Africa is a colonial construct and the liberation of Africans must address the colonial roots of the African liberation narrative.
Before the colonial invasion, the African continent was home to an array of diverse kingdoms, empires and communities with distinct identities and histories. The idea of a single “African” identity did not exist. And it was partly imposed by colonisers to facilitate their rule.
Despite colonial interference, Africa is still home to an array of diverse communities with distinct identities and histories.
However, deconstructing the myth of Africa is not as simple as denying a monolithic Africa, though clichés like “Africa is not a country” can be helpful shortcuts. Colonial damage, like historical personal trauma, was permanent and irreversible. It has become an inextricable part of our identity, and the only way forward is forward. The only way over it is through it.
In the first week of 2025, Ghana’s outgoing president, Nana Akufo-Addo, announced visa-free travel for all African passport holders. He then left office while only a pen stroke away from enacting a bill that imposed a three-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of being LGBTQ+. The bill is likely to be reintroduced. Visa-free entry into Ghana for all Africans, except queer Africans.
This Ghanaian dilemma is the reason, as we claim our African identity in the quest for the true liberation of African minds and bodies, that we must also recognise that this claim is highly contested. There are many groups also claiming the legitimate fight for “African culture” and “African values”.
Ironically, the colonial hand behind these claims of monochrome African values is neither disguised nor disputed. Almost all formal groups that claim to fight for African values and identity against “Western ideology” are organised through the ultimate colonial sanitiser: Christianity. I remember in my history class how the history books emphasised that the arrival of Europeans in Africa was not unified, and that those who “colonised” Africa were not the same people who came to “evangelise” Africa, or simply “settle” in Africa.
The European Christian missionaries had no political or economic interests in Africa, they said. They were only interested in the salvation of African (sorry, savage African) souls, they said. Yet, today, some of the most vocal defenders of African values just happen to organise around their Christian identity. Among the most recent of these groups is the Africa Christian Professionals Forum (ACPF).
Self-described as “a membership organisation that brings together Christian Professionals from national chapters in different countries in Africa”, the Kenya-based ACPF cannot help but reveal their core agenda when they state in the same breath that they “are committed to promoting and protecting Family Values”.
The rise of the “family values” narrative is easily traced back to 1980s America, and was a reaction to the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, including the feminist and civil rights movements. Conservative groups sought to promote traditional – read conservative Christian – gender roles and family structures.
The concept of family values became a powerful political tool, used by conservative American politicians to connect with voters who felt uneasy about the increasing freedoms for women and gender minorities in society. The narrative was often used to advocate for policies supporting traditional – read conservative Christian tradition – marriage and opposing welfare programmes perceived as undermining families. This story often linked “family breakdown” to rising crime rates and moral decay, creating a sense of fear and urgency around the perceived decline of “traditional” families.
It is therefore telling that the very existence of ACPF, which includes their framing and tactics, is based on a colonial construct of Africa as a Christian project, and the conservative Christian ideals about sex and gender roles. These are the people “on the frontlines” of “defending African values”. Africa was once the “dark continent” because it had not been exposed to the light of white Jesus. Now Africa is a “dark continent” because it is exposed to the light of white liberals. We cannot have the narrative both ways.
Read more: Ghana’s brazen move to outlaw LGBTQI groups is the latest attack on freedom of association in Africa
Read more: Growing number of anti-gay laws highlight Africa’s steady human rights regression
A few months from now, on 13 and 14 May, the ACPF is organising its second “Pan-African Conference on Family Values” with the goal of “promoting and protecting the sanctity of life, family values, religious freedom, values-based education, and good governance”. The event will be hosted in the heart of one of the most Catholic institutions in Kenya, Strathmore University, a corporate apostolic undertaking of Opus Dei. Read more about Opus Dei, this insidious “church within a church”.
This is nothing but a fresh-faced promotion of the old colonial constructs that lumped Africans together and pitted us against each other. This is why news of Ghana announcing visa-free access for all Africans is not necessarily good news, because it is not good news for all Africans; it is tainted by the fact that the same government is on the brink of enacting a law that will make it criminal for queer Africans to exist in that country, Ghanaian citizenship or not.
Our defence of African lives must expose and rid itself of these colonial trappings or we have lost the battle even before we have figured out our weapons. By defending attacks veiled as “African Values” using strategies that elevate dehumanising African ideologies, we are playing by the enemy’s rules – and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
We must be defenders of African people before we are defenders of African ideas or ideals. The people are the ends, not the means. Until we all become full citizens. DM