The Truth About (part 3)

WaTutsi is probably one of the first African tribal names that many non-Africans ever knew. Traditional Ruanda was located in the area of modern Rwanda, Burundi, and parts of Uganda. The society was one, but it was composed of three ethnic groups in three castes. The short BaTwa lived in the forest and made pots, and for present purposes that is about all I have to say about the BaTwa, except that Twa is a name that is applied to short forest-dwelling people in various parts of Africa and does not always apply to precisely the same group. The WaTutsi were warriors and overlords; they were a small minority but they ruled the state and they owned everything of value, which is to say they owned all the cattle. The BaHutu were farmers and raised the cattle. The BaHutu had limited rights in the cattle they raised, but these rights were ultimately derived from a Tutsi patron. The relationship between the WaTutsi and the BaHutu was a Ruandan feudal relationship. A Hutu man was easy prey and destined to be poor his whole life unless he had a Tutsi patron or sponsor. A Hutu man might work all of his life to increase cattle herds and end up with nothing to show for it. And on top of that, the BaHutu were regarded and came to regard themselves as ugly. The WaTutsi, it must be admitted, are among the most beautiful people on earth, so beautiful that some Europeans wasted considerable effort attempting to prove that WaTutsi were some kind of dark-skinned Caucasians. The oppression of the BaHutu included not only economic oppression but the oppressive cultural judgment that they were ugly while the WaTutsi were beautiful. It was the tyranny of beauty. The pogrom that was the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s was an attempt by the Hutus to settle accounts.

In any event, homosexuality among the young Tutsi and Hutu men was described as being very general and widespread. Anthropologists have tried to excuse this by citing a lack of heterosexual opportunity, but it is hard to think of young men anywhere who had quite as much heterosexual opportunity. Both Hutu and Tutsi youth had the right to have sex with their own married cross-cousins, their brother's wives, and parallel cousin's wives. In addition, a Tutsi youth was often given a concubine, the wife or daughter of one of his father's Hutu clients. Moreover, the double standard existed in Ruanda and the male partner would not be blamed for his heterosexual affairs. Plainly, when Ruandan men had homosexual relations it was because that was what they wanted to do. Two kinds of very close and secret relationships could be contracted between men. A Tutsi man and a Hutu man might have a patron-client relationship, which like feudal relationships elsewhere was not entirely one-sided. There was also a blood-brother relationship that could be contracted between any two men, regardless of their ethnicity. Partners in these relationships could not reveal anything that passed between the partners so it is impossible to say whether these relationships often had a sexual aspect, yet they were mechanisms that were available to men who might want to put their homosexual connections in a more enduring relationship.

African cultural themes have a way of turning up here and there, sometimes thousands of miles apart. The friendship pact is only one of those themes. The friendship pact in some places was well known to cover homosexual relationships. The Nama live in and around the Kalahari desert in Namibia and South Africa. They are one of the so-called Hottentot people. "Hottentot," (now regarded as offensive), is a European word coined to suggest the many popping sounds and clicks in the languages of these people. The special friendship pact of the Nama was called soregus and was contracted in a ritual involving the sharing of water, an act of special significance to a desert people. Soregus could be contracted by people of opposite sexes and even when contracted by people of the same sex, it did not always entail homosexual relations. But it often did join homosexual lovers. The most common form of homosexual activity was mutual masturbation, but anal sex was not unheard of.

A world away in the West African forest, a system of best-friendships also covered adult homosexual relationships in Dahomey, in the area of modern Benin. Dahomeans after allowing free sex play among the small children, imposed a system of sexual segregation on adolescents that virtually guaranteed homosexual relations would occur. But Dahomeans strongly disapprove of adult male homosexuality. Adults had to keep their homosexual relations secret. Dahomeans had a well-organised tradition of "best-friendships," and since the partners could not testify against each other, (and as it was well-known that best friendships were often based on youthful homosexual attachments), best friendships were the perfect vehicle for maintaining adult homosexual relationships. Some secondary sources say that mutual masturbation was the only acceptable form of homosexual relationships in Dahomey. This is a misreading of the original sources. Mutual masturbation was the only acceptable form of masturbation, solitary masturbation being regarded as a sign of idiocy. But it was only one of the acceptable forms of youthful homosexuality. Female homosexuality was known to the earliest European visitors to Dahomey, several of whom supposed the Dahomey women to be the mythical Amazons.

