Niger becomes latest African nation to criminalize sodomy

(LifeSiteNews) — In a ratification of long-standing regional norms, Niger’s military-based government enacted a new penal code explicitly criminalizing “LGBTQIA+ acts” that took effect on June 11.

The law imposes five to 10 years in prison plus fines for anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) acts,” according to the statute quoted by the Associated Press.

It further stipulates that this “same penalty is applicable to persons who officiated the (homosexual) marriage, to the witnesses of the alleged spouses, as well as to persons who have given their consent for the celebration of the marriage and to the organizers.”

With its fellow West African nation of Senegal having legislated a similar measure in March, Niger joins the majority of African nations — roughly 31 of 54 — that maintain laws against same-sex acts due largely to broadly accepted moral and religious convictions.

Niger, an overwhelmingly Muslim landlocked nation with a Christian population of 1%-2%, is bordered by Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Chad.

Last September, lawmakers in Burkina Faso also recriminalized homosexual acts and Ghana approved a bill last month criminalizing the promotion of LGBTQ activity.

Africa continues to resist ‘degenerate’ LGBTQ+ imperialism from the west

These developments echo years of African resistance to Western promotion of the LGBTQ+ agenda, as often addressed by Catholic bishops in the region. For example, in a 2015 statement, the Nigerian bishops warned that “endorsing homosexual unions or ‘same-sex marriage’ will be devastating and detrimental to our nation of Nigeria, as it will lead to the inevitable deconstruction of the family and the society at large.”

They described Western efforts as “the persistent and continuous propagation and globalization of the homosexual lifestyle and the effort to redefine marriage which is a distorted view of human sexuality, coming especially from the Western world.”

The bishops urged legislators, media, educators, and parents to protect traditional marriage as “the sacred union of one man and one woman.”

In 2014, responding to Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama congratulated the government for refusing “to bow to international pressure in the promotion of unethical and immoral practices of same sex union and other related vices.”

“We commend you for this courageous and wise decision and pray that God will continue to bless, guide and protect you and your administration against the conspiracy of the developed world to make our country and continent, the dumping ground for the promotion of all immoral practices, that have continued to debase the purpose of God for man in the area of creation and morality, in their own countries,” he added.

In 2023, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, who leads the Christian-majority nation, advised that “Africa should provide the lead to save the world from this (LGBT) degeneration and decadence which is really very dangerous for humanity.”

“If people of (the) opposite sex stop appreciating one another, then how will the human race be propagated?”

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