An unusual and fascinating new book has been written by two anthropologists, called Conspiracy Narratives from Postcolonial Africa: Freemasonry, Homosexuality, and Illicit Enrichment. It explores an ongoing conspiracy theory in Cameroon and neighbouring Gabon that corrupt elites spread homosexuality through their connections to secret orders like the Freemasons. They trace the origins of the conspiracy theory to a moral panic in Cameroon in 2005. They then move back in time to understand what it all means. We asked the authors to tell us more.
What sparked the moral panic in Cameroon?
On Christmas day in 2005 the archbishop of Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, the famously homophobic Victor Tonye Bakot, surprised the nation with a sermon attacking the national elite. He accused them of spreading homosexuality by forcing anal sex on young men eager to get a job.
