African Charter

(on family, sovereignty, and values)

I am tempted to ignore the (Draft) African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values that was supposedly assembled after deliberations by an inter-parliamentary group of African politicians from at least 25 different countries. The draft I have seen is from 2025, following a series of annual meetings in Uganda. Earlier this year, clips circulated from a 2026 meeting in Ghana; they were especially resonant as Ghana recently enacted the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act, 2025.¹ As my sources for those clips were mainly queer and trans people, the clips highlighted speakers condemning queer and trans people. Given those clips and the historical way in which family values has been weaponized against feminist, queer, and trans people, I had imagined that the Charter would more be more aggressive against the alphabet mafia. In the document, the word “homosexual” appears once; the word “transgender” once; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and intersex not at all.²

This document as it is not conceptually or intellectually interesting. It bores me. There is little in it that I have not seen addressed in feminist and queer activism and scholarship. With few exceptions, the language is shopworn, a simplified mess of banal statements about protecting children and safeguarding the African family against harmful foreign influences.

However, we know that harmful policies and laws come wrapped in cliché; engaging them may provides little intellectual pleasure to those of us trying to imagine otherwise, but we cannot simply ignore harmful material because it bores us.

I am also tempted to dismiss this Charter as African states routinely sign a bunch of documents—treaties, charters—and then completely ignore them. However, recent legislation in Africa that intensifies punishment for queer practices within existing legislation (Senegal) and creates new categories of crime (Uganda, Ghana) by claiming to advocate for children and families should give us pause. In Kenya, proposed legislation that shifts rhetorically from being against queer and trans life and practices to being for family—the shift from the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Bill to the 2023 Family Protection Bill—positions queer and trans people and practices as ongoing threats—were I a political scientist, I’d say existential threats—to constitutional order. In an important way, anti-trans and anti-queer legislation is positioned as a foundational pillar in national, regional, and continental alliances.

*

What will we do if African children are taught that consent is important, grooming is part of sexual abuse, adults should not be raping children, and you can get pregnant even if you have sex kneeling down? What will we do if African children learn to recognize that some adults—and some of their peers—are sexual predators? What will we do if African children assert their rights to knowledge about their bodies and desires and pleasures and safety? Oh, no! The African family cannot survive such children! We must keep the children ignorant so that adults can continue to harm them!

*

I will leave extended summary and analysis of the Charter to ambitious students, though I’ll note that the Charter needs sustained attention from feminist, queer, trans, and pro-children activists and intellectuals, including educators across all sectors of education (primary school to university) and health workers. For this abbreviated engagement, I simply want to note a few elements of the Charter. It’s obnoxious to use numbers, but they help me organize my thinking. I’ll put my (snarky) commentary in footnotes.

1. Common Sense

The Charter appeals to and constructs common sense as its major strategy to gather people across different belief practices, political ideologies, social structures, and cultural aesthetics. As part of this common-sense strategy, the document has no verifiable sources, no bibliography. Three moments in the Preamble capture this construction:

We, the Governments and Heads of State of the African Union³

ACKNOWLEDGE the extensive consultations with African Union stakeholders⁴ that have taken place across the continent and the various relevant bodies⁵ that have inspired and contributed to the creation of this historic⁶ “African Charter on the Protection of the Family, Sovereignty, and Religious and Cultural Values”;

WELCOME the consideration and adoption of this Charter by the Organization of African First Ladies for Development,⁷ African Ministers of Family,⁸ Ministers of Education, Ministers of Health, Ministers of Foreign Affairs,⁹ as well as the contributions by parents, youth, civil society organizations, and religious, tribal and community leaders;¹⁰

SHARE¹¹ a determination¹² to preserve,¹³ protect, and strengthen¹⁴ the African family, which forms the foundation¹⁵ of African society to shape individuals, uphold our cherished African religious and cultural values and transmit them to future generations,¹⁶ create the human capital¹⁷ that drives development, and defend the sovereignty of our African States;

