When Matt Walsh traveled to Africa to ask members of the Maasai people about transgenderism, the Maasai villagers laughed at him. The short clip in Walsh’s 2022 documentary What Is a Woman? stands in stark contrast with the other interviews in the film, in which accomplished American professionals tie themselves in verbal knots to justify the non-negotiables of gender ideology.
To the Maasai, it’s obvious that a man can’t become a woman, and vice versa. In Western nations, however, pro-LGBTQ activists have spent decades working to erode that simple belief and build a new progressive consensus in America and Western Europe Now, activists are exporting gender ideology to Africa, too.
“From Kenya to Cameroon, Ghana to Tanzania, local archbishops tell the Register that Western aid workers, government officials and even tourists are advancing secular understandings of sexuality and the human person that are incompatible not merely with African cultural values, but with the timeless teachings of the Catholic faith,” wrote Jonathan Liedl, senior editor for the National Catholic Register.
‘Missionaries of Evil’
In Tanzania and Kenya, where the Maasai people live, Catholic leaders are trying to protect young people from exploitation by foreigners. Home to Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania relies on foreign tourism to generate an estimated 17 percent of Tanzania’s GDP. In some regions, like Zanzibar, tourism is an even bigger part of the local economy. But these tourists aren’t just bringing revenue to the region — some are bringing progressive sexual mores, too.
Comparing the influx of progressive Westerners to Christian evangelists who once brought the Gospel to Africa, Archbishop Renatus Leonard Nkwande said that the West is now sending his nation “missionaries of evil.”
Archbishop Nkwande told the Register that “anxieties about Westerners promoting sexual deviancy are so widespread that ‘the first meeting with somebody from Europe,’ whether a tourist or an NGO worker, ‘you just fear. You try to shy away.’”
Tourists are only responsible for some of the cultural proselytization; foreign nongovernmental organizations are the main culprits. Despite the name, many NGOs receive government support through grants and funding. In recent years, foreign organizations operating in Africa have come under scrutiny for their role in the economic development of African nations, which critics see as a new iteration of the “scramble for Africa.”
Though NGOs promise aid, foreign organizations, and workers carry cultural baggage that conflicts with the traditions and beliefs of many Africans. In Tanzania, for example, Western NGOs distribute “lubricants used in gay sex.” Archbishop Nkwande said that these products have been distributed widely during the Biden-Harris administration but had ceased under President Donald Trump.
NGOs and Social Media Promote Gender Ideology and Abortion in Africa
In neighboring Kenya, foreign workers promote gender ideology in schools and “provide financial support to young people who enter into a gay lifestyle, which in turn draws in other youths,” the Register reports. In Cameroon, where abortion is illegal, the French embassy has promoted abortion and NGOs provide funding for free abortions.
Even without foreign aid workers, social media has become a major force behind the increasing presence of liberal Western culture in Africa. In Cameroon, Catholic leaders have noticed the impact of French social media content on the nation’s younger generations. Bishop Sosthène Léopold Bayemi Matjei told the Register that he has noticed “changes in speech and dress,” as well as heard “reports that young boys are organizing sex groups after being exposed to the idea through online videos.”
Unlike the activism of NGOs, which relies on foreign funding, the promotion of gender ideology via social media can reach anyone with internet access. As internet use continues to increase throughout the continent, leftist Western ideology could leave an indelible mark on African nations. (RELATED: The LGBTQ Conquest of America)
Pope Francis has specifically warned against the “ideological colonization” that occurs when countries weave together LGBTQ ideology and pro-abortion stances with the wealth and aid needed by developing nations. Across Africa, Catholic bishops are aware of the growing threats to traditional morality.
But if the past few decades of American culture have proven anything, they show that a sea change in sexual morality can happen within a lifetime. There’s no guarantee that an interview with the Maasai would result in the same disbelieving laughter in a generation or two — after all, Americans once laughed, too.
Mary Frances Myler is a contributing editor at The American Spectator. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
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