In June 2024, the Namibian High Court decriminalised same-sex conduct between male\u00a0 adults (ILGA World, 2024). The country is now one of 21 African states in which consensual\u00a0 same-sex acts are legally protected (Ewokor, 2025). The court found that \u201csingling out\u00a0 homosexual men for different treatment amounts to unfair discrimination\u201d and that\u00a0 \u201cenforcement of the private moral views of a section of the community \u2013 even if in the\u00a0 majority \u2013 does not justify restricting another\u2019s freedom and make an activity criminal\u201d\u00a0 (Kojou\u00e9, 2024).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The court decision came at a time when LGBTQI rights are being hotly debated in Namibian\u00a0 society. In 2023, the Supreme Court declared that, for immigration purposes, it was\u00a0 unconstitutional not to recognise same-sex civil unions that were concluded abroad (Legal\u00a0 Assistance Centre, 2024). The ruling triggered a hostile response from legislators, who passed\u00a0 bills seeking to ban marriage equality and criminalising support for or promotion of same-sex\u00a0 unions. In October 2024, then-President Nangolo Mbumba signed the new Marriages Act,\u00a0 \u201cwhich specifically excludes same-sex couples from legal recognition, regardless of whether\u00a0 such marriage was solemnised in Namibia or in a foreign country,\u201d effectively bypassing the\u00a0 Supreme Court\u2019s ruling (Busch & Beukes, 2025).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This legislation has facilitated greater attacks on the LGBTQI community, including by religious\u00a0 organisations (Kojou\u00e9, 2024; Amnesty International, 2024). Religion and homophobia are well established bedfellows. Using Afrobarometer data, Ananyev and Poyker (2021) explored the long-term effects of colonial-era Christian missions in Africa on attitudes toward homosexuality among indigenous groups. They found that missionaries have historically\u00a0 contributed to homophobic sentiments. Adding to pre-existing views, evangelical churches,\u00a0 particularly from the United States, have spread anti-gay messages across the continent\u00a0 (Okereke, 2023).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Namibia is not immune to this trend. Although the Namibian Constitution is secular, the vast\u00a0 majority of citizens identify as Christians (Pieterse, 2019). This predominance of Christianity has\u00a0 hugely influenced both Namibian society and politics. According to Pieterse (2019), the\u00a0 religious beliefs of policy makers influence how they draft, enact, and implement laws, with\u00a0 the result that the government is explicitly \u201canti-LGBTQI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This dispatch is based on results of Afrobarometer\u2019s Round 10 survey in Namibia, conducted\u00a0 in 2024, including country-specific questions about sexuality and religion not asked\u00a0 elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It finds that even though Namibia is one of Africa\u2019s most tolerant countries when it comes to homosexuals, same-sex rights still face an uphill battle. While a slim majority of Namibians say\u00a0 they would like or not mind having homosexual people as their neighbours, nearly six in 10\u00a0citizens would reject a friend or family member if they were attracted to individuals of the\u00a0 same gender.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Large majorities of Namibians oppose marriage equality, parenting rights for same-sex\u00a0 couples, and equal rights for individuals who are attracted to people of the same gender.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two-thirds of citizens say it is impossible to follow their religion and accept people in same-sex\u00a0 relationships. Only one-fourth say citizens ought to be tolerant of those who are attracted to\u00a0 people of the same gender even if it goes against their moral beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Virtually all Namibians identify as Christian, although fewer than half say they actively\u00a0 participate in religious practices. Highly religious folks are less likely to reject homosexual\u00a0 neighbours than those who don\u2019t practise a religion, though they are equally likely to turn\u00a0 away family and friends who are attracted to others of the same gender.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In June 2024, the Namibian High Court decriminalised same-sex conduct between male\u00a0 adults (ILGA World, 2024). The country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102],"class_list":{"0":"post-3292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-namibia","8":"tag-namibia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}