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Once a ‘democratic beacon’ in West Africa, Senegal makes a homophobic leap into the past
Senegal, once considered the “democratic beacon” of West Africa and the first signatory to the International Criminal Court, is now using the state apparatus to legally persecute its own citizens, adopting a rhetoric of identity-based isolationism similar to that of authoritarian regimes.
Below, a community activist speaks out following the recent passage a new law that enhances and expands criminal penalties against gay sex and advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Senegal.
Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye (left) with former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko in 2024. Ousmane was sacked as Prime Minister days before this article was published. (@lifemag.ci on Instagram)
By Rodolphe(pseudonym)An artist and intellectual from Central Africa
The long-standing criminalization of homosexuality
The situation of LGBTQIA+ people in Senegal is, in the opinion of human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, extremely worrying and marked by systemic violence.
Homosexuality is not explicitly mentioned as such in the Senegalese Penal Code, but it is repressed through the concept of “unnatural acts.” Since 1966, this provision has punished indecent or unnatural acts with a person of the same sex with a sentence of 1 to 5 years imprisonment.
This leap into the past is important because it shatters the false image of an open and tolerant Senegalese society. That has never been the case, least of all on this issue. Senegal is not Norway.
The Situation Worsens
Sixty years later, the legal framework has been considerably toughened: Senegalese MPs adopted Bill No. 05/2026 on March 11, 2026, and the law was officially promulgated at the end of March 2026.
Images of homophobic MPs exulting in joy upon the bill’s adoption shocked the public and continue to sicken those concerned about human rights. Penalties for acts against nature (now explicitly defined as same-sex relations) have increased from 5 to 10 years in prison.
Furthermore, the law also criminalizes the “apology,” support, or financing of homosexuality. The text thus eliminates the previous vague formulation of “indecent acts” to focus strictly on the definition of same-sex relations.
Senegal is a deeply religious country (approximately 95% Muslim and 5% Christian). Powerful Sufi brotherhoods (Mourides, Tijaniyya, etc.) structure social and political life. For them, as for the local Catholic Church, homosexuality is perceived as an absolute sin and a transgression of divine law.
Senegalese society places crucial importance on the traditional patriarchal family and reproduction. In this context, homosexuality is often seen as a direct threat to the continuity of the lineage and ancestral values.
Many Senegalese perceive the promotion of LGBTQIA+ rights by Western countries and international NGOs as a form of neocolonialism. The prevailing idea is that the West is trying to impose values that are not African. The stronger the international or diplomatic pressure, the more the sense of national resistance hardens, transforming the fight against homosexuality into an act of cultural sovereignty.
The issue of homosexuality has become a formidable political weapon. No Senegalese politician can afford to appear “lax” on this subject without risking political suicide. In fact, what’s needed is a courageous Senegalese politician like former French President François Mitterrand, who staunchly opposed the death penalty at a time when the majority of French people supported it. There simply isn’t one.
The tightening of the law in 2026 was largely driven by highly influential civil and religious groups, forcing the legislative branch to comply in order to secure popular support. Paradoxically, these movements benefited from funding from fundamentalist Christian organizations based in the United States. Homophobes of the world, unite!
The Unique Nature of Homophobia in Senegal
In the collective imagination, fueled by certain radical discourses, homosexuality is associated with conspiracy theories: the idea that secret networks exist, funded by foreign powers, to “corrupt” Senegalese youth. This perception transforms a matter of private freedom into a supposed threat to national security and public morality.
These theories are found in other countries, but in Senegal, they take on a tragic dimension. The lack of visible, openly gay Senegalese LGBT+ figures in the public sphere has not helped.
In China, Russia, or Turkey – three countries where homosexual relations are not illegal – the approach is primarily political: the state represses public visibility, activism, or “promotion,” but the police generally do not conduct systematic raids on private homes to catch people in the act.
The same is true in many countries where homosexual relations are illegal, such as Morocco, Algeria, or Sudan. In fact, the situation in Senegal is so dire that it leads some to seek refuge in countries whose legal framework also is hostile to LGBT+ people.
In Senegal, the dynamic is radically different and far more explosive for two reasons. It is often not the authorities who initiate the persecution, but civil society itself – neighbors, families, neighborhood committees.
