A young man in his early 40’s has disappeared from Kasoa, a town in the Central region of Ghana, His disappearance remains mystery as the residents fear of a mob killing him, hide his dead remains.
Yusif is a tailor, Muslim and the community suspects him to be a bisexual by nature but unfortunately the community does not accept such character. Unfortunely for him, Ghana’s law, Quran and even the Africa traditional belief does not protect him
Quran: The Quran mentions sex between men several times, almost all of them in the context of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which some city inhabitants demand sexual access to the messengers sent by God to the prophet Lot (or Lut). The Quranic story is almost the same as the version in the Bible. Later explanations of the Quran agreed that the “abomination” alluded to by the Quranic passages was attempted sodomy (specifically anal intercourse) between men. The sins of the people of Lut later became proverbial and the Arabic words for the act of anal sex between men such as “liwat” and for a person who performs such acts “Luti”; both derive from the name Lut, although Lut was not the one demanding sex.
Constitution of Ghana: Section 104 (b) of the Ghanaian Criminal Code of 1960, criminalizes “unnatural carnal knowledge” (with consent and between adults), as a misdemeanor. Section 104 defines “unnatural carnal knowledge” as “sexual intercourse with a person in an unnatural manner or with an animal”. Due to the definition contained in Section 99 of the code, which stipulates “penetration”, an “unnatural manner” is taken to refer to sex acts between men–not between women–and oral and anal sex between people of different sexes. Misdemeanors carry a penalty of up to three years imprisonment under Article 296 of the Criminal Procedural Code.
By the early 21st century, these 1960 provisions were rarely enforced. However, while the law may not lead to prosecutions before local courts, persecution of LGBT+ people is nevertheless widespread and common.
The, Quran, Ghanaian Constitution and even Africa traditional belief has no room for people they believe to be practicing same sex activity.
As a tailor he was introduced to many characters of human, he was fairly attracted to the LGBTQ+ community hence he had many a lot of clients from that community which Ghanaians does not welcome. Among the numerous clients, he was close to one particular man, who people usually sees them in an uncompromising postures and positions hence the community begun to suspected of dating.
In a Muslim community, when the youth suspect you with such, you better run or disappear to save yourself. On the sad day the youth traced and followed Yusif and his partner as they were in a room in his partner’s house, funnily the house was a compound house hence they did not know the particular room the suspect was residing in, they search other rooms while chanting the names of yusif and partners “where are you evil gay men, today is your day, come out……..bla bla bla”.
Miraculously, they were able to disappear without a trace. Some residents believed the mob group has secretly killed the two and hide their dead bodies. The mob has sent several warning to the two not return to Kasoa because death awaits them. Yusif’s tailoring shop was burnt to hashes.
Marhaba FM …..Accra
