Zimbabwe is a nation in southern Africa with more than 16 million people. Its government says it will block a university scholarship for LGBTQ+ students. GALZ, a Zimbabwean gay-rights group, has sponsored the scholarship for LGBTQ+ state university students between the ages of 18 and 35, since 2018. Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, called the scholarship “a direct challenge” to the authority of his government. “Our schools and institutions of higher learning will not entertain applicants, let alone enroll persons associated with such alien, anti-life, un-African and un-Christian values which are being promoted and cultivated by, as well as practiced in decadent societies with whom we share no moral or cultural affinities,” Chiwenga said. GALZ has touted the scholarship as a way of aiding LGBTQ+ people who are often ostracized by their families and have difficulty paying for higher education. Like many other nations in Africa, Zimbabwe has laws banning homosexual activity. Sex between men is a crime that carries a sentence of up to a year in prison, and Zimbabwe’s constitution prohibits gay marriages. Chiwenga said Zimbabwe’s laws against homosexuality make “any scholarship offers predicated on the same aberrations both unlawful and criminal, and a grave and gross affront on our national values and ethos as a Christian nation.” He said Zimbabwe’s government “will not hesitate to take appropriate measures to enforce national laws” against homosexuality, and that Zimbabwe’s young students “should never be tempted to trade or sell their souls for such abominable and devilish offers.” Zimbabwe has a history of hostility to gay people. Former President Robert Mugabe, who was in power for 37 years, once described gays as “worse than dogs and pigs.”