In Senegal, denunciation has become a tool of social control. The police frequently intervene after rumors or mob lynchings to “maintain public order.” This evokes the atmosphere that prevailed in countries occupied by Germany during the Second World War, with a clearly fanatical population.
Aware of the risk of “witch hunt”-type excesses, legislators included in the March 2026 legislation a provision punishing “abusive denunciation made in bad faith.” This is an attempt at a legal compromise to prevent anyone from having a neighbor imprisoned out of pure jealousy or revenge, even though fear in the private sphere remains immense. Unfortunately, this measure seems futile.
The structural violence of Senegalese society against LGBT people raises questions for other societies on the African continent, which are by no means “gay-friendly.”
A Deceptive Pan-Africanist Rhetoric Serving a Project of Terror
The idea of a monolithic and uniformly homophobic Africa is a myth, often perpetuated by local and Western political discourse. Nearly half of African countries do not criminalize homosexuality. Countries like Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Angola, and Mozambique do not have laws criminalizing homosexuals in their penal codes. South Africa, for its part, explicitly protects the rights of LGBT+ people in its Constitution and has allowed same-sex marriage since 2006.
Senegal, thanks to its model of stable democracy and the intellectual influence of its religious leaders, often considers itself a moral “beacon” in West Africa. By toughening its laws, the government seeks to send a signal of global cultural resistance to the West, thus appropriating a Pan-African voice that does not, however, reflect the legal diversity of the continent.
For the Senegalese LGBT+ community, the outlook is darkening considerably. The 2026 law – which also criminalizes “apology” and support, directly targeting NGOs and human rights defenders – will force support networks to either disappear or operate completely underground. We are already witnessing an acceleration of departures and asylum applications to Europe, North America, or more tolerant African countries.
Senegal risks facing economic pressure – suspension of certain development aid by Western countries, similar to what happened to Uganda. However, the country is too important a strategic ally in the region, particularly on security and energy issues with its gas and oil reserves, for international partners to completely sever ties.
We are thus heading towards a diplomacy of permanent tension, where the subject will be avoided at official summits but will remain a major point of contention. Business is business: the Berlin Olympics were a resounding success in 1936, in Hitler’s Germany, while Jews had become second-class citizens, excluded from many professions and from public life.
The government of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye subscribes to a rhetoric of identity-based sovereignty and “rupture.” By designating homosexuality as an imported “Western poison,” the government creates a nationalist bond. Purifying society of this orientation becomes, in their discourse, an act of mental decolonization and preservation of the “purity” of Senegalese morals.
Senegal is going through a profound economic and social crisis. Unable to immediately resolve youth unemployment or inflation, the government is offering a “cultural victory” to the population and powerful religious movements. It is a free and popular way to unite the nation around a common, invisible enemy.
In terms of human suffering, the terror of this persecution is comparable to that of Jews in Nazi Germany. The Senegalese state does not seek to physically exterminate LGBT people, but rather to terrorize them in order to force them into invisibility, forced marriage, or exile. The persecution is often initiated by the population (neighbors, families), and the state acts as its legal conduit.
Does the situation in Senegal fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court?
Can Faye be brought before the ICC?
Senegal did indeed ratify the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1999 – it was even the first country in the world to do so. Theoretically, its leaders are therefore under its jurisdiction. For the ICC to intervene, a crime of genocide, a war crime, or a crime against humanity must be proven.
Crimes against humanity include the “persecution of any identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds.”
During the drafting of the Rome Statute in 1998, conservative states insisted that the word “gender” strictly refer to men and women in a social context, explicitly excluding sexual orientation.
Even though international jurisprudence is evolving, the ICC does not currently prosecute discrimination or persecution based solely on homosexuality. However, the alarm must be raised because the population does not hesitate to burn the bodies of the deceased under the pretext that they were homosexual.
The next step, unfortunately, is for someone to be burned alive. In the current volatile situation, it’s only a matter of time.
However, there is a textbook case. The ICC issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan, which ratified the Rome Statute in February 2003 under the post-Taliban transitional government. These warrants specify that the men are wanted for persecution of the country’s LGBTQI+ population on gender grounds. The country’s current Taliban government has refused any cooperation with the court.
See Also
The Paradoxes of Senegal
Senegalese society has a major and violent problem with a specific form of otherness: that which disrupts the sexual and gender order and religious norms.
