The Saxophonist

Author's Note: "This story is based on actual events, but it is fiction. The setting and the characters are real, but the storyline is a gross embellishment of what actually happened in reality. Maybe it's a betrayal of what I had secretly wished would have happened, and I made that fantasy in my head real by writing about it. In the story I speak in the first person; the other main protagonist is also a real person whom I had got acquainted with. Yes, it was really at the Shrine that we both met, and, yes, he was really a saxophonist. Now that my secret is out, I'll leave the rest to your imagination. The whole story is in seven parts."

He was tall and dark. And he was handsome. And it was to him that my eyes were drawn the minute the band started playing that sultry night all those years ago at the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti's night club, known as the Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. The draw was magnetic. I'm not sure that I remember which of his songs Fela sang that night, or how lasciviously Fela's female dancers gyrated their nearly naked bodies; or how amazingly the musicians played Fela's mind-blowing music. It was him, just him for that night. 

The Shrine would on a normal night have a crowd of revellers something approximating 500, all dancing, singing, drinking and smoking, cigarettes and weed. This place was a haven for smokers of marijuana, which was illegal outside the walls of the club, but perfectly permissible inside. Indeed if you didn't indulge, you were considered odd. The crowd typically would consist of a large contingent of university students, (I was one at the time), several embassy types who were exploiting the opportunity to see Fela in his full glory for a pittance, as compared to what they might have had to pay to see him perform in Bonn or Amsterdam. It was also an opportunity for them to let their hair down and smoke a few joints, openly, without fear or shame. Then there would be members of the general public, the atmosphere buzzing with an electric anticipation until Fela started his performance, when everyone would be drawn in by Fela's magic and the wild party would begin. 

This was my first time at the Shrine, but I liked the atmosphere, the energy, the excitement of everyone around me was contagious and I got caught up in it. So the band started playing and the crowd went wild, but through all of this my eyes fell upon this magnificent specimen of the African male, in the far left corner at the back of the stage. I don't recall how it was that I was able to make my way from the back of the crowd where I had been standing when the music began, to a position beside the left side of the stage, close to where this man was playing his saxophone so magnificently. I guess I just needed to be closer to this man, even if only to take a better look. From the moment I saw him I had not taken my eyes off him for even a second. It was as if a spell had been cast upon me and I was in a trance. I did not realise that he too had picked me out from the hundreds of people in the crowd. But just then, our eyes met while he was still on stage. Then I knew. I just knew. 

Typically, Fela's performance at the Shrine would last for several hours and it was normal that halfway through the night there would be a break, as this was a live performance. At break time the musicians would mingle with members of the crowd, and this was the chance that we had to make first contact. I'm usually a bit shy and reserved, but on occasion I can surprise even myself by how bold I can be. Not that I needed to be too bold this time, because he too seemed keen to meet me. His gaze never left me after the music stopped, as I stood rooted to the spot, being unsure what to do next. 

To my great surprise, this man put away his saxophone, came off the stage and walked towards me, staring at me and without flinching. I moved towards him too. In no time, we were standing very close to each other, facing each other our chests almost touching, seemingly relying on the pretext that the crowd surrounding us provided us little room to manoeuvre our bodies. He towered above me and I felt his warm breath on my face as he looked down into my eyes. He too must have seen in my eyes how totally mesmerised I was, because without saying a word, he put is arm around my shoulders and with his eyes signalled that we should go outside. I was completely overpowered by the raw masculinity and strength of this man and I melted against his body as he shepherded me to the exit and then outside to the street, where several others had made their way, presumably for some respite from all that smoke inside the club. After the introductions, we were both pretty sure we were onto something. He couldn't keep his hands off my body and we stared and smiled into each other's eyes as we exchanged stories, still standing very close to each other out there in the open. It is not unusual in most of Africa for male friends to hold hands or embrace in public. 

I told him I loved the way he had played with the band, although this was not entirely true since I had been focused on him personally rather than on the music. As a member of Fela's band, he had been privileged to travel all over the world with Fela and since I had only recently returned from a holiday in Brazil, something which I'd had to scrimp and save for, for years, it gave us something to talk about, since he too had once been to Brazil with Fela. So we did find quite a lot to talk about in those few minutes that we were together. Our first meeting lasted for less than half an hour, because he had to go back inside to join the band, but for the rest of that night I was on a high. I returned to my position close to the stage and danced and sang to Fela's music, knowing that this man was watching me and enjoying it too. I was dancing for him, perhaps a bit provocatively when I think about it now, but as far as I was concerned, he was blowing his saxophone just for me. He was watching me dance and I loved that he was taking it all in. When the show ended, I could see that he was unable to separate himself from his duties with the band. So I left, knowing that I would be back on Friday.

The Truth About (part 5)

Let us attempt to answer some of the commoner excuses for African homosexuality that are found in the literature.

