More than 20 US Christian groups known for fighting against LGBT rights and access to safe abortion, contraceptives and comprehensive sexuality education have spent at least $54m in Africa since 2007. These are the results of a new investigation by openDemocracy, which documents the scale of this spending for the first time.
The Fellowship Foundation, a secretive US religious group whose Ugandan associate, David Bahati, wrote Uganda’s infamous “Kill the Gays” bill, is the biggest spender in Africa. Between 2008 and 2018, this group sent more than $20m to Uganda alone.
Some of these groups appear to be spending increasing amounts of money in Africa. “Their imperialist DNA simply hunts for bigger spheres of influence,” said Sylvia Tamale, a prominent Ugandan law professor and gay rights defender, in reaction to openDemocracy’s findings.