Let me simply point out that African states are established by their constitutions and pan-African relation is, at this historical moment, guided by a bunch of (barely followed) treaties and policies negotiated (I guess) by African states. Much as we might cling to notions of pan-Africanism as a shared aspiration to freedom—well, it is for some of us—we are, more properly, African through a bunch of legal instruments.¹⁸

2. ENEMIES ABOUND

We are at a historical moment in which regionalisms, nationalisms, and ethnonationalisms, all grounded in heteronormative eugenics, have come to define border regimes and belonging. The “foreigner” and “migrant,” terms sometimes used interchangeably, are positioned as threats to patriarchal male entitlement—“they are stealing our women”—and the economic and cultural security of the patriarchal home—“they are taking our jobs.” Across multiple geohistories, national and regional attachment and belonging are increasingly defined in terms of erecting and defending borders against dangerous outsiders.¹⁹ Danger lurks out there. Yet, danger is not simply about dangerous people; it is also about dangerous ideas.

From the Charter:

DEEPLY CONCERNED²⁰ that African family values and cultural norms are under threat²¹ from foreign ideologies,²² conditionalities,²³ and policy agendas imposed through international aid, trade, and legal instruments that erode²⁴ African sovereignty and social cohesion;²⁵

ALARMED²⁶ by the infiltration²⁷ of ambiguous²⁸ and ideologically loaded,²⁹ evolving concepts³⁰ such as “sexual and reproductive health” (SRH) and “sexual and reproductive health and rights” (SRHR) that are being distorted and mainstreamed into African and international frameworks to promote abortion on demand,³¹ radical gender ideology,³² sexuality education,³³ and controversial medical practices³⁴ inconsistent with African constitutions,³⁵ moral principles, and legal systems;

CONDEMN the spread³⁶ of so-called³⁷ “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSE) programs—often presented as “comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and education”—that sexualize African children,³⁸ undermine their innocence,³⁹ alienate them from their cultural and religious roots and identities⁴⁰ in ways that violate parental rights⁴¹ guaranteed in international human-rights instruments including the CRC, ICCPR, ICESCR, and UDHR;

3. A Few Thoughts

I could continue to go through this entire document, word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, but that would not be a good use of my time, and would definitely be a waste of brainpower. So, here are five—or seven—things.

1. Documents like this rely on broad statements anchored in desire and fantasy, with little grounding in history and scholarship: in Kenyanese, these documents work from “ni mimi nakushow.” Activists and academics tend to respond to such groundless work by producing bibliographies and generating new scholarship, providing evidence that exposes the false claims and dangerous imaginations at play. But we know that those who want to believe in and act on documents such as this Charter will never engage the bibliographies produced as counterarguments. They do not have to. Whatever strategies are generated to counter this Charter have to contend with the fact that the terrain is not balanced and does not pretend to be. As Ashis Nandy writes, we counter myth with myth, fantasy with fantasy, desire with desire, speculative worldbuilding with speculative worldbuilding. We must act on the correct terrains.⁴²

2. Because of 1, I have not mentioned work by African sociologists, anthropologists, historians, economists, philosophers, cultural theorists, psychologists, feminists, and legal scholars that demonstrates the claims in this Charter are factually wrong and politically dangerous. That labour is not required. It’s not the terrain of this document.

3. Given that this document ostensibly comes from an African inter-parliamentary process that has taken place over many years, we should consider that parliaments do not simply produce laws and policies; they produce stories and fantasies about how life should be lived. Parliamentary procedures generate speculative futures: “If we pass this law or this policy then we anticipate this outcome.” If we understand parliamentary processes as imaginative, then we can develop strategies that, similarly, work with speculative narrative. By claiming that parliamentary processes are speculative and imaginative, I do not mean that they have no material consequences. I simply mean that we must discard the idea that the law is a rational process devoid of narrative and speculative elements. We must work with its imaginative and material elements if we are to engage and counter it.