This observation highlights the great paradox of Senegal, characterized by a constant tension between two concepts: Teranga (hospitality in Wolof) and the rejection of sexual difference.
Senegal is a model of peaceful coexistence. The various ethnic groups (Wolof, Pulaar, Serer, Diola, etc.) live together in peace thanks to ancestral mechanisms such as the “joking relationship” between relatives. Furthermore, the Christian minority (5%) lives in perfect harmony with the Muslim majority (95%), the country’s first president Léopold Sédar Senghor having himself been a Catholic in a country that was almost entirely Muslim.
Within this framework, Senegalese society is adept at managing cultural, ethnic, and religious differences. To understand why this tolerance collapses in the face of homosexuality, one must understand the social concept of Sutura (discretion, modesty, secrecy).
In Senegal, difference is tolerated as long as it is not displayed publicly and does not challenge the foundations of the community. For a very long time, sexual minorities – notably the Góor-jigen, literally “men-women” in Wolof – existed in society and had a place within it (in ceremonies, baptisms), because they respected this unwritten rule of discretion. Difference was tolerated as long as it remained invisible.
Surveys by Afrobarometer confirm this paradox: Senegalese people exhibit very high rates of tolerance towards people of different ethnicities, religions, or nationalities, but the rejection of homosexuality is close to 95 to 99%.
This violent rejection stems from the fact that LGBT+ otherness is perceived not as a simple “difference,” but as an existential rupture: in the collective imagination, shaped by a rigorous Sufi Islam and patriarchal values, homosexuality is not “another way of being.” It is a rebellion against the divine and biological order.
For many, accepting this otherness would be tantamount to accepting the destruction of the family unit and the moral collapse of society.
Furthermore, what hinders the assimilation of this difference is the preconceived notion that it is not African, that it comes from outside. The neighboring ethnic group is accepted because it is part of the country’s history. LGBT+ otherness is wrongly seen as a cultural virus imported from the West to corrupt the youth.
As we wrote earlier, hidden otherness could still be tolerated. However, this is no longer the case, since the state is literally entering citizens’ bedrooms, relying on denunciation. From now on, even invisible otherness is no longer tolerated.
As long as tolerance is presented with Western concepts or funding, it will be rejected as a cultural aggression. Change cannot be driven by international NGOs, but by intellectuals, artists, and respected Senegalese figures, such as the recently courageous writer Fatou Diome.
That said, the human rights argument falls on deaf ears for the majority. On the other hand, the argument of public health and the preservation of society is much more compelling. UN data shows that criminalization forces vulnerable populations to avoid healthcare facilities.
This causes HIV cases to explode, which, through clandestine activity and sham marriages, end up affecting the entire population.
Some glimmers of hope
The 2026 law retained a “safeguard clause” for healthcare facilities. Moreover, it is through this opening in access to care, psychology, and medicine that scientific dialogue must replace political dogma. But the fear of denunciation is too strong, too great, and already many HIV-positive individuals are no longer collecting their medication from the designated centers.
Furthermore, nothing will be accomplished without the religious leaders – the Caliphs of the major Sufi brotherhoods. The state aligns itself with them; if their discourse shifts, society will shift. Without asking them to approve of homosexuality (which is theologically impossible in the short term), the aim would be to persuade them to condemn violence, lynchings, and denunciation in the name of Islamic values of social peace (Maslaha) and the preservation of human dignity.
If the Caliphs remind everyone that persecution and private violence are anti-Islamic, tensions will ease somewhat. Once again, we come back to the question of courage among politicians. But this courage is lacking.
Currently, populist rhetoric perpetuates a complete confusion between homosexuality, pedophilia, and networks of perversion. For a society to be tolerant, it must first understand. In-depth work, often carried out discreetly by courageous journalists or academics, is necessary to deconstruct these conflations and explain that sexual orientation is a private matter, not a geopolitical conspiracy.
Finally, as surprising as it may seem, tolerance increases when the standard of living improves. When the government succeeds (or fails) in stabilizing the economy and reducing youth unemployment and inflation, we can hope that the political need to use the LGBT+ community as a “scapegoat” will diminish. A society that has confidence in its future has less need to seek out imaginary enemies.
Let’s be frank, Senegalese society is in a very bad way.
, https://76crimes.com/2026/05/25/activist-speaks-out-as-senegals-lgbtqi-community-is-stricken-by-fear/
