In a daring and unprecedented move, a gay man in Blantyre has come out and lashed out at the ‘homophobic’ government. The man, Eric Sambisa, 26 who heads the Southern Region Rainbow Alliance, a secret grouping of mostly gay men, said this in a fateful interview in Blantyre on Wednesday that saw police crashing it and briefly taking him and this reporter into detention.

Homosexuality is illegal in Malawi and attracts a prison sentence of 14 years. But government has suspended the law pending review on whether to decriminalise or not.

Sambisa told the weekly newspaper that the advent of social media has simplified the networking of gays in Malawi as they are able to find partners in private groups on Facebook and WhatsApp. He says he knows about 200 gays in Blantyre and about 20 lesbians. Samisa said the situation for LGBTI people in the country had become untenable. Malawi News also carried the story and quoted Samisa as saying: “The homophobic government should either kill and eliminate gays, or give them their rights.”
Sambisa was detained briefly by the police after his interview was published online and broadcast on TV. He has now gone into hiding. Read more via Nyasa Times