## Collen Sabao

## Legal and Political Framing of Homophobia in two Namibian Newspapers since Independence: An Appraisal Theoretic Analytical Approach

## Abstract

The  most  abhorred  population  group  in  Africa  (and  by  extension  in  Namibia)  is  the  LGBTQI  community.  Nonheterosexuality is largely condemned in most African countries for political, religious, cultural and legal reasons. Couched within  Appraisal  Theory,  the  paper  examines  how  linguistic  resources  are  exploited  in  manners  that  evince  how homophobia is  politically  and  legally  framed  in  two  Namibian  daily  newspapers  The  Namibian and New Era .  For example, while the world has reacted to the realities of the departure from the traditional binary definitional parameters of sexualities and sexual identities, Namibia still remains largely homophobic, together with at least 47 other African countries still criminalising homosexuality. In 2001, for example, a video documentary quotes the then President of Namibia, Dr Sam Nujoma,  expressing  the  sentiments  that  'Lesbians  and  homosexualism,  these  we  condemn  -  we  reject  them.  In Namibia  there  will  be  no  lesbian,  no  homosexualism'  (Blecher,  2001).  In  August  2005,  Minister  of  Home  Affairs, Theopolina  Mushelenga,  publicly  denounced  the  human  rights  of  Namibian  gays  and  lesbians  and  also  asserted  that 'homosexuals were responsible for the HIV and AIDS pandemic' (Lorway, 2006, p. 436). Homosexuality has generally, thus, been regarded as an uncultural, unAfrican, uncommon and unacceptable phenomenon in Africa, including Namibia. In Namibia, as in other African countries, the penalty for homosexual behaviour is imprisonment. Many Namibian political leaders have publicly expressed that homosexual rights go against the legal, religious and cultural values of the country. There are political and legal imports to the rejection of homosexual behaviour patterns in Namibia as evinced in news reporting cultures. Homosexuality in Namibian political and legal discourses is largely imagined as either an 'unAfrican' behaviour or attributed to western influences on Africa. Linguistic expression by many Namibian politicians also evince a revulsion of homosexuality.

## Keywords

Namibia, Homophobia, Framing, Political, Legal, Appraisal, Newspapers

## 1 Introduction: Homosexuality and homophobia in Africa

In  understanding  the  context  in  which  news  reports  on  the  LGBTQI  community  are  framed  in Namibian newspapers, it is  imperative to  contextualise  the  treatment  of  the  population  group  in Africa.  Within  postcolonial  Africa,  homophobia  has  been  well  established.  Evinced  through  the political  positions  assumed  by  many  African  leaders,  it  is  largely  restricted  through  the  legal frameworks operational within many African countries (where in most instances, because of the lack of laws directly criminalising homosexuality, remnants of colonial laws such as sodomy laws are used instead to criminalise homosexuality). There prevails within the African continent, a politically, religiously,  legally  and  most  importantly  culturally  sanctioned  ostracisation  of  individuals  and groups of people imagined as sexually going against African cultural beliefs, norms and values. The most  detested  population  group  in  most  African  nations  in  general  is  the  LGBTQI  community (Winkler, 2019). Despite the world at large transitioning and accepting the death of the traditional binary  characterisations  of  sexual  identities  and  accepting  their  attendant  fluidity,  the  Africa continent by and large continues to remain largely homophobic. This can be observed from the fact

*  Collen Sabao Department of Humanities and Arts University of Namibia csabao@unam.n a that, with the exception of South Africa, which has recently legalised same sex unions, at least 47 out of  the  54  African  countries,  including  Namibia,  have  laws  that  still  criminalise  homosexuality  and homosexual activities (Reddy, 2001; Van Klinken & Chitando, 2016). The commonest reason for the rejection of homosexual tendencies by Africa has been because it is considered unnatural, unAfrican and uncultural (Reddy, 2001). In some quarters it has also been viewed as 'uncommon and unacceptable phenomenon in Africa and other countries the world over' (Ahmed, 2012, p. 13).

These homophobic perceptions, largely sanctioned by religious, cultural, legal and political positions have also permeated into the mainstream media and in the process informed the ideological positioning from which the population group is framed in news reports (The Big Debate, 2013). For example, on a global level, the death penalty for homosexual tendencies is enforced in countries such as Northern Nigeria, Mauritania and Iran (Van Klinken & Chitando, 2016). In several African nations including Liberia,  Kenya,  Malawi,  Uganda,  Tanzania,  Namibia,  Sierra  Leone,  Zimbabwe  and  Zambia, homosexual  behaviour  is  punishable  by  different  ranges  of  prison  sentences  (Tweneboah,  2018). Despite threats, largely by the western world to withdraw aid to especially African countries that seem to restrict or stifle the rights of homosexuals (Bompani & Valois, 2017), many African countries have remained resolute in their stance to refuse to include or even consider LGBTQI rights as human rights. An example of such would be the signing of, and subsequent promulgation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law in Uganda by President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023, which is still considered to be among the harshest anti-LGBTQI laws in the world.

This disdain for the LGBTQI community has largely been evinced through the verbal attacks on the population  group  by  many  of  Africa's  leaders.  The  most  vocal  being  the  late  Zimbabwean  former president, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Mugabe's hatred for especially gays and lesbians, is demonstrated through the vitriol with which he, in November 2011, disparaged them as 'worse than pigs and dogs' (Gunda, 2009). He is also on record as having further rationalised this position by declaring that, '[w]e equally reject to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. We are not gays' (Hoffbauer, 2019). Mugabe was however, not alone as such homophobic positions have also been reiterated elsewhere by a host of African leaders - in Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Namibia. In 2015, for instance, former Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta told former United States of America president, Barack Obama that gay rights were a non-issue in Kenya. Further reiterating this during a 2018 CNN interview with Christian Amanpour, saying:

I want to be very clear. I will not engage in a subject that is of no major importance to the majority of the people and the Republic of Kenya. This is not an issue as you would want to put it, of human rights. This is an issue of society - of our base as a culture, as a people regardless of which community you come from... (CNN, 2018).