First, for the claim that Africans learned homosexuality from the Arabs or that Africa has been contaminated by Islam, the answer is: so what? Europeans often look for some kind of pure timeless African culture. They suppose Africa was changeless and isolated until it was discovered by Europeans. But it was Europe that was changeless and isolated in the Middle Ages. Africa was always engaged in commerce and the dissemination of ideas with the rest of the world. Europe was the backwater and Africa was the cosmopolitan, sophisticated continent. Africans certainly could have invented homosexuality, and probably did so many times over. Or like any cosmopolitan people, Africans may have known a good idea when they saw it and adopted it as their own. Sure, Islam is foreign to Africa, but no more so than Christianity is foreign to Rome.

In any event, as Kinsey wrote: "The homosexual has been a significant part of human sexual activity ever since the dawn of history, primarily because it is an expression of capacities that are basic in the human animal." The suggestion that homosexuality was foreign to Africans almost always contains the hidden implication that Africans are not fully human.

A number of examples have been given of homosexuality in cultures that did not approve of it because these examples are often overlooked. Nonetheless, by far, most African societies like most societies throughout the world, were neutral or approving of homosexuality, at least for some people at some times. The compulsory heterosexuality that holds sway in Africa today goes hand-in-hand with colonialism.

Second, the suggestion that Africans learned homosexuality from Europeans is absurd for the reasons just given. Some of the Oyinbos/Wazungu did keep houseboys, but so did many rich and important Africans, and many who were not so rich and important. The rise of the modern gay cultures in African cities is sometimes blamed on Europeans or Americans. The same thing has happened in Japan where many Japanese now believe that "gaibar" is a native Japanese word. 

The indications, however, are that gay culture is what it is because that is how homosexuality manifests itself in any industrialised, urban area. Certainly some details of fashion are heavily influenced by Americans and Europeans, but international styles of art and music just as clearly have African roots. Whatever the merits of the arguments about cultural imperialism, gay life is but a small part of the issue. I am not disposed to view the rise of an international gay culture as a bad thing. If Kampala street hustlers pay particular attention to European and American customers, so do all African entrepreneurs, whatever they want to sell. Somehow the writers who are most shocked and distressed by finding gay African hustlers are the same writers who find nothing very disturbing about female prostitution.

Traditional marriage has nothing to do with romantic love. If a homosexual man does not love his wife romantically, the same may be said for many of his heterosexual neighbours. Romance is reserved for the bush. In traditional society people do not have a free choice of marriage partner. The homestead is not just a residence, but is also the principal place of business. It is the office, bank, old people's home, place of worship, warehouse, theatre, bar, and school. In short, traditional marriages are business partnerships in which the whole community has a stake. The whole community participates in making the match. Several societies of Africa provided a system of sexual privilege which ensured that women would produce children even if their husbands were impotent or sterile or simply not interested. Marriage between two females was widespread; those unions produced children to no one's amazement. In traditional society the contradiction between being a male homosexual and being a husband and father is very slight.

Fourth, the excuse that the polygamists had monopolised all the women has no basis. Some marriages by polygamists are to old and feeble women, sort of a social welfare system to extend to them the husband's protection. While there were some large harems, only a small percentage of men had more than one wife. In sum, the young man's potential mate usually was not in another man's harem, but was in her mother's hut because the young man was not sufficiently well-established to marry. While the availability (or non-availability) of women certainly influences the sexual behaviour of some men, men in prison for example, it has not been shown to affect the number of preferentially homosexual men in the population. But even if polygamy were the cause of African homosexuality, so what? Polygamy, even independent of the influence of Islam, is clearly an indigenous African institution and any homosexuality that arose from it would clearly be indigenous.

Fifth, when the anthropologist writes: "X says there is no homosexuality," that only tells us what X knows. We must then ask whether X would know if there were homosexuality. Kenyatta assures us that there is no homosexuality among the Gikuyu people of Kenya; that is, no homosexuality among his people. But if you read his book it becomes apparent that anti colonial hero Kenyatta may be, he certainly was a sexist individual. Many anthropologists rely on exactly one primary informant. Many of the African cultures listed as "no homosexuality" were reported by only one writer. In cultures with well-known traditions of homosexuality, it is usually possible to find at least one writer who denies it. This would pose a problem even if we could assume that investigators have always been entirely frank. But in fact, the record is full of deliberate cover-ups and admitted suppression.

Meanwhile, there is ample evidence to show, just as any fair observer might predict, that homosexuality is indigenous to Africa, just as it is indigenous to every other place that human society has been found. African homosexual people have not succumbed to the "white man's way," but express an entirely human and natural variation of human sexuality. Indeed, it is the black or African homophobe who has absorbed a false and hurtful European ideology.

Some African Societies with Traditions of Homosexuality:

Herero

NE Namibia

Dannert; Irle p. 58

Ovimbundu

S Angola

Mott (1984), pp. 15, 19

Mbundu

W C Angola

Hambly, p. 181; Westermarkin Cory pp. 104-105 (Odongo=Mbundusubgroup); Mott (1984)

Kwanyama

SE Angola

Evans

Ovambo

N Namibia

Evans

Kongo

N Angola

Mott (1984)

Mongo

C Zaire

Hulstaert pp. 73, 87, 88.

