Humanist organizations are branding African countries as being backward, acutely superstitious and uncivilized because of their reluctance to legalize homosexuality and abortion. Some Western countries are even contemplating on whether to decrease the assistance they give to African countries that still hold abortion and homosexuality illegal. To many African societies and governments, this is not a page for debate. Such acts only arouse anger and bitter words both from the educated town dweller and unlearned peasant deep inside the forested villages. Africa is truly cultural and religious, a fact that hasn’t gone well with the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), an organization which is especially not sluggish at mentioning how atheistic it is. The main basis of claims and hostility is difference in belief that each group boasts. Whereas IHEU believes they are ambassadors of civilization and human rights not bound by religious dogma, the African people believe they are not going to accept something they deem backward and inhuman to be forced down their throats as a form of civilization. Leo Igwe, the IHEU representative in West Africa and a strong critique of African culture argues that superstitions and witch craft determine the actions of Africans and that’s why Africa is homophobic and sturdily against abortion. This belief held by Igwe and the IHEU is on the prevalent degree misleading. The United States for one, a society that one could argue is less superstitious has over ten states which haven’t legalized homosexuality yet. Does this mean that those American states are uncivilized and backward? Certainly not. Most of the world is facing the same impasse where by issues of culture and morality are put in the spot light, religious norms and faiths are discarded as disingenuous whereas Capitalist countries are determined by their rate of acceptability of gay and abortion rights. Regardless of the arguments either faction puts forward, none of them is eager to compromise their stand. What is more distasteful to Africans is that a foreign organization such as IHEU provides a platform to its members to ridicule African culture and faiths without any kind of remorse and respect. If however Africa is truly uncivilized, the blame should be squarely put on science and research which up to date, hasn’t yet proved that homosexuality is more biologically than environmentally caused. The issues of whether homosexuality is of Western or African origin should not be of much substance in this theme. The only argument should be whether the practice is normal or anomalous. Is it a learned behavior or is it a natural behavior gifted to newly born babies? For as long as scientists don’t avail this quantity of proof, critiques of African civilization should rest their case. This is because most of Africa still believes that homosexuality is learned through an obstinate or perverse upbringing and not through a normal biological genetics (which is a fact scientifically). Therefore, if a breakthrough scientific research comes up with a wholesome evidence proving otherwise, Africa will have no alternative but to poignant towards lawful homosexuality. Whereas Africans cannot ingest the greed in legal abortion, most of the developed world has already moved on. Abortion rights are at the peak in Europe whereby, a fetus can be removed at any stage as long as the mother wills. In other words, just like using condoms, abortion has been implemented as another efficient contraceptive tool in these countries. Without clemency to the babies’ rights, Amnesty International has already embossed its stand on this controversial subject by agitating for legal abortion all over the world. A news release from the Alan Guttmacher Institute shows that, in developed countries (where average desired family size is small), of the 28 million pregnancies occurring every year, an estimated 49% are unplanned, and 36% end in abortion. In developing countries (where average desired family size is still relatively large), of the 182 million pregnancies occurring every year, an estimated 36% are unplanned, and 20% end in abortion. A study by the same institute shows that over 80% of the reasons given for abortion are social economic whereas less than 20% of the reasons concern the physical and mental health of the mother. Therefore, most women will perform an abortion simply because they don’t want the baby, but not because it has any consequence on their health. These statistics verify that legal abortion is not a civilization concern as some Human Right’s organization may wish to make believe. As a matter of fact, abortion can be argued as a barbaric act approved by wealthy but cultureless societies. Since civilization is an upbeat product of the democracy that the developed governments preach day after day, I suggest that the matter of abortion and homosexuality be determined by the same forces. So far, democracy confirms that most Africans are against the idea of legal abortion and homosexuality. If it turns out that these practices are legalized against the wishes of the masses, it will turn into a case of the minority overruling the majority, a sign of backwardness and not civilization. Email: mugishaivan@yahoo.com
