Pafla Basuza rides a boda boda, a motorcycle taxi, by day and preaches at his village Pentecostal church by night and on Sundays. Like most evangelists in Uganda, the themes of his gospel are recurrent – abortion is murder, homosexuals have an assured ticket to hell, and poverty is a curse from God resulting from these and other such evils.
Basuza’s message echoes that of US rightwing Christians he has never heard of. He, however, first heard about the evils of homosexuality from his idol, Martin Ssempa. Ssempa is a Ugandan anti-gay crusader who is inspired, mentored and funded by conservative Christian groups from the US – a fact Basuza does not know or care about.
