The dramatic day-to-day reality of homosexuals in Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe, is graphically depicted by a man forced into prostitution to survive. Homosexuals in this region face extreme marginalization.

Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, has stated that citizens like Takunda Amina are treated worse than dogs and pigs. By the age of 24, Amina had been disowned by his family, forced into two marriages, and fathered three children, who regularly ask him challenging questions about his gender and sexuality.

“I am a father of three and I am being evicted,” shares Amina, who leads a 300-member organization for displaced men in Zimbabwe, providing support to economically disadvantaged gay men.

Amina doesn’t need to frequent nightclubs or roam the streets for work; his clients simply call him when they desire sex. On a “good day,” Amina earns $150, with the majority of his clientele being business executives.

However, he reveals that he has been compelled into prostitution due to the country’s high unemployment rate. Simultaneously, the risks for those who are outed are immense. “I have been abused, threatened, denied payment, or refused safe sex,” he says.

He has always known who he is

Amina was born in Kadoma, a town in western Zimbabwe. “I always knew I was different, but it wasn’t until I was 11 that I realized I was gay. At that time, I only knew that I was attracted to boys.”

His secret was exposed in 2011 when his father discovered him with his lover at a party. The spiritual healers his parents enlisted made futile attempts to “cure” his sexuality. “The more they tried, the more I embraced my homosexuality,” Amina asserts.

Branded as a family disgrace, Amina was forced to leave home, a common fate for many homosexuals in conservative Zimbabwe.

Reported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation

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