In  Uganda,  president  Yoweri  Museveni  is  on  record  denigrating  homosexuals  as  'disgusting  and unnatural'.

They are disgusting. What sort of people are they? I never knew what they were doing. I have been told recently what they do is terrible. Disgusting…I was regarding it as an inborn problem, genetic distortion. That was my argument. But now our scientists have knocked this one out. (CNN, 2016)

In Zambia, former president Edgar Lungu, is also on public record as equating the sexual orientations of  LGBTQI  persons  as  'vices'.  Lungu  on  many  public  occasions  campaigned  for  the  arrest  and indictment of all persons suspected of, and caught engaging in homosexual activities, which he said were not only illegal in Zambia but also flew in the face of the country's 'cultures and values as a Christian nation' (Van Klinken, 2017). In Rwanda, confronted with questions of whether the LGBTQI persons were part of the future planning, president Paul Kagame was non-committal and is quoted as saying, 'It has not been our problem and we don't intend to make it a problem. We are struggling with all kinds of problems…So this far - as I said - for us, I don't want to make it a problem.' (Kigali Today, 2016)

In  Malawi,  the  late  former  president,  Bingu  wa  Mutharika  proposed  to  criminalise  and  ban homosexuality  and  associated  behaviours  in  Malawi  (Price,  2010).  The  depth  of  intolerance  for LGBTQI persons was largely demonstrated in 2012 when a Malawian court convicted and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment with hard labour, two men for conducting a mock homosexual marriage ceremony. What drew the attention of the world was the length of the sentence, which was argued to have been even harsher than sentences typically given to even murderers (Mbaya, 2014). Joyce Banda, who replaced waMutharika, faced with the threat of a dying economy arising from the aid withdrawal, allegedly 'ultimately bulked under pressure' (The Herald, 2014). There is thus, a documented backlash by the western world on countries that seem to resist the recognition of LGBTQI rights as fundamental human rights.

## 2 Homosexuality and homophobia in Namibia

As with many African countries, homosexuality is also loathed in  Namibia. While  homophobia in Namibia  is  also  culturally,  politically  and  religiously  sanctioned  it  is,  most  importantly,  legally outlawed. Of course, as with most African countries discussed above, there is no law in existence in Namibia that criminalises homosexuality. In the absence of such, Apartheid-era sodomy laws are used to  convict  and  sentence  alleged  offenders  (Brown,  2019).  As  such  Namibians  sympathetic  to  the LGBTQI cause,  have  blamed  the  homophobia  within  Namibia  on  the  'continued  existence  of  old apartheid laws that discriminate against sexual minorities', believing that 'homosexuality is still illegal in Namibia due to the old laws from the apartheid period'. In a news report titled 'Work in progress to phase out discriminatory laws' (New Era, 20 March 2012) the journalistic voice propositions that most of the draconian laws used to subjugate against homosexual persons are remnants of the Apartheid (colonial) era in the country - a period during which Namibia was under the colonial administration of South Africa. The news report is rife with descriptions of such laws as 'archaic laws from the colonial period', '[laws] with little essence to [Namibia's] new democratic dispensation' and 'infringing on the rights of some of the citizens and residents'. This is a clear demonstration that perhaps the assumed national homophobia is not so national after all.

Important to underscore here is the fact that the homophobia is Namibia is also largely politically sanctioned.  Since  Namibia's  independence  in  1990,  there  has  been  no  consistent  political  will  to acknowledge the existence of the LGBTQI populations. Brown (2019, p. 93) observes in this regard that,  'political  homophobia  has  created  (homo)sexuality  to  be  a  moral  concern  by  couching homosexuality as a threat to what s traditionally Namibian'. In 2001, for example, a video documentary records  former  Namibian  president,  Sam  Nujoma,  during  celebrations  of  the  birthday  of  SWAPO, expressing that: 'Lesbians and homosexualism, these we condemn - we reject them. In Namibia there will be no lesbian, no homosexualism' (Blecher, 2001).

Subsequently, on the 19 th of March 2001, Nujoma further reiterated these calls and went even further to call for the detainment, incarceration and deportation of any persons suspected of practicing gay or lesbian behaviours. Nujoma made these calls while officially addressing the student assembly at the University of Namibia (Lorway, 2006). These sentiments were also echoed in public spaces by many senior politicians and ministers in Namibia including former Home Affairs Minister, Jerry Ekandjo and former Finance Minister, Helmut Angula. Angula is described by Brown (2019, p. 94) as having,

…joined the crusade of Nujoma's popular mythologies tainting homosexuality as social disease, unAfrican,  a  Western  incitement  to  corrupt  African  nations  and  some  even  called  for  the elimination of homosexual people from the surface of Namibia. Helmut Angula …lambasted 'homosexuality is an unnatural behavioural disorder which is alien to the African culture.

This signals,  in communion with sentiments from other African countries, a legally, culturally and politically sanctioned proliferation of homophobia. It also signals the lack of political will and desire to address  the  realities  of  the  existence  of  LGBTQI  populations  in  Namibia  and  Africa  in  general.

Embedded within this ideological position is a now widely shared disposition within African nations to blame the western world for the existence of homosexuality in Africa.

