Christmas celebrations were nearly spoilt in Dwangwa, in Malawi’s central region district of Nkhotakota, last week when an angry mob wanted to beat up a suspected gay who was plying his trade in the area as a sex worker.
The 24-year-old man (name withheld), who spoke and dressed like a woman, was able to find male customers with whom he had sex until Christmas eve when his roommate, a female sex worker, discovered that he was male.
“He came here few weeks ago and he was conducting his business like any other sex worker but on this particular day he was drunk and carelessly slept on the bed when I noticed that he had male private parts,” said the roommate, Shyreen Banda.
She said she then informed people who came to see for themselves what had happened.
Later, more people thronged the scene and wanted to beat up the suspected gay but police officers came in time to diffuse the tension.
“When police officers arrived, they asked him to undress and, to everyone’s surprise, he did not have any female private parts,” Banda said.
She also said during the time he was operating at the place, the suspect was able to attract the interest of more men than other sex workers in the area.
“He could get more customers unlike many of us but rumour had it that he was only ‘doing it from behind’ but still this did not deter men from approaching her.
“We don’t know whether he was using juju,” Banda said.
The suspect, who was not arrested, has since left the area and is reportedly in Blantyre. But according to some people who know him, this was not the first for him to do that.
“I believe he is gay and men who seek his services know this. One cannot pretend to be female [during sex]… He has been doing this from Mwansambo and Msenjere [Nkhotakota] and also in Salima,” said Chikondi Mweso, another sex worker.
Attempts to speak with the suspect proved futile as he left the place immediately after the fracas.
Despite police officers being present during the suspected gay’s interrogation, Nkhunga Police spokesperson, Austin Kaunda, expressed ignorance on the issue, saying no one from his office was aware of the incident.
Police in Lilongwe on December 7, 2015, arrested Cuthbert Kulemera, 19, and Kelvin Gonani, 33, for being suspected of having carnal knowledge of each other.
But government later ordered their release following an outcry from donors and other organisations.
The first openly gay couple in Malawi was that of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steve Monjeza who in 2010 held an engagement ceremony in Blantyre.
The courts later handed them a 14-year-jail term for engaging in ‘unnatural’ acts. The punishment was, however, overturned by former president Bingu wa Mutharika, who pardoned the two.
This happened after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited the country.
Leave a Reply