4. Anything that refers to Africans as “human capital” is embedded within slavery logics. It must be countered vigorously. Energetically. Continuously. It is anti-African. It is anti-human.

5. To speak of “the African family” is already to speak beyond the claims of ethnic group, racial group, nation, region, and territory. It is to invoke an assemblage of difference, a working toward freedom, a refusal to accept truncated relation, a demand for expansive imaginations, a celebration of erotic potentials, an ongoing story of making relations across difference, an adventure in worldmaking, a resistance to the violence of borders, a transformation of Africa through the demands and pleasures of mutual obligation, a living out of freedom dreams.

6. We can use the terms of this document to write within and against it.

7. If you’ve reached this far—and gone through most of the footnotes—congratulations! Reward yourself.

1. The bill on the Ghana parliamentary website opens with a long preamble—even rant—against lgbtiq+ activism in Ghana, and explicitly positions the bill as a weapon—prophylactic, perhaps—against such activism. If we are to understand how the African Charter on Family Values operates, it needs to be read alongside anti-queer, anti-feminist, pro-family legislation from Uganda and Ghana.

2. Within Kenyan law, intersex is broadly understood as a bio-medical condition instead of a political category, so it is also generally absent from condemnation, and has, in fact, moved into Kenyan social and legal categories: you can now have intersex listed on birth certificates, death certificates, national id cards, and passports. There’s much more to be said about the legal status of intersex and how it is distinguished from the rest of the alphabet mafia, even though such distinctions operate in legal frames as opposed to lived practice.

3. It’s in BOLD, so you know it’s important!

4. None of whom are named. I, too, have consulted stakeholders in assembling this footnote.

5. None of whom are named.

6. This document is NOT frivolous! It is HISTORIC! Why, the brave people who assembled it are doing HISTORICAL WORK! Profound Work! One day, this document will go down as one of the greatest works in history. Alongside the Bible, Shakespeare’s Poetry, and Chocolate Chip Recipes on Toll House Chocolate Chip boxes!

7. We must never forget that First Ladies are also First Mothers, and we are all their honorary children! We must never forget that in Africa, we are all citizen-children! Or resident-children! Or simply children. And here I thought paternalism was a colonial technology designed to diminish African capacity. It turns out that paternalism is a governing strategy that we have adopted! We love our First Lady Mothers!

8. Do these people minister to families? What kind of ministry do they provide? Is any of it what Durand calls heated fellowship? Jonassi, is that you?

9. As Kenya has Cabinet Secretaries instead of Ministers, I guess we are excluded! No Cabinet Secretary Left Behind!

10. Note again, that no real names are given. It’s an open invitation! Everyone can join in this HISTORIC Charter! I, too, have consulted religious leaders, traditional elders, talking goats, singing chickens, dancing antelopes, prophesying spinach, and visionary grasses to construct this footnote.

11. Sharing is good!

12. How is determination shared? Does one slice it with a paring knife or a bread knife? Does it split into segments like an orange or does it come in clusters like grapes? Is it like an avocado that is split in half or made into guacamole? What does determination taste like? And what if people don’t want to share? African politicians are not known for sharing.

13. By salting, drying, pickling, smoking, brining? We are Africans and do not use fridges! We must use traditional African methods of preservation!

14. Steroids All Around! Use herbs guaranteed to “Ongeza Nguvu Kwa Wanaume”!

15. Families are Foundations! Amazing! One might hear the corporate whispers of “foundation” here. We note, of course, that families are foundations for African societies, so the scale is not that of the nation-state, though that will be invoked later on. We might ask what Africa is being imagined and constructed. (Yes, I know it reads that the family is the foundation, not a foundation, but if they are going to distort shit, I, too, can distort shit.)

16. One wonders what constitutions and policies and educational and cultural institutions are supposed to be doing. Getting pedicures? Watching paint dry? Masturbating by swampy mangroves?

17. Straight from the logics and practices of slavery. Is the task of Africans to reproduce humans who are understood as capital? We reject slavery!

