Letter to my brother and sister from another mother: “You knew me”

In Africa; the proverbial Motherland, the sun sets casting darkness on the flat and open land of Burkina Faso, in the north west, to desert plains of northern Sudan, where the White Nile runs through its centre while its highlands emerge in South Sudan flowing down into neighbouring Uganda; cradled by mountains. The moon’s light rises and shines on the fertile Great Rift Valley west of Kenya while deep shadows befall the low plains of eastern Kenya as the waters of the Indian ocean glisten at the moon’s glory.

As the land races down, stretching to its directional extremities, we are introduced to the peoples and countries of southern Africa. At the southern tip of the continent, where the earliest human skull was discovered; home to the cradle of humankind, is South Africa. The people who inhibit these lands, who live along these rivers, collectively speak over 2000 languages. They organize societies, raise families and run governments. These, the Bantu people of Africa, are the people that are the subject of this post.

“The central crisis” – Homosexuality is unAfrican..?

One of the most politically-charged topics on the continent of Africa today is whether or not homosexuality is African. With tempers flaring on both ends of the debate, and human lives at stake, the anthropological truth and evidence is ignored in favour of the more popular Afrocentric and Black nationalistic political rhetoric that excludes homosexuality as being part of the African and Black historical experience. In an effort to unpack this emotive topic, I want to begin with the assertion that before Her invasion and colonization by imperialists, no sexual behaviour between consenting adults was punishable by law and sexuality was not codified. Thus, we had no “homosexual,” “bisexual,” or “pansexual” people. Labels such as LGBT arose post colonization and Africans who identify themselves as such are perceived to be practising western-imported sexual habits and are widely discriminated against, unprotected by laws and targeted.

“Let the Church say Amen…” - Indigenous African Religion vs Imported Religions!

The Bantu people of Africa came into contact, because of trade and colonization, with foreign religions. The amaXhosa describe the converts, at the time, as amaQhoboka and those who had not converted as amaQaba. Today, these words are understood to widely refer to “the westernized” (the former) and the “the unread/uneducated”(the latter); implicit of the general attitude about maintaining one’s indigenous traditions. Today, the continent is largely Christian and Muslim. These religions have been practised on the continent for centuries and have become ingrained in the culture of the people. The Christian anti-LGBT movement in Uganda is a poignant example of how religion is being used to spread hate and target the now LGBT-identified community of Africans on the continent. They face mob justice from religious leaders and their congregants. However, within the Lango, Iteso and Karamojan peoples of Uganda, prior to colonization, there were men who would take up all women roles. These men were called Jok manywala (God begat me). Men in men roles could, and did, marry these men and had sexual relations with them. One cannot say that many a men did not willingly thrust themselves into these women roles in order to be with the one they loved. Today, the history of the Jok manywala people of Uganda is brought into disrepute as modern-day Ugandans seek to obliterate their existence by objecting to the sexual behaviours of their modern-day descendants on the basis that they are unAfrican western imports and that Uganda is a country of God-fearing Christians. In indigenous religions in African society, diviners and or healers were people who exhibited gender and sexual duality. A male diviner/healer would often times be effeminate while the opposite would be true for a female. In Madagascar, among the Tanala and Bara people, they are known as Sarombavy. Among the Zulu of South Africa they are known as iSangoma. And among the Otoro people of Sudan, they are known as Miyang. Diviners, not just in Africa, but in most indigenous cultures across the world; Mayan, Native Americans, Native Australians, etc, are known and accepted to be gender and sexually fluid. We therefore unconditionally object to the objection by any African that objects to our sexual behaviour as unAfrican based on the fact that the objection against us is an objection based on a religion that was never African to begin with. Therefore, this renders the objection itself, unAfrican!

“The Scramble for Africa vs Afrocentricism.” - Political Rhetoric!