The other two Namibian presidents whose tenures ran simultaneously after Nujoma's have also not done much in terms of addressing the concerns of the so-called sexual minorities - those not exactly aligned to heteronormative sexual identities - the LGBTQI community. Hipikefunye Pohamba (who replaced Nujoma) and Hage Geingob (who replaced Pohamba and is current Namibian president) have largely preferred silence and silencing any dissent from sexual minorities. They have opted to avoid making overt verbalisations for or against homosexuality - a move that is akin to implicitly endorsing the position assumed earlier on by their predecessor, Sam Nujoma. In a rare moment, immediately after his election to the presidency, when asked about homosexuality in Namibia, Geingob replied 'those are not the issues we are talking about, those are luxuries' - a non-committal position not new with African political leadership.

Another example of further political  positioning  of  homosexuals  is  when,  addressing  a  national commemoration gathering in August of 2005, the then Deputy Minister of Immigration and Home Affairs, Theopolina Mushelenga, 'publicly denounced the human rights of Namibian gays and lesbians and also asserted that homosexuals were responsible for the HIV and AIDS pandemic' (Lorway, 2006, p. 436). These overtly anti-gay perceptions implicitly and explicitly associate homosexuality with the spread of HIV and AIDS as well as the decay of the social and moral fabrics of the Namibian nation state (Herek, 1997).

## 3 The mass media environment in Namibia

Namibia's mass media landscape is characterised by plurality and diversity. It almost characterises the ideal democratic space in which press freedom and plurality are realised. There is a sizeable number of newspapers in Namibia, publishing in different languages such as German, English and Afrikaans. However, the focus of the study is the examination of the manners in which appraisal resources are used in  manners  that  evince  both  the  ideological  positioning  of  the  news  reports  (by  extension,  the journalistic  voice)  as  well  as  demonstrate  the  political  and  legal  framing  of  homosexuality  and homophobia within Namibia as reflected in the reporting on the LGBTQI population in the two largest English dailies in Namibia The Namibian and New Era .

## (a) The Namibian newspaper

With a daily circulation of over 40 000 copies, The Namibian newspaper is considered Namibia's largest  daily.  Established  in  1985,  and  privately  owned  by  the  Namibia  Media  Trust,  the newspaper has over the years managed to keep a steady readership and currently boasts of both a  print  and  an  online  presence.  Over  the  years,  the  newspaper  has  been  subjected  to  violent attacks, especially during the pre-independence era as it was overtly critical of the then Apartheid colonial government. Post-independence, the newspaper has continued to be one of the biggest critics  of  the  government  and  government  policies.  Largely  funded  through  donors  and advertisements, the newspaper is supposedly founded on the ideal of furthering the principles of press freedom and freedom of expression in Namibia (Shihepo, 2021).

## (b) New Era newspaper

The New Era is  owned  by  the  state  and  was  established in 1991.  With a daily circulation of approximately 8 000 copies, it also has both print and online presence. Its readership is largely constituted  of  people  aged  between  18  and  42,  the  majority  of  whom  are  urbanites.  The publication was established with the chief goal of providing counternarratives to reports in The Namibian and prioritise the favourable coverage of the state (Kivikuru, 2013). Sympathetic to the government, who enjoy editorial sympathy, the newspaper popularises government policies.

## 4 Theory: The Framing and Appraisal theoretic frameworks

The study draws analytical insights from Framing Theory (Entman, 1993; 2007) and Appraisal Theory (Martin & Rose, 2003, White, 1998). Within Framing Theory, 'framing' is defined 'as the process of culling  a  few  elements  of  perceived  reality  and  assembling  a  narrative  that  highlights  connections among them to promote a particular interpretation' (Entman, 2007, p. 167). Framing is important in explaining the ways in which the media subjectively chooses which news items to report and the factors - cultural, political or otherwise that shape the 'framing' of such news. In discussing framing and its manifestation in news reporting and journalistic practice, several scholars (Entman, 1993; Sabao, 2013, 2016; Sabao, Magadza & Chikara, 2021; Sabao & Visser, 2015; Weaver, 2007) have expressed its importance in explaining how the media contextualises news reports and events. The news does not occur in a vacuum but instead in a context, which context (coupled with other news external convictions, beliefs, vices and subjectivities) shape the angle from which the news is reported, read and interpreted. For our current concerns, the frames within which the news reports are analysed are the political and legal environments within Namibia since independence in 1990.

On the other hand, Appraisal Theory 'is concerned with evaluation - the kinds of attitudes that are negotiated in a text, the strength of the feelings involved and the ways in which values are sourced and readers aligned' (Martin & Rose, 2003, p, 22). Authors/speakers employ the resources of Appraisal for negotiating their social relationships; in other words, how they feel about things and people involved in the discourse and this is evidenced through linguistic choice - the choices of linguistic resources they choose  to  express  themselves.  Within  the  subsystem  of  Appraisal  are  further  subsystems  of ATTITUDE, ENGAGEMENT and GRADUATION. Within the subsystem of ATTITUDE there are further  subdomains  of  AFFECT,  JUDGMENT  and  APPRECIATION.  These  are  the  Appraisal resources  through  which  we  analyse  the  proliferation  of  authorial  evaluative  language  and  discern authorial 'stance' and subjectivities.

As  a  subsystem  of  ATTITUDE, ' JUDGMENT ' is  concerned  with  the  assessment  of  human behaviour based on a set of established social norms and expectations. It is the evaluation of human behaviour with respect to social norms (White, 2002). 'It deals with attitudes towards behaviour, which we admire or criticise, praise or condemn' (Martin & White, 2005, p. 42). It is realised in expressions that a speaker/writer makes attitudinal evaluations of human behaviour based on social expectations and  often  this  is  construed  through  'judgments'  based  on  legality/illegality,  morality/immorality, politeness/impoliteness  as  these  are  configured  within  a  cultural,  institutional  or  social  context. 'APPRECIATION'  concerns  itself  with  the  examination  and  analysis  of  linguistic  'resources  that construe  values  of  things  including  natural  phenomena  and  semiosis'  (Martin  &  White,  2005) specifically focusing on non-humans. It is 'the evaluation of objects by reference to aesthetic principles and other systems of social value' (White, 1998, 2006, 2008).

