THE BEST OF MOYO AFLAME 2011: Let Me See If I Am Able to List Here All the Elements That Coalesced in the Troy Davis Nightmare

This piece first appeared on Moyo Aflame on September 24, 2011

1.   Racism/White Privilege: The entire criminal justice system in its core construction in America is racist even though specific individuals and perhaps some specific offices or elements may not be. Still, they are all operating under the umbrella of a very clearly racist system. Racism and White Privilege/White Supremacy are always in tandem in America.

2.   Classism: Wealthy Americans typically don't get executed in America. That is by design not by coincidence.

3.   The Conan the Barbarian Syndrome/The Entire Inhumane and Barbaric Capital Punishment Industry in America: Self explanatory.
4.   The Prison Industrial Complex in America: Self explanatory
5.   The Controversial and often Misinterpreted/Misunderstood Religious Concept of "An Eye for An Eye" as Applied in American Jurist Prudence, Social and Pop Cultural settings: Go here for further elucidation.

6.   The Bloodthirsty and Revenge Elements of American Culture: The ones that are distinct from those found in #s 1,3,4 and 5.

7.   "Up The Ladder to the Roof"/The Proscecutorial Food Chain Syndrome: A city or state prosecutor's ability to climb up the proscecutorial job promotion food chain is directly equal to his/her ability to simultaneously and with equal vigor, climb down the human compassion one.

8.   Georgia on my Mind: It has been proven that the more lynchings a U.S, state engaged in during the time period when such were common, the more likely such a state is to have a high number of executions, particularly of men of African descent. Georgia has a very significant lynching history.

9.   White Cop/Black Defendant: This is a subset of yet still distinct enough from #1 to merit its own category.

10. The Current and Scandalous SCOTUS (Supreme Court of The United States): Self explanatory.
11. Politics As Usual: President Obama, among others, is complicit with this one.
12. Money, Money, Money Moneeey: In America money plays a role in everything.
13. Ronald Reagan: Doesn't everything bad that has happened in America in the last 30 years somehow find its root in the reign of "The Gipper?"

The Long Road Home Leads to Forgiveness and Reconciliation

I am 100% against capital punishment. I have been for a very long time. I want to share here some of my story around this fundamental point of activism in my life.

I am a man of African descent. I grew up in an environment that included certain advantages that were not always afforded the typical black family of that time and age. I was born in 1960. My maternal grandfather had been a university professor from my first awareness of him as a distinct, individual person. He and my grandmother had met while they were both students at Fisk University, one of the most prestigious of the historically black colleges and universities in America. I grew up in a house with my maternal grandparents, my mother, who also had a college education, and my sister who was 22 months my senior. It was a good upbringing and environment. It was not perfect. It was not idyllic. I was never aware of any financial struggles. Although I imagine there were some.  We ate extremely well, even by today's standards. We took vacations every summer. Still, I believed my family was somewhat crazy until I entered college and met other students and heard the stories of their upbringings and their families. From that point forward I have viewed my family as more or less perfect.

For much of that time growing up, dinnertime at our house was a time where we all came together and talked openly, as a family, about all manner of things. It was my introduction to Socratic discourse. It prepared me for college in ways that far surpassed the preparation many of my peers had received. During one of those dinners when I was probably around ten, my grandfather brought up the subject of capital punishment. He introduced the subject by simultaneously expressing his support for it. Everyone else at the table, in one form or another, agreed with my grandfather. This topic was obviously done with and we were about to move on to the next when I proudly announced that I was not in favor of capital punishment. What I want to interject here is the fact that my grandfather remains, to this day, 22 years after his passing, the most positively influential person in my entire life and the person I view as the most important person in my life, hands down. So at age ten for me to challenge the person I most looked up to in the world, was a huge thing. It was not that my grandfather was some tyrant of a man who ruled his family with an iron fist and expected everyone in the family to bow to his will. Not at all. It was simply that my grandfather was such a brilliant man who, in my eyes, was the only person who made our family and to a lesser degree, the world, work for me. So this was huge.