The invasion and colonization of Africa by both Europe and the Arab world brought with it the codifying of homosexual sex and the introduction of penal codes to punish it. Before this, Africans expressed their sexuality mostly free of harm, discrimination and the fear of jail-time and even death. It was the introduction of western and Arab religions, as well as their laws, that led to the above-mentioned. Since the Obama presidency, the incidence of LGBT human rights violations in Africa has spiked and received world-wide attention. The position of the Obama government to link foreign aid to Africa on condition that LGBT rights be respected and observed, received negative backlash from governments as political leaders populated their speeches and addresses with Afrocentric political rhetoric equating the Obama presidency’s conditions to imperialism and the introduction of undesirable western behaviours. Chief among these politicians are Presidents of Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast, the parliament of Uganda and King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulu nation. The electorate is counselled to help herald and protect African culture from “the gays” as the truth about the existence of homosexual sex and relationships in Africa is concealed under the guise of a misogynistic and homophobic Afrocentric identity whose present-day, self-appointed guardians, are our sitting Presidents, Pastors and Parliamentarians. Their hate speech incites people to target the now LGBT-identified communities. There has been an increase in anti-LGBT programs and policies of governments; funded with the aid of US Evangelical money. Penal codes are heavily and readily implemented. Moreover, LGBT people are tortured, raped and killed. In rural Zimbabwe, they are the scapegoats blamed on misfortunes that befall villages. In Black townships in South Africa, lesbian-identified women are ‘correctively’ raped as a misguided attempt to cure them. In 53 of the 54 African countries, penal codes exist that punish homosexual sex between men; the penalties are more stringent in Islam practising countries. NGO’s that support LGBT people and LGBT work get no support within the continent; from both business and the state. Taking their cue from the continent, in the African diaspora, in places like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, etc, LGBT people are targeted and killed. In the African-American society, homosexuality is also shunned upon as unAfrican as the Black nationalist movement seeks to exclude LGBT rights as an extension of the gains of the civil rights movement and de-races Black LGBT-identified people. This internalized hatred among Black people has produced hateful names such as stabane (gay slur), pharameseseng (a man who displays feminine traits) and unqgingili (gay slur). We therefore unconditionally object to the punishment levied against us because it is a western-sanctioned punishment based on colonial penal codes that were never African to begin with. Therefore, this renders the punishment itself, unAfrican!

“What’s in a name?” Everyone and everything has a name.

In African society, past and present, sentiment, function, circumstance and aspiration are what make up a name. Traditionally, names are derived from one or more of the given elements. A name given to a person or thing, within the Bantu people of the continent in particular, will be determined by those given elements. This is true for names about rivers, children, electronics, cities and even names of tribes. While the western world is said to have invented the term ‘homosexuality’ in the 19th century and ‘heterosexuality’ later in that same century and the term ‘bisexuality’ following in the 20th century, and other terms following much later, same-sex sexual acts and behaviour were recorded in Africa by the earliest European explorers and missionaries; who were appalled at what they witnessed, long before then. The ethnic names are proof of the presence of same-sex relationships in Africa before the advent of colonization. Centuries of imperialistic religions have wiped, from the African memory, the truth of our historic existence. Today, for two consenting adults to engage in homosexual sex is seen as “rotten,” “western,” “immoral” and “illegal.” Though the beat of our hearts sings to an ancient, sacred ancestral rhythm that responds to the African drum, we are being de-raced; stripped of our identity. We have become a non-entity. We have, once more, become slaves to the will of loving Christians who pray to a God whose final two commandants were to love Him and one’s neighbour. And to devout Muslims whose just Allah rouses and justifies them to stone us to death. Here, in our ancestral land, we are stripped of being African, because we walk around wearing labels such as “homosexual” and “gay.”

I am a descendant of the Mossi Kings whose people stretch from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and northern Ghana; they had homosexual sex. I am a child of the Dahomey women of Benin, and the modern day female-husbands of Kenya, whose women marry women. I am the daughter of Queen Modjaji of the Lovedu people in South Africa and, like my mother, I will marry a woman, maybe two, maybe three; or like my president, as many as I want. My brother is an Azande warrior of northern Congo and he too has married a boy.

Ask your parents about the stories their parents recited about me; my history is richly painted in Yoruba culture and orature. What then, makes us unAfrican? What then, can be offered, as a means to reclaim the fullness of our identity? The answer I got was that it was in our name. And so I remembered that before we wore the labels Gay, Lesbian Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex, we had names. In Uganda you call us Jok manywala. In Madagascar you call us Sarombavy. And in South Africa you call us iNkonkoni. These are the names, African, that you gave me. I was there with you from the beginning. You knew me and you accepted me, as I did you. I dare you now to say that my sexual behaviour is unAfrican. When you see me walking down the street, lovingly holding a woman’s hand, remember that my name is Di Neo; gift, and I, in all my deeds, am an African.