Lastly, AFFECT resources are concerned with the construal of 'emotional reaction to events, for example, feelings of shock, elation and so on' (Martin & White, 2005, p. 38). According to White (2005),  'the  general  outlines  of  the  grammar  and  semantics  of  AFFECT  are  well  understood. ' AFFECT' is  concerned with emotional response and disposition, and is typically realised through mental processes of reaction' (White, 2002, p. 6). In essence, our analysis of the resources of AFFECT are concerned with the identification of instances of both explicit (inscribed) and implicit (invoked) instances of a writer's/speaker's emotional reaction to the subject/events of their text. This can also cover the emotional reactions of the sources within the text (attributed text) as 'observed by the writer.' In the analysis of the occurrence of attitudinal evaluations within the texts, occurring as both explicit (inscribed) and implicit (invoked) evaluations, the study adopts the analytical key proposed by Tran and Thomson (2008, p. 55) which is reproduced below;

## KEY

bold underlining = inscribed (explicit) negative attitude

bold = implicit (implied) negative attitude

italics underlined = inscribed positive attitude

italics = invoked positive attitude

boxed material = heterogloss (material attributed to an external source)

The subtype of the attitude is indicated in square brackets immediately following the relevant span of text:

[j] = judgement (positive/negative assessment of human behaviour in terms of social norms)

[ap] = appreciation (positive/negative assessment of objects, artefacts, events and states of affairs in terms of systems of aesthetics and other systems of social valuation)

[af] = affect (positive/negative emotional response); 1 st af = first person or authorial affect; 3 rd af = observed affect, i.e. the reporter describing the emotional responses of third parties.

## Kinds of attribution

<ack>  =  'acknowledgement':  material  is  attributed  to  some  external  source  by  means  of quotation and related formulations. Nothing in the lexicogrammar of the words by which the quotation is framed indicates where the writer stands with respect to propositions being presented

- i.e. there is no overt indication of the writer favouring or disfavouring the attributed material. It is, however, possible that the writer's position vis-à-vis the attributed material will be indicated elsewhere in the text. Attribution is typically via a formulation involving reporting verbs - for example, 'X stated that…', 'X argues that…', 'X believes that…' or through adjuncts such as 'according to X…'

<end>  =  'endorsement':  material  is  attributed  to  an  external  source  -  as  is  the  case  with acknowledgement - but the framing is such as to indicate that the writer holds the material as true or valid - for example by means of 'factive' reporting such as 'to prove', 'to show' or 'to demonstrate';

<dist>  =  'distancing':  material  is  attributed  to  an  external  source  -  as  in  the  case  of acknowledgement - but the framing is such as to indicate that the writer holds the material to be still open to question, as not yet proved. Distancing in English is typically achieved by the use of the reporting verb 'to claim' and by the use of so called 'scare quotes'.

*** There is a notion of 'proclamation' <proc> which Van and Thomson (2008) describe as those instances when the reporter makes overt interventions into the text which 'present themselves as challenging or dismissing some alternative viewpoints.'

Table 1: Comparative analytical analysis

## 5 Legal and political framing of homosexuality and homophobia in The Namibian and New Era

This section provides analyses of news reports on homosexuality in The Namibian and New Era .  In selecting news reports for analysis, search words 'LGBTQI, gay, lesbian, homosexual and queer' were used  to  search  for  news  articles  within  the  electronic  databases  of  the  newspapers.  This  yielded  a sizeable number of news reports (392). The news reports were further decomposed into own copy (news reports by journalists from the Namibian newspapers which reported on the LGBTQI population within the Namibian context) and foreign copy (news reports copied or received from sources external to the newspapers, such as agencies and foreign correspondents). This was done in order to eliminate news reports on other countries and contexts outside Namibia which do not fall within the scope of this study. A pool of 119 news reports remained. These were subjected to a further exclusion criterion that sought to select only those news reports that evinced political and legal frames. Most of the news reports within the 119 evinced other frames from which LGBTQI persons were framed. These included the cultural, health vector (projecting LGBTQI persons as disease spreaders and a nuisance) and religious framing - leaving a corpus of 16 news reports analysed herein below, which speak directly to the concerns of the current enquiry.

## 6 Legal framing of homosexuality/homophobia in the two Namibian newspapers

This section examines the manners in which the law has been, and is being used as a means to proliferate homophobia in Namibia as evinced through the linguistic resources that the news reports contain - and which occur from both the journalistic voice as well as through attribution. As shall be observed here and in further analyses, sometimes it is very difficult to limit the analyses of evaluative resources to singular words or phrases. Instead, in some instances, whole chunks of linguistic data will make more vivid the implications of particular resources within them and are hence thus analysed/marked as such. The law has generally been used as an instrument for both the criminalisation as well as ostracisation of homosexuals. In some cases, as will be observed in the analysis, the law has also been used as a means for proffering sympathy towards the LGBTQI population group. It is important to note that while there  were  several  other  news  reports  on  the  LGBTQI  in  the  two  newspapers  since  Namibia's independence, the analysis only focuses on own copy news reports which speak specifically directly to the Namibian legal and political systems and society. There were quite a sizeable number of foreign copy news reports also published in the two newspapers. However, these do not have a direct appeal to the concerns of the current enquiry. Below I offer analyses of the news reports from the New Era and The Namibian respectively.  Below them will follow a brief comparative analysis of the framing of homosexuality  and  homophobia  within  the  newspapers  demonstrated  by  the  analyses  of  appraisal resources conducted.