Mutual masturbation, however, is another theme of homosexuality. Colin Turnbull has written several popular books about Africa. Some mention homosexuality explicitly and others do not. Most of his books are best read between the lines. One of his books is about a people he called the Ik, who are better known as Teso, and the breakdown of their society in the face of famine. He records this scene: "On one occasion I saw two youths on a ridge high up on Kalimon masturbating each other. It showed some degree of conviviality but not much, for there was no affection in their mutuality; each was looking in a different direction, looking for food; they were not, so far as I knew, even friends, and were no more frequently seen with each other than with anyone else . . ." Apparently Turnbull has missed the point. He wishes to show how hungry the Ik are and that the quest for food has undermined every social value. He thinks the young men are looking around for food, even as they jerk each other off, because hunger has displaced whatever regard they might have had for each other and even whatever enjoyment they might have derived from what they were doing. In fact, what Turnbull saw was one of the traditional forms of African homosexuality. 

C.A. Tripp explains:

". . . In several African tribes, it is all right for two men to masturbate each other in broad daylight, even while not in particular secluded, provided they say not a word and are careful to avoid eye-to-eye contact during sex . . ." (To be continued)

Author's Note: The Truth About is in five parts on this blog. Use the Search function or navigate by other means to access all five. Thanks

Part 1
 
Part 2

Part 4 

Part 5

The Truth About (part 2)

The very exceptional case was provided by the Nkund¢, a Mongo people of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their tradition of homosexuality among men included the requirement that the younger men assume the top position. That tradition had died out by the time it was reported, but had been replaced by several others. One replacement was a game called yembankongo wherein younger boys pretend to be monkeys. Another replacement was the game of "playing parents," which is very commonly reported. Among the youngest children the game is merely imitative of adult sexual positions, but as the young people mature the game becomes perfectly conscious sex. And in the game not much attention is paid to whether the partners are of the same or opposite sexes. Among the older boys, when they lay together, one would say to the other, "This is what I do to your sister." The missionary who made this report then suggests that the boys are not really doing anything homosexual because they say that stuff about each other's sisters.

Female homosexuality was well known and was called ya¡kyabons ngo which can be translated very roughly as "bumping pussies." The missionary writes, "Homosexuality has been known among the Nkund¢ since time immemorial, among men as well as women." But then he tries to explain it away, saying it is difficult for the young people to get married (Hulstaert). This kind of doublethink is found over and over in the literature whether the writers are missionaries, colonialists, historians, or anthropologists.

A tradition is something that the average person in society knows about and reports. Since the average person in any society is non-gay, traditions of homosexuality are filtered through non-gay perceptions. Then when the traditions are reported, they are filtered again through the prejudices of the anthropologist or the colonial civil servant or whoever. Finally, before the report is printed, it often is edited or censored. Sometimes we end up with a few sentences in bad Latin, if we are lucky. Often we find only a reference to "unspeakable acts" or "reprehensible scenes." We have a good idea what is meant, but the details are lost. Then we may find a later report that is more candid. We just have to suppose that the later report explains what the "unspeakable acts" were.

Here, however, is an example in which the earlier investigator gave the better account. The Fang live in the forest on the border between Gabon and Cameroon. The Fang were so called Bantus who replaced the original Pygmy inhabitants of this area three or four hundred years ago. One writer (Trezenem) reported: "Neither homosexuality or bestiality have ever been recorded, to our knowledge, among the Fang." That writer did his fieldwork around 1935. Writers who treat homosexuality and bestiality in the same sentence do not merit our trust. The Fang deserve a closer look. Sure enough, a writer who did his fieldwork around 1905 recorded traditions of homosexuality among the Fang. First Gunther Tessmann gives the usual reports of younger people playing parents. He reports a game played by older boys among the neighbouring Pangwe: one boy plays the wife of another and presents the play-husband with a mud pie. If the husband accepts, he pretends to eat the mud pie. They do not, however, pretend to have sex, but have sex in fact.

