Technology has the power to enrich our lives and stretch the borders of our analogue world, but it also brings potential challenges, especially in repressive contexts. Our presence in digital spaces can come with significant risks to our safety and security, and those consequences may frequently and unexpectedly extend offline.
In Uganda, the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) has escalated threats to the LGBTI community, fuelling both online and offline violence. To address these increasing threats, Ugandan attorney and civil liberties activist Patience Muwanguzi launched the project "Empowering Uganda's LGBTI Community: Knowledge and Safety in the Face of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023". This initiative, supported by APC's Feminist #TechJoy! grants, explores how technology can be harnessed to protect and empower local LGBTI communities under restrictive laws.
As a human rights activist working on equality and non-discrimination, as well as a staff attorney at Ugandan civil liberties organisation Chapter Four, Patience engages in litigation, security training and rapid response, always looking for ways to support and empower local communities. Over the course of two days in February 2024, Patience brought together a moderator and 10 participants from local LGBTI communities for an intensive training programme on the legal implications of the current laws for LGBTI populations, and how to be prepared in case of arrest and detention, all grounded in a solid understanding of their legal rights. An important component of the agenda involved learning to prevent threats and physical and digital security training, teaching participants how to protect their communications and digital activity from surveillance in this tense atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023
The implementation of the AHA has had a profound and devastating impact on Uganda’s LGBTI communities. “There have been a high number of arrests, violence and mob justice,” Patience noted when asked how the law has affected people. “People’s organisations have been closed, people stopped working – especially LGBTI-based organisations. We have several cases of families disowning their children and landlords evicting people.”
These repercussions have been catastrophic for people’s personal and professional lives, and the disturbing decline of civil liberties is unsurprisingly reflected in an increase in mental health issues across the country. “Freedom of association was affected greatly. Activism work went down – it cannot be done in an environment that is not safe,” Patience explained. “Our work as activists is affected because of Section 11 of the AHA that talks about promotion [of homosexuality]. Any form of training is seen as promotion, including the one I did. So even lawyers and organisations are affected by this very strict law.”
Staying safe in an unsafe environment
With deep insight into the potential risks of bringing together individuals for a training session, Patience carefully went about designing a programme and inviting select participants from the LGBTI community who engage with organisations and activist groups for the advancement of human rights and inclusion. Elaborate considerations and strict security measures were taken for everybody’s safety. “I was extremely careful,” Patience recounted. “I did not send out invitations via email, I contacted people on an individual basis. I organised the meeting in a hotel where I have a connection – I know the person and that I am safe with them. I also made sure we got a very safe room whereby the people outside cannot hear what we are talking about, and that my training was within a very short period of time: strictly two days and we are done. The more you prolong it, the more suspicion you create.”
The added caution and planning extended to participants as well, Patience explained: “I did not print out any document to give out to people. I checked the room and made sure we didn’t leave any papers behind and that no one was taking pictures of us.”
Detailed logistical planning in this challenging atmosphere was important for safety, but it also necessitated a degree of restriction that participants had to navigate. No detail could be underestimated: “I talked to my participants about the dress code, about conduct in public. It was demeaning for them, it was oppressive, but I told them that this is the environment that we now have to deal with. We are in a very oppressive legal environment where we have to suppress who we are just to keep safe, and they understood it,” Patience said.
Finding support and community in challenging times
Structured around a twofold programme of knowledge building on the first day, and building resilience and support on the second, the training covered topics like digital safety and security, personal safety, threat modelling, advocacy strategies for challenging discriminatory practices and legislation, and understanding the AHA and the Computer Misuse Act, yet another strict law that people have to navigate.
Patience explained that although the discussions were not written down for safety reasons, participants were able to work through the material by acting out various threat scenarios, thereby embodying the stories. “It was beautiful – people learned and shared so many impressions,” Patience recounted. “People knew that the law was there but little did they know about the contents of the law. I kept on telling them, you need to know the enemy very well so that you know what to do and what to avoid.”
Along with deepening understanding of the laws and learning practical digital security skills, a central component of the training included protocols in case of arrest and detention. “The thing that they loved the most was the fact that we went through the rights of a suspect, like if you have been arrested, what do you do? And we acted it out to make it more fun and easy to learn,” Patience described. “Now they know what to do in case they are arrested: I don’t have to talk, I don’t have to fight, this is what I do, these are my rights.”
Alongside active learning, the time spent together also triggered some profound and poignant moments as participants shared painful experiences and expressed solidarity. Some described struggling with mental health issues since the enactment of the AHA. “People are stressed and sad. We have cases of trans men who were sexually violated. We have one participant, a trans woman, who was taken to a shrine for conversion therapy. I gave her the privacy to speak what she wanted and I told her, ‘If you’re comfortable sharing this story, please do, but if you’re not, don’t.’”
As a facilitator, holding this space clearly extended beyond technical training and exposed the very real effects of human rights violations. At the same time, it allowed participants to express solidarity and feel collective empowerment. “We had sessions where we were not even speaking,” Patience recalled. “We just kept quiet and people were crying, and I gave them the time to feel their pain, to maybe see a way forward and to comfort one another.”
Staying empowered through knowledge sharing
“I wish I had a way of putting in the report that this was the most fulfilling and most exciting thing I have done in all my life in activism and advocacy,” Patience reflected about the overall experience of the training. “This workshop was heartwarming for me. It gave us a space of sharing our personal experiences, which was beautiful. It gave us time to learn from each other and to hear our stories and our personal experiences on what we have gone through.”
As with most processes, laws are constantly evolving and the need to understand these complex and sometimes nuanced changes is an ongoing challenge. Looking ahead, Patience sees the necessity of continuing to do trainings with marginalised communities to ensure that they understand their rights, and have options for secure communication in a hostile environment. In particular, remote areas that have lower literacy and less access to the most current information on the laws are in urgent need of facilitators who can work with them directly to help them understand their options, and to circulate the information locally. “Many people don’t know the current legal environment they are dealing with,” Patience said. “There is a need to sensitise people, to give them that information.”
To that end, Patience is continuing her work with Chapter Four, and is also interested in partnering further with APC in future trainings in order to address the knowledge gaps within local communities. “Thanks to APC, the TechJoy! grant has done such a great job with these individuals,” she said. “They may not know exactly where the money’s coming from but there’s a great impact that APC is doing in Uganda. People need this kind of help. The money does something because now we know that there are at least 10 individuals who have the information.”
This piece is a version of the information provided by Patience Muwanguzi as part of the project "Empowering Uganda's LGBTI Community: Knowledge and Safety in the Face of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023", adapted for the Seeding Change column. This column presents the experiences of APC members and partners who were recipients of funding through APC's subgranting programmes, supported by Sida, and of subgrants offered through other APC projects.
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Cover image: Photo by Bruno Aguirre on Unsplash