Too often, we find ourselves embodying and regurgitating the same platitudes which were craftily constructed to either control or subjugate the socio-cultural identity of a group, community and/or entire country. We become so engulfed by these platitudes that they become our normal lens and prism through which we view the world and live in. Moreso, it becomes a lens which obstructs, even simultaneously defying the course of justice and the promise for equality.
For context, in the recent months since the re-ignition of the abortion law reform debate and the submission of a report from the Law Reform and Development Commission (LRDC) to abolish the sodomy law, extremist religious groups have organised themselves, (ignorantly so), to demonstrate and express their complete rejection of reforming both laws, maintaining in their argument that Namibia is ‘a Christian nation’, and the many other platitutides which repress and even dishonestly misrepresent the common and collective voices of LGTBQIA+ families and allies, as well as pro-choice supporters who themselves embrace their religious values.
Just recently, the Coalition of Churches and Organisations on Ethical Social Justice were quoted saying, ‘...they love the LGBTQI+ community, but their sexual ethics do not represent the values of a Christian nation,’ and in that same breath, the chairperson of Ethical Social Justice rejected the reform on abortion laws by stating, ‘there are no international instruments recognising abortion as a woman’s right, and women’s rights should be exercised in line with existing laws,’ once again predicating it on the so-called ‘Christian’ values of Namibia.
In order to rationalise the colonial amnesia which the Coalition of Churches and its supporters so unashamedly embrace, let’s contextualise for ourselves, yet again, how these laws came about: The Abortion and Sterilisation Act No.2 of 1975 is an archaic law, which was inherited 46 years ago by the then apartheid South African administration. The Act of 1975 allows abortion under very strict conditions. The sodomy law, according to the LRDC report, is ‘...the criminalisation of sodomy found in the common law of Namibia which was inherited from South Africa.’ It further states, ‘When Namibia became a mandated territory of South Africa in 1920, South Africa applied its legislative power over Namibia to impose a legal framework that included the Roman-Dutch common law brought to the Cape of Good Hope by Dutch settlers in the 1600s. This Roman-Dutch law introduced a prohibition on sodomy – which, after the British annexation of the Cape of Good Hope, was interpreted in accordance with the concepts underlying the colonial British penal code which was modified and implemented across British colonies in Africa, including South Africa.
Drawing from the above, it is crystal-clear from where these specific laws emanate. Yet, religious groups like the Council of Churches and the Coalition of Churches choose to use bigotry to overlook the history, underlying context and long-standing social, political and economic harm of these laws, all in the name of maintaining an outdated, unsubstantiated and clearly desperate argument that Namibia is ‘A Christian Nation’, notwithstanding the fact that these are colonial laws and values, which religious groups weaponised in the past and currently use to oppress and subjugate women and sexual, gender and sex minorities.
More than that, Article 21 ( c) of the Namibian Constitution states that all persons shall have the right to freedom to practice any religion, and to manifest such a practice. Also, an international religious freedom report compiled in 2018 further confirms that, ‘...the constitution specifies the country is a secular state, prohibits religious discrimination and provides for freedom of thought, conscience and belief, as well as the right to enjoy, practice, profess, maintain and promote any religion.’
Yet, despite what our constitution provides, the Coalition of Churches uses religious dogma, hate speech and inflammatory language to restrict the rights of more than half of our electorate in Namibia (women), and a minority community whose human status and dignity has been affected severely by harmful religious tropes. The ‘sexual ethics’ of the LGBTQIA+ community need not represent the values of ‘a Christian nation’ because Namibia is a secular state. More so, the church seems to be more concerned with the private lives of the LGBTQIA+ community than the paedophilia, sexual molestation and abuse which runs rampant in their own institutions. So, if we do not reflect the ‘sexual ethics of ‘a Christian nation’, then perhaps the church does not, itself, practice nor embody these same values they expect from a minority community. In addition, if women’s rights are left to be exercised in line with existing laws, then that exposes the colonial amnesia of the Church to deliberately overlook international instruments guiding our constitution such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (among others), and to honestly acknowledge the origins of these cruel laws.
It is not so much that Namibia is vastly and legitimately ‘A Christian Nation’; it is that Christians in Namibia (and beyond) believe that their religion is the only legitimate branch of religion, and therefore employ narcissistic exhibitionism to obscure the freedom of expression of all religious groups, including their civil rights, and in doing so, re-enforce the narrative to be the largest practising faith in Namibia and globally. This once again confirms the colonial amnesia syndrome, which itself begs its own question on the advent of religion in African states in the first place.
Namibia is not ‘A Christian Nation’ because the Coalition of Churches, the Council of Churches and the Ethical Social Justice committee purports it to be; Namibia is a secular State which provides freedom of religious expression in which all religions, including Christians, may exercise their religious freedom.