Is the name Bosco defamatory? Or a ugandan political slur.

The Ugandan political scene has seen a number of innuendos and nicknames that seem edgy. A recent one is that of Bosco, which without splitting hairs refers to the head of state. But does it in anyway have any legal implications on any one using it in public address?
When the famed musician turned politician Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a Bobi wine staged his historic concert, one could audibly hear the crowds chanting "tell Bosco".
Could someone be sued under defamation for such political slurs?

the lawyer, the teacher and my neighbour

And behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, "teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
The teacher replied, "what is written in the law? How do you read?"
" You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself", the lawyer replied.
Then the teacher said, "you have answered right; do this and you will live".
But the lawyer trying to justify himself asked again, "and who is my neighbour?"
This question reveals the most important ideal in society and the laws that govern it. Humans tend to feel a responsibility towards people with whom they share a connection which creates a sense of security and order in society.
In legal terms of Negligence the above dialogue provides a solution to issues of duty of care and who has the blame for an act or omission. However the most important thing is to identify the relevance of Christian ideas in solving problems that our positivist world has created.

Everyone is rushing for agriculture in Uganda

Can history help out the development in struggling economies?. As the west reaped from agriculture, advancement in technology brought in yet a new challenge urbanisation and mechanisation. Farming, an activity that was sustainable at an individual and family level could no longer be so because machinery to maintain farming was getting expensive for individuals. Suddenly people had land they couldn't utilise which they gradually sold to move to urban areas. This early trend of capitalism seems to be replicating itself here in Uganda. People are rushing to get the free incomes of agriculture but we need to remember not to be cornered by factors that have already been identified.
Our developing economies need to see to the further future for us to gain and save unnecessary resources.

The issue of Homosexuality in Uganda, a christian philosophic view point.

St Thomas Aquinas notes: “ reason is, in some persons, depraved by passion or by some evil habit of nature”. Aquinas was writing this in connection to Caesar's example of the Germans, who at some time considered robbery as wrong although it is obviously against natural law. So similarly is the act of homosexuality, against nature even if some sects of our populations consider it as not being wrong. However it is unfair for christians to discriminate the homosexuals since the teachings of Jesus emphasised love.

The most fundamental principles of nature are built on fairness and equality.To discriminate means the unjust or prejudicial treatment of people, and this is contrary to equality which is in respect of being equal or having equal treatment of people irrespective of social or cultural differences.

Although often seen as a private matter, sexuality is a valid ground on which concerns of discrimination arise. In definition sex can be given three perspectives, one as a noun implying gender; as a verb implying the activity or function of sex and as an adverb to imply the erotic “sex-appeal”. Sex orientation and homosexuality are the leading causes of sex-driven discrimination not forgetting the gender based discrimination. On the other hand, such issues also have great impact on the society at large. It is quite accurate to state that sexuality is an important factor in the politics of modern society just like it was in ancient ones. Politics in this context refers to the concept of man living together in a society.

Aristotle is a Greek philosopher who is famously known for his statement that, “human beings are by nature political animals”. By this he provided a definition of politics as the natural organisation of human beings into communities. A modern and broader aspect of politics has been provided by Andrew Heywood as “the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live.”  Accordingly issues of sex have been of great impact in the human society one reason why I consider it a political issue to find a solution for the discrimination of homosexuals. Alan storkey in his introduction to the book Jesus and Politics notes that christianity has had political influence throughout much of the world- yet the history of christianity in relation to politics is odd”.  From this need of relevance of  Christianity in day to day issues i seek to persuade the readers with  a Christian perspective on the discrimination of homosexuals in Uganda.

Homo is a Greek root that means “same” and it is from this that the term homosexuality was coined to mean “same sex” relationship. It covers both male (gay) and female (lesbian) homosexuals and bi-sexuals as well. Modern theorists have however categorised the term  homosexuality from the broad concept into two forms namely homosexual orientation and homosexual practice. These two forms distinguish the relations from the practice.

The earliest documentation of the acts can be traced back into some of the greatest human civilisations. In classical Greece, there was a trait of pederasty in their army which was seen as giving an army a strong bond and bravery to fight for one another on the battlefield. In the Judeo-Christian era, sexuality was sacred and divine. The entire civilisation was built on the creation story where God created creatures in opposite sexes. In particular Genesis 1:27 is to the effect that “so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”. This perception in the Hebrew culture portrayed man created in the image of God and hence  sexuality was divine and meant for procreation, nonetheless there were traits of homosexuality in this era documented in the Sodom and Gomorrah. In modern days this has been fused into the Christian perspective or the biblical worldview which will be the main fulcrum of this debate.

Another civilisation is the Roman empire which more or less was similer to the adopted the Christian perspective.

