A gay couple, Twonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, were found guilty of unnatural acts and gross indecency last Tuesday. It was the result of the couple holding and engagement ceremony. The magistrate stated that the couple will be sentenced on Thursday. In Uganda, a law was recently proposed where homosexuals are to be executed. Just last month, President Bingu wa Mutharika was quoted calling homosexuality as “evil and bad before the eyes of God” and an act “we Malawians just do not do.” The magistrate, Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa, referred to the crime as “bluggery,” and found both men guilty of “carnal knowledge” which was “against the order of nature”. He stated that the two men had been “living together as husband and wife,” which “transgresses the Malawian recognized standards of propriety.” Each of them could face 14 years in prison.
Malawi is a nation that sees homosexuality as nonexistent of something that must be suppressed. Chimbalanga and Monjeza were brought out through the back door to escape from a mocking crowd that celebrated the couple’s conviction. The couple had been in jail since December 28, 2009, two days after their engagement party at a lodge where Chimbalanga worked as a cook and housekeeper. The chief prosecutor, Dickens Mwambazi, said “In Malawi, we don’t allow men to marry men or women to marry women. I think 90 percent of the crowd here agrees with the ruling.” Dunker Kamba, the administrator for a group that provides counseling about AIDS, said “As much as I expected a guilty verdict, I still hoped for a miracle.”
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