Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe joked about proposing to United States President Barack Obama on Saturday during a weekly interview over state radio ZBC, reported IB Times.
The jibe came as President Obama lauded a historic Supreme Court ruling legalising same-sex marriage in all 50 American states last week.
During his interview with ZBC, Mugabe mocked the 5-4 court decision and condemned marriage equality.
“I’ve just concluded since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance – thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington DC, get down on my knee and ask his hand,” Mugabe, 91, was quoted as saying by Turkey-based news website AWDnews.
The Zimbabwean dictator and African Union chairperson who was elected president in 1987 has expressed his distaste for homosexuality in the past.
“Let Europe keep their homosexual nonsense there and live with it. We will never have it here. The act [of homosexuality] is not humane,” Mugabe reportedly said during a July 2013 speech to his ruling Zanu PF party supporters. “Any diplomat who talks about homosexuality will be kicked out. There is no excuse and we won’t listen to them.”
In a 2013 campaign rally, Mugabe reportedly said, “We have this American president, Obama, born of an African father, who is saying we will not give you aid if you don’t embrace homosexuality. We ask was he born out of homosexuality?”
The US court decision to legalise same-sex marriage nationwide came just before Zimbabwe’s neighbour, Mozambique, decriminalised homosexuality and abortion. Gay rights advocates called the move a “symbolic victory” for the LGBT community in Africa, Newsweek reported.