Mpongwe

Gabon

Tessmann p. 105.

Fang

S Cameroon, N Gabon

Tessmann pp. 23, 131-135.

Banaka

Cameroon

Westermark in Cory

Bapuka

Cameroon

Westermark in Cory

Ijo

Nigeria

Rachewiltz p. 283.

Hausa

Nigeria

Abraham p. 624.

Dahomey

Benin

Herskovits

Mossi

Upper Volta River, Ghana and Burkina Faso

Tauxier

Fanti

Ghana

Christensen p. 143.

Atonga

W Lake Malawi

Johnston p. 409, see alsop. 404 of 1st edition.

Wolof

W Senegal

Gamble pp. 55, 80.

Nyakyusa

W Lake Malawi

Wilson

The entire series from Part 1 to Part 5 has been adapted from the work of Lars Eighner 

Thank you for reading.

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

The Truth About (part 4)

Drag - (Meaning,  informal: "clothing more conventionally worn by the opposite sex, especially women's clothes worn by a man; men in drag")

If you think The African Queen was just a movie, you don't know the half of it. The very first human beings on earth that we know of were African, but that is nothing. Somewhere in the dawn of time, before taffeta, before chiffon, the first drag queen put two brass rings on each of her fingers, made herself a miniskirt out of tree bark, swished down the main path of the village and she didn't care what people thought, because she knew who she was. I think it is very likely that the first drag queen in the world was African. Drag has been noted in the following African societies: Gisu, Teso, Karamojang, Mbundu, Mossi, Nupe, Lango, Nyakyusa, Ovimbundu, Zulu, Ronga, Ila, Hausa, Otoro, Korongo, Mesakin, and Tanala, Bara, Sacalavas, and Tsecats of Madagascar. This list is by no means exhaustive.

But several things have to be said. First, anthropologists usually notice drag. A drag queen is relatively easy to spot, while respectable gentleman homosexuals are easily overlooked. In fact many anthropologists don't seem to know what a homosexual is unless it is done up in drag. They may say there is one homosexual in the village. Now I ask you, how homosexual can you be if there is only one of you? The anthropologists meant the drag queen. They do not count the queen's gentlemen callers as homosexual. Or if the queen is married to a man, the queen is the homosexual, but her husband is not?

Second, some religious rites can only be performed by women. A heterosexual man might get up in drag for religious reasons. It is a really good excuse anyway. Third, it is said that some impotent or cowardly heterosexual men become drag queens. They understand that it is better to be a first-rate drag queen than to be a second-rate man. For many reasons, reports of drag may be out of proportion with reports of homosexuality in general. In any event, ancestral Africans appear never to have found drag as threatening as modern day Africans do today.

The Lango are a people of Uganda. Among the Lango, the penalty for homosexuality was death. But there was a footnote. Here it is: 

"An exception is made in the case of a small class of men known as Jo Apele, referred to also as Jo Aboich, or 'the impotents'. These men, being impotent from birth, are considered as the afflicted of god (jok obalog, god ruins them). They acknowledge a mortal father, but believe a divine agency operated at their fertilization (jok manywala, it was god who begat me). Being impotent they have all the instincts and nature of women, and as such are recognised by men and women alike. They accordingly become women (dano mulokere, mudoko dako, a man who has become a woman). They wear the characteristic facial and bodily ornaments of a woman, the chip, the del, the lau; they wear their hair long, dressing it in ringlets like women's hair, and take women's names; they do all the women's work, observe women's clan taboos, and like women are debarred form owning property or from following men's pursuits such as hunting; they even simulate menstruation and wear the leaves prescribed for women in their courses. They appear in all respects to be mentally sound and are most industrious. Being women, therefore, in all except the physical characteristics, they are treated as such, and live with a man as his wife without offending against Lango law. Sometimes, but rarely, property passes on the 'marriage,' and their co-wives welcome him as a woman. The total number of such persons does not amount to fifty, but among the Iteso and certain Karamojan tribes, such people of hermaphroditic instincts are very numerous."

Now, who were these girls? There were no more than 50 in a population of 17,000. That's far too few, going by modern estimates of the occurrence of homosexuality, even if we count their husbands, which of course the colonial administrator who wrote the report did not. And the number seems far too high to represent the occurrence of transsexualism as we know it. What can we make of "impotent from birth"? Do you suppose the Lango went around checking out infant erections? Did you notice the gay consciousness? The other Lango call them the ones god ruined, but she calls herself 'jok manywala', "god begat me".

Similar types of reports are found for many peoples of Africa, but especially for peoples of the Upper Nile from the Nuba mountains to Lake Victoria and Madagascar. (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  https://thingsifeelstronglyabout.blogspot.com/2009/03/the-truth-about-homosexuality-in-africa.html?m=1

Part 2

Part 3 

Part 5