Zambia Pardons Two Gays After Ousting US Envoy
American diplomat who blasted 15-year sentence nixed months ago, been silent since
BY MATT TRACY
Zambia’s president has
pardoned two gay men
whose arrests and 15-
year sentences on anti-
LGBTQ sodomy charges triggered
diplomatic friction and culminated
in the rare ousting of an American
ambassador.
Japhet Chataba and Steven
Samba, the victims, were among
3,000 individuals pardoned by
President Edgar Chagwa Lungu
on Africa Freedom Day May 25
approximately six months after a
High Court in the nation’s capital
of Lusaka slapped the pair with
the decade-plus-long sentences
on charges of having sex “against
the order of nature.” The pair were
staying at a hotel when a worker
claimed she looked through a window
and saw them having sex.
It is not clear whether the president’s
decision to pardon the couple
was related to international
pressure or if they were merely
two individuals out of thousands
who were freed in a mass pardon.
Nonetheless, the pair’s incarceration
was the subject of international
attention and diplomatic friction
between Zambia and the United
States.
Daniel Lewis Foote, who was
then the US ambassador to
➤ POLICE VIOLENCE, from p.10
Most cops not wearing masks. I’ll
be donating $500 to a bail fund to
help others today.”
Hours later, Cummings expanded
on their experience, saying it
was “horrible” and “scary” but that
they were able to get home.
“How many innocent Black people
have encountered police and
don’t make it home?,” Cummings
asked. “Stop killing Black people.
Stand up against police brutality.
Stand up a gainst systemic racism.
Protest.”
Walker, a longtime activist, told
Gay City News he left the event before
the curfew, but he expressed
confi dence in the way the movement
Zambian President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has released two gay men from prison months after he
booted the US ambassador to Zambia in a diplomatic spat that centered on LGBTQ rights and international
aid.
Zambia,voiced his displeasure
with the 15-year sentence, saying
he was “personally horrifi ed.”
Those comments drew criticism in
Zambia, an overwhelmingly Christian
nation where it is not uncommon
for folks to express homophobic
sentiments, and the nation’s
government was angered by what
it felt was an example of an American
diplomat meddling in Zambian
affairs.
Although the controversy boiled
over with Foote’s comments, the
quarrel also became seeped in
has progressed in recent
days as activists have shown their
dedication to standing up against
racial injustice and transphobia.
“These marches now have taken
a right of their own,” Walker
said. “It’s beautiful, it’s powerful.
People are sorta taking control of
the streets.”
Later, Walker, speaking on a
video message streamed on the
Reclaim Pride Coalition’s Facebook
page, read a brief message
from Cummings, who demanded
that the NYPD be defunded and
stressed that “now more than ever,
we must invoke the message of
Marsha and Sylvia and fi ght. We
must stand up for our Black communities
and fi ght for their lives.
REUTERS/ ROGAN WARD
themes of colonialism. On one
hand, the anti-LGBTQ laws at the
core of the controversy originated
under British colonial rule, and on
the other hand the issue revived
simmering controversies about
whether Western nations should
condition international aid on a
given set of rules that must be followed
by those who are receiving
the money.
As the dispute spilled out into
the public, Foote used the opportunity
to blurt out his longstanding
frustrations over his lack of
If you stand by in silence, you are
complicit in the murders of Black
people at the hands of police.”
Stories of police abuse targeting
queer folks have also come from
other demonstrations in the city.
Evan Catlett, who joined a June
1 protest near Barclays Center in
Brooklyn and marched across the
Manhattan Bridge through SoHo
and into NoHo.
He said he was peacefully demonstrating
across from the Strand
Bookstore near East 12th Street
and Broadway at around 10 p.m.
when police offi cers lined up
across the street and charged at
him and others standing on the
sidewalk.
“They barricaded us from going
INTERNATIONAL
access to President Lungu. Foote
bemoaned that he was only able to
secure fi ve meetings with Lungu
during a two-year span when the
US pumped $500 million in aid
into Zambia.
“Both the American taxpayers,
and Zambian citizens, deserve a
privileged, two-way partnership,
not a one-way donation that works
out to $200 million per meeting
with the Head of State,” Foote said
in a written statement in December
of last year.
Soon enough, Zambia demanded
that Foote leave the country,
prompting the State Department
to pull him from his post in late
December.
Following the release of Chataba
and Samba, however, the leader of
the opposition party has called on
Lungu to apologize to Foote. In an
interview with Hot FM in Zambia,
Sean Tembo, the president of the
Patriots for Economic Progress,
said Lungu victimized and humiliated
Foote and is left with no other
option than to apologize to the former
US ambassador, according to
the Lusaka Times.
Foote has remained quiet during
the time following his departure
from Zambia and it is not clear
whether he is working in a different
capacity with the State Department.
any further, and there were some
offi cers who came around the
corner and cut us off,” Catlett,
who is gay, recalled in an interview
with Gay City News. “A cop in
front of me who was eight inches
taller than me just grabbed both
ends of his baton and hit me in
the head with it. It was enough to
knock me to the ground, and then
he started shoving everyone so it
was like a pile of people who had
to get off each other.”
Catlett said he later contacted
the New York City Anti-Violence
Project’s hotline, reported the incident,
and spoke with a counselor
there.
“I never witnessed anything like
this in my life,” Catlett said.
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