In a development that has sent ripples of pearl-clutching through the corridors of Whitehall, the British Foreign Office has condemned Ghana's new anti-LGBTQ+ bill as a 'human rights setback.' One can almost hear the collective sound of monocles popping and cucumber sandwiches being coughed up in shock. The bill, which criminalises LGBTQ+ advocacy and same-sex relations, has been passed by Ghana's parliament with what the locals might call 'unseemly haste' and what we in the journalism trade call 'a refreshing lack of naval-gazing.'
But hold your horses, dear reader, before you don your rainbow-tinted spectacles and pen a sternly worded letter to the editor. Let us examine this through the prism of British hypocrisy, a lens polished to a dazzling shine by centuries of practice. The same Foreign Office that now tut-tuts at Accra was, until recently, perfectly happy to trade arms with Saudi Arabia, a kingdom where being gay can earn you a date with a very sharp sword. But that's different, you see. That's about oil and lucrative contracts. This is about... well, it's about something that doesn't involve the bottom line, so we can afford to be virtuous.
One must admire the sheer chutzpah of the Ghanaian parliament. Here is a country that has looked at the West's culture wars, seen the confusion, the debates, the carefully worded HR policies, and decided: 'No, thank you. We'll stick with what our grandmothers told us.' It is the political equivalent of a man refusing to get on a rollercoaster because he's seen the safety record. Ghana has looked at the UK's plummeting church attendance, soaring mental health issues, and the ever-expanding alphabet of sexual identities, and concluded: 'Pass.'
Of course, the bill is a 'setback' for human rights if you believe that the universal declaration of human rights includes the right to parade in leather chaps during a pride march. But if you happen to think that human rights might also include the right of a society to define its own morality without being lectured by former colonial masters, well, then it's a bit of a step forward, isn't it?
The Foreign Office statement, no doubt drafted by a young man named Tarquin who studied gender studies at Bristol, said the bill 'harms the most vulnerable.' One wonders if Tarquin has ever been to Ghana, or if his knowledge of the country extends solely to the 'Africa' episode of 'The Vicar of Dibley.' The 'vulnerable' in this context are, apparently, the newly criminalised LGBTQ+ community. But what about the vulnerable child who is now confused about their identity because of a foreign-funded advocacy programme? Or the vulnerable family whose religious beliefs are being trampled by Western NGOs? Ah, but those vulnerabilities don't fit the narrative.
Let us be clear: I am not advocating for hatred or violence. But I am advocating for a bit of consistency. If the British government truly cared about human rights, it would have cut ties with Saudi Arabia decades ago. It would not be selling weapons to Israel. It would not be hosting the Dubai royal family at the Ritz. But it does, because human rights are a convenient stick with which to beat nations that don't toe the line, rather than a genuine moral compass.
Ghana's bill is a perfect storm of post-colonial defiance. It says: 'We are not your liberal utopia. We are a sovereign nation with our own values.' And frankly, in a world where the West seems determined to sell its own cultural heritage for a mess of identity politics, maybe Ghana has a point. Maybe the Foreign Office should take a long, hard look in the mirror before it starts lecturing others on morality. But don't hold your breath. That would require a level of self-awareness that no politician has ever demonstrated, and certainly not one who has just been handed a brief from the human rights desk.
In the end, this is not about Ghana. It is about the West's desperate need to feel morally superior, even as its own foundations crumble. So, enjoy your tut-tutting, Foreign Office. It must be nice to have a moral high ground that isn't built on a pile of arms deals and colonial guilt. Meanwhile, Ghana will continue to do what it has always done: survive, and occasionally tell the old lion to pipe down.
