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Gay rights activist Melusi Simelane wants to draw attention to the country’s colonial-era law against sodomy.

When LGBT+ people took to the streets last year for the first ever Pride march in eSwatini, some hardly believed they could celebrate the event in a country where stigma is rife and gay sex remains illegal.

Now gay rights activist Melusi Simelane plans to go further by timing Pride events to coincide with independence anniversary celebrations in September to draw attention to the country’s  law against sodomy.

“We are looking at the history of colonisation and the common-law offence, which is a hangover of colonisation,” he said. 

The plan to move eSwatini’s Pride rally to September is a departure from tradition. Such events are usually held in June to honour the Stonewall riots in New York in June 1969 that are popularly hailed as the birth of the modern LGBT+ movement.