Fighting Western imports: The justification of the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in Africa

Between June 3 and June 6 of 2026, the Ghanaian Parliament hosted the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values in Accra, where representatives and lawmakers from 20 countries gathered to defend traditional values, strengthen national sovereignty, and resist what attendees considered external ideological pressure. In previous years, the meetings took place in Uganda, hosted by the State House and the Parliament of Uganda. The conference is set with the mission of “eliminating all forms of modern colonialism and ideological imposition from the continent.” In the 2025 gathering, Uganda's First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataaha Museveni warned that “too often, aid is not offered freely,” tying it to what she describes as conditions that threaten to redefine African societies according to foreign standards, eroding the region's values and sovereignty. According to the Parliament of Ghana, a major milestone was achieved during the 2026 convention, when the African Charter on the Protection of the Family, Sovereignty, and Religious and Cultural Values was unanimously adopted. Legislators who attended the event are now advocating for the African Union to consider and endorse the document in advance of its February 2027 Assembly. Narrative: ‘Gender ideology’ is a Western imposition that must be stopped Article 1 of the African Charter on the Protection of the Family, Sovereignty, and Religious and Cultural Values sets out definitions of several key legal, social, moral, and political concepts. With regard to “Gender ideology,” the charter provides the following definition: “Gender ideology” refers to a set of beliefs and theories that separate the concept of gender from biological sex, asserting that a person’s gender identity is subjective and self-determined, and can exists on a spectrum and that a person can be male, female, neither, or somewhere in between. Gender ideology blurs distinctions between male and female, positioning gender as a social construct that can be fluid and changed rather than a fixed biological reality. Gender ideology forms the basis of an activist movement to redefine sex, gender and gender roles in ways that undermine African cultural and religious values and the African family itself. Moreover, gender ideology is most often advanced through international and regional policy instruments as well as through sex education or general youth initiatives both in and out of schools without parental or local consent. Gender ideology activists promote laws, regulations, policies, programs, educational curricula, medical services, and social frameworks that normalize multiple gender identities and expressions beyond the male/female distinction traditionally recognized by most African cultures, religions, and legal systems. In the context of children, adherence to gender ideology can lead to gender confusion and harmful medical interventions that can render children infertile for life. Such interventions include the administration of dangerous puberty blockers, toxic cross-sex hormones, breast removal, and genital-mutilating surgeries. In several sections of the charter, foreign influence is identified as a major threat to the preservation of African Religious and Cultural Values. In Article 5, it is even argued that African countries should refrain from endorsing or implementing gender ideology or other externally derived concepts of sexuality and gender rights that are inconsistent with African cultural values, traditions, and Africa’s interpretation of fundamental human rights as established through longstanding treaty commitments in their originally negotiated form. The narrative is also asserted beyond the Charter and the African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values. In an Instagram post, Africa Is Powerful, a handle sharing “viral and relevant trending African news” on several social media platforms, celebrates the recent criminalization of homosexuality in Niger. The caption of the post praises how the “new Nigerien penal code explicitly represses same-sex relationships and ‘unnatural acts’” while claiming it protects “traditional African values and family structures against foreign-imposed ideologies.” The context surrounding the narrative The African Charter on the Protection of the Family, Sovereignty, and Religious and Cultural Values has been severely criticized by human rights advocates. The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) published a detailed report analyzing each article of the charter. It argues that, if adopted in its current form, the charter would mark a regressive shift in African human rights law, potentially weakening established protections under key instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Maputo Protocol, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. At the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values, South African representatives rejected the charter, arguing it was inconsistent with their constitution. Mozambique also abstained, citing logistical challenges for the implementation. The 2026 convention was held a week after Ghana’s Parliament passed what has been described as one of Africa’s most restrictive anti-LGBTQ+ bills. If enacted, the legislation would make identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer punishable by up to three years in prison, and would also criminalize the promotion of LGBTQ+ identities and related activities. The annual African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values, which began in 2023, is reportedly linked to a US-based organization, Family Watch International, led by Sharon Slater, who has been involved in training African politicians on how to campaign against sex education and LGBTQ+ rights. The organization denies any direct ties to the conference and claims that new reports about its work are false. It states that it has never been involved in promoting anti LGBTQ+ regulation. (The copy of the charter referred to in this story comes from the Family Watch official web page.) Family Watch International explains that it has worked in Uganda since the early 2000s on programs like abstinence-based HIV prevention and orphan care, and later focused on opposing what it calls “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSE), which it claims is inappropriate or harmful for children. Henk Jan van Schothorst of Christian Council International in the Netherlands is also said to be one of the big promoters of the conference and creator of the charter. The charter has been discussed and highlighted in international Catholic media, including The Catholic Herald, which presents Africa as an increasingly significant center of global Catholicism, characterized by strong ecclesiastical influence and rapidly growing numbers of faithful and clergy — a very positive aspect according to the author. The article notes that many African bishops are perceived as strongly aligned with traditional teachings on marriage and sexuality, a stance that is often reflected in the region’s reservations toward certain contemporary human rights frameworks. Critics of the claim that queerness is “unAfrican” argue that this perspective stems in part from the enduring effects of colonial trauma, as well as the continued influence of Judeo-Christian belief systems. Aileen Waitaaga Kimuhu, writing for Democracy in Africa, outlines evidence suggesting that, before European colonization, many pre-colonial African societies held more fluid and permissive understandings of sexual expression and gender identity. According to Amnesty International, in 2024, consensual same-sex sexual activity remained illegal in 31 countries in Africa, even though this conflicts with recognized African Union principles and international human rights standards. A 2024 briefing from the organization looking at 12 countries of the region reports an escalation of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and the weaponization of the law. Some organizations report a new wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Africa, with only about 20 that do not currently criminalize same-sex relations. In addition to Niger and Ghana's most recent regulations, a stricter anti-LGBTQ+ law that increases prison sentences was approved by Senegal’s president in early 2026.