The law also criminalizes heterosexuals who engage in oral sex and anal intercourse. This was among the lowest in Africa, but higher than the poll. In , a so-called "witch hunt" was declared against gay people in Dar es Salaam , where gay men were forced to endure anal examinations and torture. Government respect for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is declining. Despite this, there have been several Tanzanian human rights campaigners, activists, lawyers and feminists like Maria Sarungi, Fatma Karume, Mwanahamisi Singano, Carol Ndosi, Zara Kay, Khalifa Said, Goodluck Haule and many others who have openly supported LGBTQ rights whilst openly opposing state-sanctioned homophobia and dangerous rhetoric from government officials who have called for further persecution of these marginalized groups.
Prior to colonization, various modern-day Tanzanian ethnic groups accepted homosexuality or viewed it with indifference. Homosexuals are known as shoga plural: mashoga , and historically had certain social roles, such as drumming and playing music at marriages and other festivals. Over time, shoga relationships turned into economic relations, with poorer young men being paid by richer older men basha , plural: mabasha for sexual relations. Socially, only the mashoga were regarded as "homosexual", the mabasha would usually have a wife.
Mombasa's mashoga are passive male homosexuals offering their persons for money. They advertise themselves in bright tight male attire in public places, usually, but may, when mingling with women at weddings, don women's leso cloths, make-up and jasmine posies. Mashoga have all the liberties of men and are also welcome in many contexts otherwise exclusive to women. Lesbians relationships were also commonplace in Swahili society.
Lesbians known as msagaji or msago plural: wasagaji or misago , literally 'grinders' also had certain societal roles, including doing tasks typically associated with men. Similarly to shoga relationships, msagaji relationships were also defined for economic purposes, though less so. The older partner mama plural: mwana was typically wealthier and of a higher social class.
Women who resisted marriage and were interested in education and careers were perceived as being wasagaji , regardless of their actual sexual orientation. Collectively, homosexuals were called mke-si-mume literally 'woman, not man'. During initiation rituals, young male Maasai would often dress as women and wear the surutya ear-rings worn by women to show that they are married and other female garments. Though now not perceived as being "homosexual", these marriages are performed for economic and diplomatic purposes, such as when a family has no son.