## 6.1 Legal framing of homosexuality and homophobia in the New Era

In the news report titled 'Ostracised, Isolated, The 'oddity' Demands Recognition: Gays, Lesbians To End  Silence'  (8-14  June  1995),  the  journalistic  voice  revisits  the  well-established  homophobia  in Namibian  society  which  views  homosexuality  through  the  eyes  of  'othering'  as  referenced  by  the description of homosexuals as the 'oddity' in the heading. The journalistic voice, through negative 1 st AFFECT (1 st  person or authorial emotional response) resources evinces sympathetic overtones towards the LGBTQI population by describing them as ' homosexuals in Namibia are a hounded lot [1 st af] ' , who, 'like  secret  cults  are  living  secret  lives [1 st af]'.  There  are  also  sympathies  from  externally expressed resources of negative 3 rd AFFECT (the emotional responses of third parties as described by the author) in which the population group is described as ' live in fear and ostracization [3 rd af]' and ' fear public ridicule as well inviting legal wrath against themselves [3 rd af]'. The external voice of the Attorney General, cited in the news report, reinforces the legally sanctioned homophobia through the negative JUDGEMENT (positive/negative assessment of human behaviour in terms of social norms) resources, in which homosexual behaviour is described as ' opposed to our culture and is un-African [j]'.  Finally,  through  negative  APPRECIATION  resources,  ' the  law  is  not  on  their  side [ap]'  the authorial/journalistic voice provides evaluations of the legal challenges that confront LGBTQI persons through the criminalisation of their behaviour.

The news report, 'S/African Judge with AIDS Wants Justice for Millions' (19 November 2001), reports  on a  visiting  South  African  Judge  who publicly  expresses  negative  evaluations towards the homophobic laws in Namibia. The news report, through authorial positive JUDGEMENT evaluations of  the  Judge  as,  ' leading  critic  of  the  AIDS  policy [j]'  and castigated  his  government's  policy [j]' provides a sympathetic evaluative position towards the LGBTQI population. It exposes the inequalities that characterise AIDS policies in many countries, especially how they exclude homosexuals. Through positive JUDGEMENT resources, the journalistic voice hails the visiting South African Judge for his courage to challenge publicly the dissimilatory laws in Namibia.

'Work in progress to phase out discriminatory laws' (20 March 2012), is a news report in which, through both inscriptions and evocations, the journalistic voice aided by attribution (evaluative material from external sources) offers a criticism of Namibian laws as discriminatory against the LGBTQI group. Through negative 1 st AFFECT resources, it describes Namibian laws as ' infringing on the rights of some of the citizens and residents [1 st af]' and further offers negative APPRECIATION evaluations of the laws as antiquated through the resources, archaic laws from the colonial period [ap]' and [laws]

with  little  essence  to  her  new  democratic  dispensation [ap]'.  In  castigating  the  laws  and  their sanctioning of homophobia, the journalistic voice in the process, is sympathetic to the population group who are discriminated against by such laws.

The  journalistic  voice  in  the  news  report,  'Journalist  claims  he  was  fired  for  being  gay'  (20 November 2015), provides sympathy for the LGBTQI population by exposing the legally sanctioned homophobia through discrimination in the workplace, The news report provides positive 1 st  AFFECT resources that evince sympathy  towards the LGBTQI  population  group  by  challenging  the discrimination through ' sexual orientation of people does not impact on their ability to perform work [1 st af]', ' one's sexual orientation does not affect one's competency in delivering the work [1 st af]' and ' sexual orientation has nothing to do with the capabilities and skills of a person [1 st af]'. These signal an  emotional  appeal  for  the  laws  which  are  described  through  negative  JUDGEMENT  resources towards the government as laws makers that the treatment of homosexuals in Namibia, ' it's a direct human rights  violation [j]'  and  that  ' government  and  stakeholders  should  take  up  to  uphold everybody's human rights [j]'. The government here is implicitly challenged to promulgate inclusive laws, in the process, this is a direct affront on the draconian nature of the current laws.

'SADC pinned over sexual minority rights' (21 April 2016), is a news report that takes a swipe at SADC countries for their reluctancy to promulgate laws that respect the rights of sexual minorities. In this regard, through overt and implicit journalistic evaluations, the news report evinces sympathy for the LGBTQI population who are not being protected by laws in most of these countries. This news report is framed within the homophobia prevalent especially in African countries, as also demonstrated by the positions on homosexuality enunciated by many African leaders (see the introduction of this paper). The news report suggests both implicitly and explicitly through authorial negative JUDGEMENT of the governments, ' pinned over sexual minority rights [j]' and ' under increasing pressure  to  introduce  legislation  to  protect  the  rights  of  sexual  minorities [j]'  and  positive APPRECIATION resources towards calls for change ' a call…to promulgate laws in favour of lesbian, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex citizens within the sub-regional bloc [ap]', that the need for legal reform. Hence, in the process coming out as sympathetic to the cause of the LGBTQI population who are ostracised because of unaccommodating laws.

'UN wants homosexuality legalised in Namibia' (18 August 2016), reports on calls by the UN for the  abolishment  of  legal  instruments  that  criminalise  homosexuality  and  discriminate  against  the LGBTQI population in general. The journalistic voice, through positive 3 rd  AFFECT resources towards the UN and its call, 'UN wants homosexuality legalized in Namibia [3 rd af]' and ' wants Namibia to abolish common law crime of sodomy [3 rd af]'  speaks  to  the  existence  of  laws  unfavourable  to  the LGBTQI  population  and  homosexual  practices  in  general.  Furthermore,  through  evoked  implicit negative JUDGEMENT resources, that this call was ' expected to draw condemnation from section of both Namibia society and government [j]' and ' homosexuality remains a largely unaccepted practice among Namibians [j]' castigates the draconian laws currently in existence in Namibia which it views as the source of homophobia. In the process, it evinces sympathy for the LGBTQI population.

