Activists Speak about Homosexuality, Art in Uganda

Activists emphasized the power of art in their efforts to advance gay rights in Uganda as the American Repertory Theater and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy kicked off The A.R.T. of Human Rights at their first public event at the Oberon Tuesday.

The series is hosted by Timothy P. McCarthy ’93, director of the Carr Center’s Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program and a member of Harvard’s faculty. During Tuesday’s event, “Bearing Witness to Uganda: God, Gays, and Human Rights,” he talked with four artists and activists who are working on issues that involve human rights in Uganda—Matt Gould, Griffin Matthews, John “Long Jones” Wambere, and Malika Zouhali-Worrall.

The conversation centered around the intersection of art and activism and how the four panelists have used those tools to spark larger discussions about Uganda.

“We focus on Uganda in terms of this terrible story of persecution, but it is actually one of the shining lights...for LGBTI activism on the continent,” Zouhali-Worrall said.

Zouhali-Worrall is the producer and co-director of “Call Me Kuchu,” a documentary that takes a look at Uganda’s BGLTQ activist community and follows the story of their fight against anti-homosexuality laws that have been brought to the Ugandan parliament. The film also tells the story of David Kato, a Ugandan BGLTQ activist who was killed in 2011, during the time that Zouhali-Worrall was working on the documentary. Zouhali-Worrall showed a clip from "Call Me Kuchu" that introduced Kato as she had known him.

Another Ugandan gay rights activist featured in "Call Me Kuchu," Wambere, spoke at the event on Tuesday night about his experience as an activist from the inside. Living in Kampala, Wambere gained notoriety as a gay man and was outed by newspapers in the city, which has become common practice in Uganda.

Wambere was invited to the United States to raise awareness of homosexual persecution, and during his trip, the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Law was signed by the president of Uganda. Wambere is now living in the Boston area and seeking asylum in the U.S. with the help of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.

The evening also featured a performance of selected songs from “Witness Uganda,” a musical created by Matthews and Gould about Matthews’s journey of discovering himself, Uganda, and the students he came to work with in his nonprofit, Uganda Project.

“[Musical theater] lends itself well to taking individual moments and exploding them into mind bending, loud, in your face, emotional songs,” Gould said. “I think that the art form of musical theater really lends itself to this topic that so need to be cried and screamed about.”

The A.R.T. of Human Rights, which is a yearlong program, has another dimension besides the public events like seminars and discussions. According to the series planners, they also seek to cultivate deep connections with local schools and organizations like GLAD and Lowell High School, where McCarthy, Matthews, and Gould spent the day with over 200 students on Tuesday discussing the same topics that were covered in the public event.

“This is a series meant to catalyze not only discussion and debate, but also action and advocacy,” McCarthy said.

—Staff writer Emma C. Cobb can be reached at emma.cobb@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @emmaccobb.