A growing group of religious and political leaders in Africa are promoting a divisive anti-rights draft charter on family values, actively lobbying lawmakers, African State institutions, and the African Union to formally adopt it.
Over the past few years, they have been holding conferences across the continent with the support and funding of Western religious donors who, in their own countries, are perceived as racist, hateful, and against women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
Most recently, they convened the African Regional Interparliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty in Accra, Ghana, where around 20 countries expressed support for the document.
All this raises critical questions about foreign influence and agendas. At this critical time, when Africa faces so many problems, why do people insist on pushing an agenda that is neither ours nor relevant to our prosperity?
Questioning Claims of African Sovereignty and Values
The African leaders who claim to protect African family values and sovereignty, unsurprisingly, exhibit traits similar to those of the historical enslavers and similar collaborators. Contrary to what they claim as “pushing back against foreign influence on the African family” and the infamous sovereignty claims, it has been shown that these leaders are directly linked and backed by conservative foreign groups.
These include the USA-based hate organisation, Family Watch International – closely linked to the anti-rights authors of Trump’s right-wing Project 2025 initiative; the Heritage Foundation; and the Netherlands-based Christian nationalist organisation, Christian Council International – another group with ties to the Trump administration and its hate-based policies and atrocities.
One might argue that the African leaders championing the charter essentially serve these groups, their mandates, and their Western interests, instead of what they’d like African people to believe: that this is for the good and prosperity of Africa and its sovereignty. The truth is that their so-called African values, culture, and traditions mimic those outlined in America’s Project 2025 and could not be further removed from true African cultural values.
Meanwhile, the same actors promoting these so-called “family values” under Project 2025 are also advancing agendas that support the extraction and exploitation of Africa’s natural resources, with little regard for the impact on African people and their livelihoods. Adopting their policies wholesale and presenting them as our own risks being not only counter-intuitive, but also a form of self-betrayal.
Africa’s Diverse History of Family, Gender and Leadership
Africa’s rich history of family, diversity, womanhood, and matriarchy is too beautiful to erase. Africans, especially women and girls, deserve to know about the likes of Queen Modjadji of the Balobedu people, a fierce leader who is traditionally believed to have rainmaking abilities and helmed a distinctively matriarchal dynasty where the reign is passed down from woman to woman, from mother to daughter; or Queen Nzinga of modern-day Angola, who led an army that resisted and fought against the Portuguese colonisers.
Queer folks and African spiritualists alike deserve to know how women and gender diverse persons held some of the highest spiritual positions in society, like Mbuya Nehanda of Zimbabwe, who was a deeply respected spirit medium and a leader of the resistance against early colonial rule in Zimbabwe, and the respected transgender agule and okule shamans of the Lugbara, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, who led spiritual ceremonies.
They should be aware of the mudoko dako of the Langi people in Uganda, assigned male at birth but recognised as a distinct gender that was allowed to marry men. Africans must also learn about woman-to-woman marriages that existed in pre-colonial Africa, which, according to research and oral histories, were recognised and served various purposes, from economic and social functions to lineage preservation. Similar practices include those from the Bapedi and Balobedu cultures, ngwetsi ya lapa, which still exists today, where a woman is married into a family or household to raise an heir for the family or to continue the family name, not necessarily the lineage.
Why the Draft Charter Raises Concerns About Africa’s Diversity
As well-intentioned as it may appear, evidence suggests that the African leaders’ draft charter, because of its ties to Western ultraconservative partnerships, is neither original nor in good faith. The pace at which they have been moving and their true subsequent agenda should indisputably be questioned and criticised.
Regardless of the inclusion of desirable language and terms such as minerals sovereignty and the Ubuntu philosophy, beneath the surface, the charter does not truly reflect these concepts. The charter, instead, does a disservice to African people by misrepresenting Africa’s diversity and disregarding its history as it relates to the diversity of families.
Africa’s Future Must Be Defined by Africans
The West has no business drafting or helping draft African legislation, especially if the whole of Africa is at risk of their negative impact. One would think the common goal would be to address bread-and-butter issues, such as poverty, unemployment, disease, and health, to name but a few, instead of pushing the distractive agenda of those responsible for exploiting Africa in the first place.
The truth is, no single group is the sole custodian of African knowledge, standards or beliefs. Africa belongs to all of us, with our diverse families, communities and values. We cannot be defined through a sole, narrow lens or, for that matter, by any charter that’s driven by Western interests and norms.
Daniel Digashu is a consultant at the Southern Africa Litigation Center (SALC). SALC promotes and advances human rights and the rule of law in Southern Africa, primarily through strategic litigation and capacity-strengthening support to lawyers and grassroots organisations.