## 6.2 Legal framing of homosexuality and homophobia in The Namibian

'Govt  planning  to  criminalise  gay'  (9  November,  1998)  is  a  news  report  on  the  intentions  by  the Namibian government to criminalise homosexual activities in Namibia. There are, in the news report intimations  of  'criminality'  (pointing  towards  legally  sanctioned  homophobia'  and  'sin'  (pointing towards religion sanctioned homophobia' associated with homosexuality. The news report is framed through strategic impersonalisation - largely achieved through evaluations made from external sources and hence are negative 3 rd  AFFECT and negative JUDGEMENT resources. This is achieved through attribution. This happens when evaluative positions are made through the voices of external sources and not the journalistic voice. Jullian (2011) refers to this news writing process and 'appraising through the words of others. Characterisations of homosexuality as ' inimical to Namibian culture, African culture and religion [3 rd af]' and ' rank as sin against society and God [3 rd af]' speak to how cultural and religious ideological positions within Namibia influence the promulgation of laws unfavourable to the LGBTQI population. The external voices further provide negative characterisations of homosexual behaviour as ' sin [j]' and ' human wrongs [j]' (as opposed to human rights), which results in the need to ' curbing the spread of homosexual practices [j]' and ' uproot homosexuality [j]'. There is also blame  gaming  as  homosexuality  is  blamed  on  the  western  world  since  it  is  'not  African'.  This  is achieved through the negative JUDGEMENT resources ' Europeans destroying Namibian culture [j]'.  The cultural imperative is thus used to justify the existence, and further promulgations of antiLGBTQI laws.

In  the  news  report,  'Earring  crackdown'  (23  December  2003),  the  journalistic  voice  betrays  an ideological  position  that  is  sympathetic  to  the  LGBTQI  population  group  (and  especially  those suspected of homosexual tendencies or behaviour) for being beaten up by the army for merely wearing earrings - demonstrating the homophobia within the legal enforcement system in Namibia. There are negative authorial JUDGEMENT resources, ' beat him…with a sjaambok [j]', ' picked on any man who sported earrings [j]', ' rounded up [j]' and ' was a moffie (homosexual) [j]' towards the soldiers for beating up suspected homosexuals. These evaluations suggest the criminalisation of homosexuality through the actions of state security agent. At the same time, there is sympathy for the LGBTQI persons demonstrated through the negative 1 st  AFFECT resources, ' beaten [1 st af]' and ' victimised [1 st af]' which evince sympathy for the suspected LGBTQI persons and in the process condemns the actions of the army.

In the news report, 'Moongo wants law against hate speech passed' (7 October 2011), is reported of a motion tabled by a Namibian opposition MP (Moongo) proposing for the passing of laws criminalising hate speech against particular groups of people including homosexuals. The journalistic voice implicitly establishes the ideological position sympathetic to the LGBTQI community through observed AFFECT resources.  There  are  several  instances  of  overt  negative  3 rd (observed)  AFFECT towards intolerant language  against  LGBTQI  persons.  Such  resources,  which  also  occur  in  attribution,  describe  hate language  against  homosexuals  as  ' intolerant  verbal  communication [3 rd af]',  ' apartheid-like behaviour [3 rd af]', ' a discriminatory tool [3 rd af]', ' political weapon of mass destruction [3 rd af]', ' derogatory and dehumanising language [3 rd af]'  and  ' ill-advisedly used in public [3 rd af]'  The report, thus, evinces sympathy towards the LGBTQI persons. However, there is an overt absence of the journalistic voice, as evaluations present in attribution, a strategy many newspapers use in order to avoid censure and castigation.

The news report, 'Home affairs loses bid to deport Ugandan gay' (8 August, 2014), occurring largely in  attributed  APPRECIATION  and  JUDGEMENT  resources,  illustrates  the  homophobic  nature  of Namibia and allegedly Namibian laws for being insensitive to the plight of a gay man fleeing Uganda where anti-gay laws had recently been enacted. Negative JUDGEMENT evaluations of law officials in Namibia, ' officials were willing to quickly deport the man because he is gay [j]', ' without following due process and have his case heard [j]' demonstrates the impunity and disregard of basic human rights that they are willing to act on in order to curtail the proliferation of homosexual behaviour in Namibia.  The  journalistic  voice  offers  overt  negative  JUDGEMENT  evaluations  of  the  Namibian officials for acting on homophobic triggers with disregard for the law.

## 7 Comparative analysis

In examining the news reports in the two newspapers, it becomes apparent that there exists in Namibia, an established form of legally sanctioned homophobia. Of course, what is important to observe is that the legal will to enact and enforce laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQI community or the lack of it thereof to enact laws that 'accept' and 'accommodate' members of the same group are driven not just by the law but other law external factors such as political will, culture and religion. As observed in most of the news reports, the negative evaluations of members of the LGBTQI community, occurring largely as observed AFFECT (3 rd af)  and  JUDGEMENT resources are largely framed in attribution. There is little, if any, sympathy for members of the population group evinced through the attributed resources. There are observed sympathetic overtones towards the population group from the journalistic voice and this occurs across the board. There seems to be a general consensus amongst news writers  from  both  the  newspapers  that  the  existing  Namibian  laws  are  intolerant  of  homosexual tendencies or behaviours. The sympathy towards members of the population group thus largely evinces itself through authorial/journalistic AFFECT (1 st  af) and JUDGEMENT resources expressed through the journalistic voice. The AFFECT resources largely provide the general negative sentiment of the journalistic voice towards the inhuman treatment of the members of the population group. In the same vein, these are also evinced through JUDGEMENT resources targeted towards political actors and the generality of the Namibian  population for their unacceptance  of  the  LGBTQI  community. APPRECIATION  resources  expressed  through  the  journalistic  voice  are  also  used  to  signal  the draconian nature of the existing legislation in Namibia. In this manner, they provide a criticism of the laws and in the process challenge responsible political actors to perhaps promulgate new laws that are more accommodating of the population group.

