An agent for National Education was fired after a controversy over a white bac topic on homosexuality. Last year students from the Academy of Rufisque, near Dakar, worked last week on a text by the American author Armistead Maupin, himself an LGBT rights activist. The choice of this topic has caused controversy in a country where homosexuality is oppressed. Homosexual rights activists are concerned about an increase in homophobia.
as reported from Dakar, Charlotte idrac
He had offered an “apology”. In a video, the agent of the Rufisque Regional Teacher Training Center explained that he had transferred the subject “by mistake”.
In this letter-form text, the narrator Michael reveals his homosexuality to his mother. Among the questions in the English test offered to future high school students: “Are you for or against the social exclusion of homosexuals in Senegal?” “
The case sparked an uproar. Religious leaders, trade unions, parents of students condemned an “attempt to promote homosexuality in schools”. The evidence has been withdrawn. The Ministry of Education therefore took sanctions and recalled: “the programs (…) remain closely supported by our values and beliefs”.
A controversy that comes after a mobilization on May 23 to demand “criminalization” of homosexuality in Senegal, where the law provides for penalties of up to 5 years in prison for “indecent or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex”.
In this context, the collective defense of homosexual rights known as “Free Senegal” condemns “hate” speech and an increase in attacks on LGBT people. “Democratic locks have been blown” is the outraged movement, which laments the silence of civil society organizations.
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