I remember my grandfather looking at me with surprise. He then asked me what to this day I know was what he considered to be the ultimate rebuttal to my statement about not supporting capital punishment. I remember it as if it happened yesterday. My grandfather asked me, "What if someone came into this house right now, while we all are sitting here enjoying our dinner and shot and killed one or all of your family for no reason at all? Wouldn't you want to see that person die?" "No," I said, I wouldn't." That wouldn't bring any of you back to life." Everyone was stunned by my response and their faces reflected it. There was a silence that descended on the room due to everyone suddenly realizing there was a person sitting among them whom they had never seen before and had no idea where he had come from. I went on to eloquently state several more reasons why I didn't support capital punishment. The principles of forgiveness and reconciliation being among them. I had no idea where these thoughts were coming from. I had never expressed them before. I have never wavered in all these years.

At age sixteen I officially became a conscientious objector and a vegetarian (for the first time). At age eighteen (1978) I attended my first peace march. At age 36 I started facilitating a support group for people who had a loved one who was a victim of violent homicide. At age 42 I attended my first meditation sit in opposition to the execution that was about to take place inside the prison building I sat zazen outside of (San Quentin State Prison in Marin County in The San Francisco Bay Area). I have been to many others since. At age 51 I have been impacted by the execution of an American citizen of African descent named Troy Anthony Davis in ways that very much surprises me given the fact I have been doing this for so long. I have been revitalized in my efforts to abolish the death penalty in this country as a result of the Troy Anthony Davis case. My 10 year old self would be very proud of me.

Our Global LGBT History (Blog Series): Spotlight on Ahmet Yildiz

Ahmet Yildiz 1982 -2008

Ahmet Yildiz was an openly gay Turkish national and citizen living in Istanbul, Turkey at the time of his murder. He was murdered in 2008. He was 26 years old at the time of his death. There is considerable mystery, insinuation and uncertainty around the exact circumstances surrounding his death. What is known is that he was shot several times, fled from his assailant or assailants, was somehow able to get into his vehicle and drive a short distance before crashing his vehicle and subsequently dying a short time later at the hospital.

The prevailing theory is that Ahmet was a victim of what is called “honor killing.” An honor killing is one member of a biological family killing another member of the family or social group because of a belief that the victim has brought dishonor to the family or community. Traditionally, the vast majority of victims of honor killings have been girls and young women. In recent times however, they have extended to men as well.

Ahmets openly gay life made him the target of death threats which he received at least more than a couple of times. Despite this and the enormous pressure he faced to conceal his sexuality, he had the courage to stand his ground and remained open about it until his death.

It was apparently very well known that Ahmet's family, particularly his father, were very disturbed by his sexuality and especially his determination to be open about it. He had been vigorously pressured by his family to undergo psychotherapy designed to “correct” his sexuality though he consistently resisted such pressure. After his murder no one from his family came to claim his body. This is often true of victims of honor killing. His boyfriend who fled the country shortly after his murder was not allowed to claim his body. Ahmet's father reportedly fled to Iran after his son's murder. It is unknown if he has ever returned to Turkey.

LGBT people throughout the world, including The United States, continue to be at risk for similar fates as that suffered by Ahmet Yildiz. No one culture or country holds a monopoly on such actions. The exact technique and degree may differ from case to case. However, the end result is often the same.

May All Beings Be Free

Our Global LGBT History (Blog Series): Spotlight on David Kato

David "Kato" Kisule

February 13, 1964 – January 26, 2011

David Kato Kisule (February 13, 1964 – January 26, 2011) was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT activist. He is considered the father of Uganda's gay rights movement. He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Kato was murdered in January of 2011, shortly after winning a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine (a Ugandan weekly tabloid magazine not to be confused with the music magazine published in the USA) which had published his name and photograph identifying him as gay and calling for him to be executed.

Born to the Kisule clan in its ancestral village of Nakawala, Namataba Town Council, Mukono District, he received the name "Kato" because he was the younger of a pair of twins. He came out to his family members, namely his older twin brother John Malumba Wasswa, before he left to teach in Johannesburg, South Africa during its transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy, becoming influenced by the end of the apartheid-era ban on sodomy and the growth of LGBT rights there. Coming back to Uganda in 1998, he decided to come out in public through a press conference. He was promptly arrested and held in police custody for a week due to this action.

St. Herman Nkoni Boys Primary School was founded in 2002 in the Roman Catholic diocese of Masaka. Kato soon joined the faculty. He also became highly involved with the underground LGBT Rights Movement in Uganda, eventually becoming one of the founding members of SMUG in March of 2004.