## 8 Political framing of homosexuality/homophobia in the two Namibian newspapers

Within this section are analysed news reports that are framed within political will or lack of it thereof to support or sympathise with the LGBTQI population.  As such the analyses of news reports within this  frame  reflects  on  whether  news  reports  evince  political  will  that  is  antagonistic  towards/bash homosexuality  or  that  evince  support/sympathy  for  homosexuality  and  its  attendant  activities.  The selection  criteria  for  news  reports  to  analyse  was  also  conducted  through  the  process  of  exclusion explained above. Below I offer analyses of the news reports from the New Era and The Namibian respectively. Below them follows a brief comparative analysis of the framing of homosexuality and homophobia within the newspapers through the political frame as demonstrated by the analyses of appraisal resources conducted.

## 8.1 Political framing of homosexuality and homophobia in the New Era

An analysis of the news report titled ''Gays, Lesbians, Force to Reckon with' (25 November 1999), demonstrates that the journalistic voice, aided by attributed materials from external sources, makes propositions  of  negative  JUDGEMENT  such  as  that,  ' political  parties  need  to  wake  up [j]'  and ' realise  that  the  country's  gay  and  lesbian  community  constitute  almost  10  percent  of  the electorate [j],  ' utterance by SWAPO leadership…have rocked the foundations of many of the homosexual  hardline  SWAPO  supporters [j]' and ' good governance is proven by not discriminating  against  the  people  you  govern [j]'.  These  negative  evaluations  of  political  actors within Namibia - both within the ruling and oppositions parties reveal the failure to recognise the potential  that  homosexuals  have  to  influence  political  victory  within  Namibian  politics.  The propositions are made within a frame of homophobia observed in Namibia. This was especially so since the key population group ideally constituted 10% of the population, and as such could make a difference with regards to who wins or loses in elections. The evaluations through the journalistic voice occurring as negative JUDGEMENT resources which frame the need for political will to accept homosexuality is contextualised within verbalisations made by politicians in castigation of homosexuals - notably by former president, Sam Nujoma and several other high-profile figures within the ruling SWAPO party. In further demonstration of sympathy towards the LGBTQI population group, demonstrated through the  use  of  positive  JUDGEMENT  resources  towards  them,  describing  them  as  ' they  can  play  an important role on who gets the most votes [j]' and that they are a' 'mighty' group to work with [j]'.

In the news report, 'Nujoma Lashes at Homosexuals' (19 - 22 August 2002), the journalistic voice establishes  the  politically  sanctioned  homophobia  through  overt  negative  JUDGEMENT  of  then president, ' Sam Nujoma [who] was lashing out at homosexuals in the country [j]'. These are further supported  by  observed  3 rd AFFECT  resources  in  which  Nujoma  describes  homosexuals  as,  ' 'a shameful thing' [3 rd af]'.  The  external  voice  of  then  president,  Sam  Nujoma is  quoted expressing verbalisations full of negative JUDGEMENT, ' urged the congress to denounce homosexuality [j/3 rd af]', ' workers need to denounce the practice [j]' and ' make sure that children are not exposed to it [j]'. Further evaluations attributed to Nujoma are used to reaffirm this framing of homophobia and how  such  verbalisations  represent  the  political  antagonism  towards  homosexuality  as  evinced  by Namibian political elite and society.

'Homosexuality Will Retard Population Growth - Nujoma' (12 December 2006), is another news report that demonstrates how politically sanctioned homophobia proliferates even through the highest office of the land, The Presidency. The news report, largely framed in attribution, projects Namibian president, Sam Nujoma's distaste for LGBTQI persons. The journalistic voice in this regard establishes the  politically  sanctioned  homophobia  as  demonstrated  in  Nujoma's  verbalisations.  Implicitly  and explicitly, the journalistic voice evinces a sympathetic tone towards the homosexual community. As with other African leaders (and Namibian leaders) the homophobia is also framed within 'othering' that homosexuality is alien to Africa and a Western behaviour as demonstrated by the proliferation of the negative highly attitudinal JUDGEMENT, through which Nujoma, ' urged men and women to unite, condemn and reject the promotion of sexual relations between people of the same sex [j]', ' urged men to unite, condemn and reject those modes of foreign behaviour among Namibians [j]' because  ' freedom…[also] brings forth some negative foreign influences [j/ap]'.  Nujoma  further describes homosexual behaviour as behaviour, ' which…erode cultural and traditional norms [ap/j]' and is ' a threat to the general wellbeing of a society [j/3 rd af]'. Such resources occurring through attribution are used as negative evaluative materials for the LGBTQI population.

## 8.2 Political framing of homosexuality and homophobia in The Namibian

'Taking the AIDS message behind bars: Sodomy and homosexuality part of prison subculture' (16 July 1997), is a news report on the potential move by the Namibian government to take the HIV and AIDS message to prisons. There are overt and implicit overtones, through the journalistic voice, that positively frames the move by a government ministry and the Minister for a good initiative to reach out to the prison population with the AIDS campaign - where homosexuality allegedly exists through positive JUDGEMENT resources,  ' HIV  and  AIDS  awareness  is  catching  on  in  Namibia's  prisons [j/ap]', ' attempts are being made to quell the epidemic behind bars [j/ap]', ' attempt to quell the growing AIDS epidemic [j]' and ' uphold prisoner rights to health [j]'. . This is further sustained through attribution in the  form  of  positive  APPRECIATION  resources  made  by  the  Deputy  Minister  of  Prisons  and Correctional Services, ' …if you have AIDS campaigns, you can't stop at the prison doors [ap]' and ' ensure that the AIDS awareness programme reaches all sectors of society [ap]'. The journalistic voice further,  through  inscribed  positive  JUDGEMENT  and  APPRECIATION  resources,  reiterates  this sympathetic tone towards the LGBTQI population by describing the move by the ministry as proactive and in the best interest of all members of Namibian society. In a manner of speaking, the general framing of the news report propagates that homosexuals are human beings too and deserve access to healthcare like all other persons.