Adult Fang excuse this sort of thing by saying the children do not know what they are doing and that children have no sense of shame. Adult Fang imply that such things never happen between adults. Tessmann then writes: We have spoken of homosexual relations among 'children.' In adults such conduct is regarded as something immoral and unnatural, simply as unheard of. In reality, however, it is frequently 'heard of' that young people carry on homosexual relations with each other and even of older people who take boys, who, as is well known, 'have neither understanding nor shame'. And they readily console them by saying: [we are playing a game]. The children are excused with the well-known assertion, which in its deeper sense can rarely be defended: [they don't know what they are doing]. Adults are excused with the corresponding assertions: [he has the heart of boys], which is, of course, by no means flattering to them.

Publicly, of course, homosexuals are treated with the greatest contempt, and they were therefore forced, as a matter of course, to cast about for a protective covering to shield themselves from the attacks of those who are different, just as a porcupine is protected by its covering of quills, a covering on which the attackers would cut their mouths and their caustic tongues. Such a covering was supplied by medicine, it was said that homosexuality is 'wealth medicine.'

Well, do you think that homosexuality among the Fang had completely disappeared by the Thirties, so that the writer who denied it was being completely honest? Or do you think it more likely that he was not sufficiently interested to ask the right questions of the right people. Certainly he made no great effort to survey the literature on the point. Clearly the Fang are as capable of being hypocritical as anyone. Perhaps by the Thirties they had learned to be more careful about what they said to Europeans. The Fang were not proud of their traditions of homosexuality. Adult male homosexuality was not generally accepted by the Fang. Fang homosexuals had to have a cover story. They told the other Fang: we are not really homosexual; we are just making money. Perhaps the Fang, as much as any of us, realised it was just an excuse, but at least it was an acceptable excuse.

This is an example of a homosexual tradition and also an example of a tradition that not everyone in society thinks well of. According to Fang belief, the bottom man has the wealth medicine and the top man acquires it. Tessmann writes: "In actual fact it might turn out the effect of the medicine consists in the mutual support the 'friends' render each other, based chiefly on the consciousness of common guilt and the endeavour not to let this guilt be known." The wealth medicine is called bian nkuma which is generally used as an euphemism for anal sex between men. There is also a down side to this. Fang think homosexuality causes diseases such as leprosy and yaws.

The Fang are great story tellers and you are likely to find some of their stories in any anthology of African folktales. One of the stories involves four suitors who arrive at Bongo's house to court his beautiful daughter. The suitors were Schok I, Schok II, Schok III, and Schok IV. The daughter liked Schok IV. The mother liked Schok III. The brother liked Schok II. Bongo, the father, liked Schok I. Night fell and when they laid down, Schok IV laid with the daughter, Schok III laid with the mother, Schok II laid with the brother, and Schok I laid with Bongo. Schok IV tried to get romantic with the daughter, but since they were all in the same hut, the others made remarks to discourage him. Instead, he and the daughter planned to run away together, and the next day that is what they did. When it became apparent what had happened, Schok III flew into a rage, killed the mother, and fled. But Schok II decided to stay with the brother and be the brother's lover. Bongo wanted to make it up to Schok I, so he offered Schok I money and a wife. But Schok I refused, saying: "No, I don't want it. Rather, let it be that we shall always be together; when you urinate I shall urinate; when you defecate, I shall defecate; when you sleep, I shall also sleep with you in the same bed."

Those Fang! Such romantics! Anyway, that is the Fang pledge of eternal love. So Schok I stayed with Bongo and was his lover. They became quite rich. But this is, after all, a Fang story, and the Fang do not approve of homosexuality, so eventually one of the lovers died of leprosy and the other died of yaws, while the Schok who had murdered the mother got away scot-free. In stories, disease awaits all those whom the Fang consider to be sexual deviants, such as anyone who has sex in the daytime. (To be continued)

Author's Note: The Truth About is in five parts on this blog. Use the Search function or navigate by other means to access all five. Thanks