. That is why I have gone public about my status, telling them 'HIV is real'. I visit hot spots like discos and bars, and talk to vulnerable groups: prostitutes, soldiers, long-distance truckers, the 'senke' boys [motorcycle-taxi operators] and the youth. Some do not believe me and tease, 'A beautiful girl like you cannot be HIV-positive'. Ignorance and stigma are a bitter reality. A brother-in-law of mine refused to shake my hand or share utensils. My stepmother recently threw me out, telling off my dad for wasting money on a "girl who is dying very soon anyway".

"I have dreams. To go back to school, get into medical college and become a doctor. Most importantly, I want to live long.

The Guardian, Nairobi, Kenya
Reuters

February 19, 2008

6
Gay Africans and Arabs come out online

by Andrew Heavens
Khartoum (Reuters) - When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online. But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.blogspot.com. "Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.

Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to execution. "The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response."

In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation. "If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,'" Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers. "I'm Sudanese and Proud Gay Also." His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start of the blog "Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man" that stated: "The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the psyche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented."

News and Abuse
That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails. "Faggot queen," wrote a commentator called 'blake' on Kenya's 'Rants and Raves'. "I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation," referring to the country's post-election violence. Some are more measured: "The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural," a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog. Some of the bloggers use the diary-style format to share the ups and downs of gay life -- the dilemma of whether to come out to friends and relatives, the risks of meeting in known gay bars, or, according to blogger "...and then God created Men!" the joys of the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.

Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing on reports of persecution in their region and beyond. The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq. Kenya's "Rants and Raves" reported that gay people were targets in the country's election violence, while blogger Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots. Afriboy organized an auction of his erotic art to raise funds "to help my community in Kenya". There was also widespread debate on the comments made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about homosexuals in his country.

The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene. "It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.com which posts gay stories, news and reports throughout the world.

" There are a number of people from the community who are blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still quite sporadic," said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on her own Web site Black Looks.

Ways to Meet
The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay blogging activity are starting to emerge. There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east. There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay Nigerians. And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come wholly into the open. "I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ... There is nothing wrong that I am doing," said Matuba Mahlatjie of the blog My Haven.

Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile society. "That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for others until I found others," said Gug, the writer behind the blog GayUganda. "Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our villages and realize that the parish priest's homophobia is not universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!"

(Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sara Ledwith)

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5821096/Boy-refugees-in-Chad-sold-as-child-soldiers

08 June 2008

7
Boy refugees in Chad sold as child soldiers

British human rights organisation Waging Peace says boys from the Darfur region of Sudan are being kidnapped from refugee camps in Chad and sold as child soldiers to fight in Sudan. The victims are usually between 9 and 15 years old. The organisation says they are taken from the camps in broad day light and handed over to rebel groups with the silent approval of the Chad government. The United Nations estimated earlier that between 7,000 and 10,000 child soldiers have been recruited in eastern Chad.