The analysis of the news report, 'Namibia surveys AIDS infections among homosexuals' (27 July 2012) evinces propositions through which the journalistic voice establishes the move by the government to  undertake a survey of AIDS infections amongst members of the LGBTQI community as geared towards getting to the 'bottom of the HIV impact on these minority groups' The journalistic voice establishes  the  'othering'  of  the  LGBTQI  community  by  utilising  the  negative  1 st   AFFECT  and APPRECIATION resources, ' homosexuality and commercial sex workers remain stigmatised in Namibia [1 st af/ap]' and ' they are stigmatised by our own health workers to a certain extent [1 st af/j]'.Further evaluative materials framed in attribution to Deputy Permanent Secretary of Health and Social Services reveal the homophobia in Namibia, further implicitly admitting that there was exclusion of these key populations in so far as access to healthcare facilities was of concern. This is evinced through the positive APPRECIATION resources, ' study focuses on the challenges and issues that these communities face [ap]'. This of course is the goal of the news report, to offer a sympathetic voice to the cause of homosexuals. It is also an applaud to the Namibian government for the initiative that recognises the reality that homosexuality exists and that these were an ostracised group.

## 9 Comparative analysis

In examining the news reports in the two newspapers within the established political frame established here,  it  can  be  observed  that  there  exists  a  high  level  of  politically  engrained  homophobia  within Namibia as demonstrated through the ideological positions assumed by prominent and high-ranking politicians within the country.  Within their verbalisations evince highly negative attitudinal resources of largely JUDGEMENT and AFFECT (1 st  and 3 rd  AFFECT alike) towards members of the LGBTQI community as demonstrated in the analyses undertaken in Sections 7 and 8 above. These resources clearly demonstrate an apparent and calculated disregard for members and activities of this population group.  Of  course,  in  some  instances,  there  is  evidence  of  some  sympathy  towards  the  LGBTQI populations also evinced through some of the politicians' stances towards them. However, in most instances, it has been established that these sympathies have not been followed through with tangible government efforts and behaviours to redress the inequalities and discrimination that members of the group  face  day  in  and  day  out.    Highly  attitudinal  resources  of  negative  JUDGEMENT,  negative APPRECIATION and negative 1 st  and 3 rd AFFECT, expressed through attributed materials, reflect a general sense of homophobia within the political leadership of the country.

The journalistic voices in both publications also evince sympathetic ideological evaluative positions towards the LGBTQI population group. These are demonstrated through the highly attitudinal usage of negative observed AFFECT  (1 st AFFECT) and negative JUDGEMENT  resources towards verbalisations  by  prominent  political  actors  who  have  expressed  sentiments  deemed  discriminatory towards the population group. Further to that, the proliferation of overt negative authorial AFFECT (1 st af) and negative APPRECIATION resources reflective of the journalistic voice's description of the state of affairs with regards to the status of LGBTQI persons in Namibia evince highly attitudinal sympathetic overtones.  In  further  evidencing  sympathy  towards  homosexuality,  positive  APPRECIATION  and JUDGEMENT resources are expressed towards the processes and political actors for making positive strides towards enforcing change in the legal, cultural, health as well as political imaging of members of the LGBTQI population. The journalistic voice also evinces positive JUDGEMENT and authorial AFFECT (1 st  af) descriptions of homosexual persons within Namibia, imagining them as a group not to be shunned but embraced and accommodated. In doing this, the authorial voices in all the news reports overtly exhibit sympathy for the LGBTQI population group whilst at the same time implicitly providing negative JUDGEMENT evaluations towards politicians, political parties and the generality of Namibian society for shunning the population group.

## 10 Conclusion: Critical analytical perspective

Homophobia is well established in Namibia as demonstrated by the negative political and legal framing of homosexuality in the analysed news reports. Sadly, one of the major challenges observed in the collection of data is that the general reportage on the LGBTQI in the context of the political landscape and the law as evinced in the analyses in the above sections reflects that most of the reportage is largely foreign copy and not own copy. This resulted in only a smaller corpus undergoing analysis as most of the news reports collected using the search words largely reflect events elsewhere and not in Namibia. One is tempted to draw the conclusion that this might result from the newspapers averting culpable liability and censure from the Namibian government - which has on many occasions, as reflected in the literature review as well as analyses, pronounced publicly a highly anti-gay position. Seen to be going against the government and legally established positions could also impact on the operations of the newspapers within the country. As such, most of the analysed news reports are thus framed as antihomosexuality  and  homophobic  at  best  and  homosexuals  are  framed  within  the  news  reports  and through both journalistic voice and attributed materials, as a vulnerable group - threatened by both criminal prosecution and legal censure through draconian laws. This also realised within the political rhetoric  of  high-ranking  Namibian  politicians  and  demonstrates  the  political  will  to  subvert  the recognition and humanity of members of the LGBTQI population group. On the other hand, in most instances, the journalistic voices reflect ideological biases that proffer sympathetic overtones towards homosexuals and their legal challenges. It is important however to note that there are, in most cases, glaring absences of overt journalistic convictions and thus the journalistic position is largely implicitly realised. Attribution is also used as a method of strategic impersonalisation, which many newspapers use in a bid to avoid censure and castigation from the political and legal forces within the environment in which they publish. In terms of representation, the dialogic nature of the news reports in general provide a multiplicity of voices except that of the affected group - homosexuals.

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