In Africa it is also a similar feature in that some African societies were documented to have had homosexual vices in their precolonial societies. It is alleged that the first ever record on homosexual acts were in ancient Egypt 2400BCE, the two males Khnumhatep and Niankhkhaum are depicted in the nose kissing pose in the buildings. Other examples are given from the Azande in Congo who had a similar form of pederasty where the azande warriors would get themselves “boy wives”.  In Lesotho there were acts called “motsoalle” which involved women engaging in erotic relationships with one another that were prohibited by their community. 

I can say that back in those ancient times homosexuality was in a languid state and crept behind the shadows of history, however, that cannot be said of it today. Advocates of homosexuality have brought it out of the shadows and into the clear light.

As has already been noted, “sex” inspite of being a “quintessential private activity” is engraved with various threads of laws. These laws are for the purpose of preserving the famiily as a principal unit of society; ensuring that children are born in a supportive family: and protecting the society's morals. The first two purposes are related and are important in the society in that  a family unit is the basic unit of the society out of which children are raised and individuals come from. Subsequently the third purpose comes out of those two such that family protects and teaches morals and virtues. Therefore if the family can handle morality, why and where does the state come in?

The hypothesis of this paper therefore centers  on these aspects of whether it is legal and moral to legalise or criminalise the private matters like sexuality and whose role is it? That of  the state, religion or the people themselves? On part of my consciousness as a Christian I also attempt to provied my parallel view of whether for this matter homosexuals can be Christians in the true sense and precepts of Christian Doctrines.

To answer these underlying questions stated above, I start with understanding what law is or ought to be. A general remark about what law is was given by St thomas Aquinas that it is  “a measure or rule of human acts, a measure or rule conceived by reason and promulgated with a view to the common good”. A major reason why Aquinas is classically distinct is that he managed to categorise the law into five parts but whats most exciting about this is that he put eternal law as the source of other laws. As a result laws come from Gods divine providence which is passed down to us through rational reason, it directs us to act in a specific way and not contrary. He compares us with animals and notes that “animals are governed by instinct...and participate unconsciously of the eternal law” hence their animalistic tendencies. 

A second consideration concerns the ethics. From the hypothetical questions mentioned above it is notable that sexuality becomes part of the law because people in a society always want their society to be in  a certain state, and they always have reasons for that status.  Ethics can be understood as a “system of moral principles, a way o deciding what is right and wrong”. The decisions on what is right or wrong comes down to reason, in that, humans consider what is right or wrong according to their reasoning. Unfortunately the reasons of people tend to stubbornly differ as per various traits.

All in all, it is notable that there is an unbreakable relationship between religion and  ethics and  other values. The African Bishop Augustine  of Hippo and his counterpart the Dominican Friar Aquinas used a similar system of portraying religion as the sources of virtue and ethics. Aquinas in particular while answering as to what justice is noted that, “natural right or the naturally just is that which of itself is adequate to and commensurate with another.” O'Donovan quotes that “you speak of something being according to natural right in two ways. The first is because nature itself sets it that way; the second is because nature does not bid the contrary”. From my introductory quote it is possible that the reason of some people can be blocked by some evil nature that affects their morals and ethics such that they make decisions that are not natural.

Uganda saw dramatic events that saw the life of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 cut short by a constitutional ruling that it was passed without quorum and its unconstitutionality. This was in the land mark case of Oloka Onyango & 9 Ors v Attorney General ( constitutional Petition No. 08 of 2004). Although the lack of quorum seems to be the sword that slay the Act, there were other fundamental grounds like homophobia and stigmatisation, contravention of various funadamental constitutional rights finally enabled it to be cut down. This portrays the equality debate in the courts in uganda.

However the debate outside the legal construction, there are factors that spear head this debate, the main one being the aspect of it being a biological nature. It is known that the president before assenting to the Act requested for medical research and after being certain that it wasnot natural went ahead to sign. To explain this I state the traditionally held view and the modern biological findings. 

Originally, human behavouir like sexuality was governed by nature. In the context of Aquinas and Judeo christian traditions sexuality was the by the “plan of divine wisdom” which is the natural thing to do not doing the contrary. It is humanity rational reason that however brings us to the field of biology.  Modern scientists have tried to justify this debate by making deductions that homosexuality is genetic and hence inborn and not an acquired disease. A few sample of researches include the Simon LeVay hypothalamic Structure research and the J. Michael twin comparison. LeVay compared the hypothalamic structure of homosexual men with that of heterosexual men. His findings were that in heterosexual males the tiny node of the hypothalamus was three times wider than homosexual ones. But critics have disputed this on the basis that the size may be an effect of homosexuality and not a cause, a fact which the researcher LeVay himself acknowledged to......