According to a series of confidential cables later released by WikiLeaks, Kato spoke during a November 2009 United Nations-funded consultative conference on human rights. During the conference, Kato spoke on the issue of LGBT rights and the anti-LGBT atmosphere in Uganda, but members of the Uganda Human Rights Comission "openly joked and snickered" during the speech, and a rumor circulated that David Bahati MP, the leading proponent of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, had ordered the Inspector General of Police to arrest Kato, causing Kato and other attending members of SMUG to leave the conference immediately after he finished the speech. Bahati then made a "tirade against homosexuality" to the conference, resulting in massive applause and Martin Ssempa, an Evangelical Christian cleric, pounding his fist on the table in agreement.

By 2010, he had quit his job as a school teacher in order to focus on his work with SMUG in light of the events surrounding the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Kato was among the 100 people whose names and photographs were published in October 2010 by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone in an article which called for their execution as homosexuals. Kato and two other SMUG members who were also listed in the article — Kasha Jacqueline and Julian Patience "Pepe" Onziema — sued the newspaper to force it to stop publishing the names and pictures of people it believed to be gay or lesbian. The photos were published under a headline of "Hang them” and were accompanied by the individuals' addresses. The petition was granted on November 2, 2010, effectively ruling for the end of Rolling Stone. The High Court Justice ruled that Rolling Stone's publication of the lists, and the accompanying incitation to violence, threatened Kato's and the others' "fundamental rights and freedoms;" attacked their right to human dignity; and violated their constitutional right to privacy.The court ordered the newspaper to pay Kato and the other two plaintiffs 1.5 million Ugandan shillings each.

On January 26, 2011, while talking on the phone with SMUG member Julian Pepe Onziema, Kato was assaulted in his home in Bukusa, Mukono Town by at least one unknown male assailant who hit him twice in the head with a hammer before fleeing on foot; Kato later died en route to the hospital. Several of Kato's colleagues reported that Kato had spoken of an increase in threats and harassment since the court victory, and they believe that his sexual orientation and his activism were the motive for the murder. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both called for an in-depth and impartial investigation into the case, and for protection for gay activists. James Nsaba Buturo, the Ugandan Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity, is on record as having declared that "Homosexuals can forget about human rights".

Kato's funeral was held on January 28, 2011, in Nakawala. Present at the funeral were family, friends and co-activists, many of whom wore t-shirts bearing his photo in front and having rainbow flag colors inscribed onto the sleeves. However, the Christian preacher at the funeral preached against the gays and lesbians present, making comparisons to Sodom and Gomorrah, before the activists ran to the pulpit and grabbed the microphone from him, forcing him to retreat from the pulpit to Kato's father's house. An unidentified female activist angrily exclaimed "Who are you to judge others?" and villagers sided with the preacher as scuffles broke out during the proceedings. Villagers refused to bury Kato at his burial place; the task was then undertaken by his friends and co-workers, most of whom were gay. In place of the preacher who left the scene after the fighting, excommunicated Anglican Church of Uganda bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo officiated Kato's burial in the presence of friends and cameras.

The murder was decried by Human Rights Watch with senior Africa researcher Maria Burnett adding that "David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community." Amnesty International stated that it was "appalled by the shocking murder of David Kato," and called for a "credible and impartial investigation into his murder."Both also asked the Ugandan government to protect other gay rights activists.

President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department, and the European Union also condemned the murder and urged Uganda authorities to investigate the crime and to speak out against homophobia and transphobia. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the murder," Obama said. "David showed tremendous courage in speaking out against hate. He was a powerful advocate for fairness and freedom."

Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke on behalf of the Anglican Communion, "Such violence [as the death of David Kato] has been consistently condemned by the Anglican Communion worldwide. This event also makes it all the more urgent for the British Government to secure the safety of LGBT asylum seekers in the UK. This is a moment to take very serious stock and to address those attitudes of mind which endanger the lives of men and women belonging to sexual minorities."

For his newspaper's alleged role in the murder, Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame stated "When we called for hanging of gay people, we meant ... after they have gone through the legal process ... I did not call for them to be killed in cold blood like he was." However, he stated, "I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong."

In the Spring of 2011, Boston's American Repertory Theater and System of a Downs Serj Tankian dedicated their production of Prometheus Bound to Kato and seven other activists, stating in program notes that "by singing the story of Prometheus, the God who defied the tyrant Zeus by giving the human race both fire and art, this production hopes to give a voice to those currently being silenced or endangered by modern-day oppressors".

Additional Reading:

• Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill
• LGBT rights in Uganda

(NOTE: Information for this post was obtained from Wikipedia and other sources.)