Aid that comes tied with demands for fair treatment of homosexuals is "unreligious" and "sinful", and Africans do not need handouts if they "stop sleeping and work", Uganda's president has said.
Several Western nations reduced funding to Yoweri Museveni's government in February after he signed into law new legislation imposing life sentences for being gay.
The aid cuts were welcome because they had "aroused" Ugandans and made them realise they needed to "undertake serious work" to build self-reliance, Museveni told a religious conference in the capital, Kampala.
"Uganda is so rich, we should be the ones to give aid. The only thing we need from the world is trade, if they can buy our products. Aid becomes important only when people are asleep."
The only thing Africans "do well", the 69-year-old president said, was "multiply and fill the Earth", while not working hard to ensure productivity to feed all the continent's people.
It was "unreligious" to offer aid with strings attached, including demands to treat homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people equally with others, he said.
"That is a bad omen. You are committing a sin to offer that aid, or to receive it," he said.
Museveni has become known for long speeches justifying anti-gay laws by claiming homosexuality is a "lifestyle choice" and Western attempts to impose equality were "social imperialism".
British aid had already been diverted away from the government, and the £83-million (about R1.5-billion) the UK Department for International Development spends annually in Uganda goes through approved charities.
The US last month cut aid, imposed visa restrictions and cancelled a military exercise it planned with the Ugandan army in Barack Obama's latest sanctions against Museveni over the new laws.
Norway and Denmark also reduced their funding to Uganda, where Museveni has been in power for 28 years and appears unwilling to step down.
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