18. Also because of white supremacy. The Africa produced through white supremacy is not the only one and, perhaps not even the most important one, but it is a significant Africa in economic and cultural terms. There are many Africas.

19. I very much like how the designation “fortress Europe” makes explicit how violent anti-migrant sentiment and practice is used to create and defend Europe.

20. Is it concern if it is not DEEP? How deep? Does depth matter? Is it as deep as the last thought an African dictator had?

21. THE ALIENS ARE HERE!

22. Like capitalism, right? Right?

23. African feminist and queer individuals and organizations in Africa pointed out the problem of tying aid conditionality to activism. For instance, read Hakima Abbas.

24. Moi would tell us to build gabions! Congratulations if you are still reading these footnotes! You get a gabion, and you get a gabion, and you get a gabion, and everyone gets a gabion!

25. We are socially cohesive! How thrilling! Did they use superglue to stick us together? Or wet elephant dung? Or pincers from soldier ants?

26. YOU CAN RING MY BELL! RING MY BELL!

27. INFILTRATION! THERE ARE ENEMIES AMONG US! ARE THERE ALIENS DONNING HUMAN SKIN? WERE THEY PART OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY DISCUSSIONS? IS THIS DOCUMENT PRODUCED BY ALIEN INFILTRATORS WHO WANT TO EAT AFRICAN CHILDREN?

28. Let us all read William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity!

29. Ideology is the cum load of parliaments?

30. We must DISTRUST evolving concepts! Concepts must remain unevolving! Like humans, concepts must not evolve! Evolution is the enemy!

31. I cannot be snarky about this distortion that refuses the very simple idea that girls, women, non-binary people, trans men, and gender-expansive people should have he right to make decisions about their bodies.

32. I bet most of the African parliamentarians who attended these sessions have no clue what “radical gender ideology” is, and only know gender as a term that is linked to receiving donor money. This phrasing lets us know that this document was drafted by U.S. and UK hands.

33. If African children are not kept ignorant about their bodies and intimate practices, how will they continue to produce disposable human capital? We are firmly within the logics of slavery here. Firmly.

34. What are these practices? Notice how the absence of specific details invites us to fill in the blanks.

35. Notice the double play on constitutions here: as legal instruments and as “the structure, composition, physical makeup, or nature of something” (that’s Merriam-Webster). Africa is being imagined as a single body with a knowable constitution. It is a deeply racist framing.

36. Are they spreading like syphilis? First brought to Africa by white men? Colonizers and their sexual diseases.

37. What is this “so-called” doing? The thing is called CSE. Here’s what WHO says: “Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a curriculum‑based, incremental and scientifically-accurate approach that teaches children and young people about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality in a culturally-relevant and age-appropriate way. It helps children and young people understand their bodies, develop healthy relationships, build life skills, make informed and responsible decisions, and protect their health and well-being.”

38. At a historical moment when African children are being married off to adult men (as a cultural practice); raped, mutilated, and murdered in staggering numbers; used as lures across Africa’s tourist sector, in which child sex tourism is the dirty little secret; and paraded across social media to satisfy pedophile fantasies, it’s very rich to read that education is what “sexualizes” African children.

39. The children used for sex tourism are innocent? The children who live in slums and are subject to all kinds of physical and material violations are innocent? The children who have been shot at and teargassed by African governments are innocent? Who needs this fantasy of innocent children?

40. Do you know what alienates African children “from their cultural and religious roots?” Capitalism.

41. Another clue that this document was drafted by USians. The rhetoric of parental rights is all over U.S. anti-trans legislation.

42. The belief that fact-checking impedes fantasy and arrests the lies people act on has been proven to be incorrect. We need to understand the entangled economies of desire, imagination, fact, fiction, myth, and fantasy, so that effective strategies can be created. I find the fact-checking economy incredibly frustrating. You do not counter myth with fact. That’s misrecognizing the terrain.