It’s an unlikely headline, admittedly, but imagine for a moment what would happen were it ever to come true. In less time than you could say “Verwoerd”, sanctions would be back in place and the country would be isolated. Neither the Springboks nor any of the Protea teams would be able to leave our shores, and we’d definitely be cast out, once again, from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIFA, the Commonwealth Games and so on. Suspension from the United Nations, IMF and World Bank would follow predictably quickly.
Rightly so. Apartheid was deemed a crime against humanity and we hope that most of us – South Africans and others – have learnt a hard lesson well. The world has moved – at least in theory – beyond racism to a far more tolerant set of attitudes. FIFA, in particular, is driving a very forceful campaign to ensure racism’s last remaining vestiges are stamped out in soccer.
All of which is why I am completely baffled by the silence of so many of sport’s controlling bodies at the reinstatement of anti-gay legislation by Nigeria. Uganda has also recently passed similar anti-gay laws. In Africa’s most populous nation, within hours of President Goodluck Jonathan signing the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, hundreds of Nigerian gays were rounded up by police and some – according to a number of independent reports – were tortured. The Act provides for penalties of up to 14 years in jail for a gay marriage and up to 10 years for membership, or encouragement, of gay clubs, societies and organisations.
Once again, imagine the global reaction if some deviant form of a new ‘New South Africa’ passed legislation imposing 14-year jail terms for black people not carrying a ‘dompas’, and then launched a series of mass arrests, rounding people up under the new law.
A report in Britain’s Guardian newspaper quotes President Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, as saying the new law “is in line with the people’s cultural and religious inclination. So it is a law that is a reflection of the beliefs and orientation of Nigerian people…Nigerians are pleased.”
So that’s OK, then? No – of course not. Think back to a time not so long ago when apartheid was very much “in line” with the “cultural and religious inclination” of a majority of white South Africans. The rest of the world told these people to change and cast them into outer darkness until they had done so. (German “cultural and religious inclinations” also led to the extermination of some 6 million Jews, gypsies, socialists and – let’s not forget – gays.)
Why is it different for Nigeria and Uganda? Why, for that matter, is it different for Russia, which is about to host the Winter Olympics? Russia has a notorious record of anti-gay discrimination.
There’s also a double-twist to all of this. It’s emerging in the shape of a very tiny handful of top-class soccer players who are coming out and openly admitting to being gay. Former Germany and Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger is one, ex-Leeds winger Robbie Rogers, now playing for the LA Galaxy, is another. That number will increase and it’s not too fanciful to imagine a time when a gay soccer star is picked to play for his country. What would happen when that team had to travel to Nigeria or Uganda, or face them at a World Cup? Would President Jonathan tell the visitors that they could come, provided they left the gay player at home? That, of course, was the infamous South African tactic when dealing with the selection of Maori players for the New Zealand All Blacks between 1928 and 1960.
I simply cannot see the difference between discrimination based on race or skin colour on the one hand, and sexual orientation on the other. The penalties for countries that practice either should be identical. Kick Nigeria and Uganda out of FIFA and the Olympics until they change their ways – just like South Africa.