And the students are in: celebratory rather than critical, congratulatory instead of cautious - no wonder no one is wondering why the professor has carefully 'circumvented' this 'case' in Sylvia Tamale's OpEd:
"For example, the ancient cave paintings of the San people near Guruve in Zimbabwe depict two men engaged in some form of ritual sex " - http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/4/homosexuality-africamuseveniugandanigeriaethiopia.html
We are not even asking who are these historians that our professor of history is referring to when he claim that "Historians certainly do not share their claim that homosexuality in pre-colonial African was indigenous or the norm in Black Africa." Did their discussion, for instance, debunk the historian below?
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Cf.
Anyway, maybe we are so used to blaming 'everything' on 'foreigners' - if not Europeans, then Arabs.
From: "Baruani Mshale baruani.mshale@gmail.com [Wanazuoni]" <Wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com>
To: Wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 7:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Wanazuoni] Re: Is Homosexuality un-African?
The Professor is in, let's hear what Sussana, who probably posted those articles without critical reflections, would say. This is wanazuoni now. Let's remain sober.
On Aug 25, 2016 7:18 AM, "vegemboga@yahoo.com [Wanazuoni]" <Wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Mbogoni,Your discussion is gold. Asante sana.Aviti
From: "Pater Patrick ppaternus1@gmail.com [Wanazuoni]" <Wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com>
To: Wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 7:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Wanazuoni] Is Homosexuality un-African?
ProfWhat a writing. Let me read it againWasalaam
PaterOn Aug 25, 2016 5:43 AM, "'Mbogoni, Lawrence' mbogonil@wpunj.edu [Wanazuoni]" <Wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com> wrote:Wanazuoni,The following is in response to the views aired by the authors of the articles shared by Susanna to this group, arguing that African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviors and acts. Of the three articles that by Sylvia Tamale is the most nuanced and is the one I would like to focus on. According to Tamale, "African history is replete with examples of both erotic and nonerotic same-sex relationships." Tamale gives examples of such relationships among the Langi of Uganda (labeled "mudoko dako"), the "inkotshane" among the Shangaan, the "motsoalle" among the Sotho, and the "gor-digen" among the Wolof. Having cited these terms as "evidence" (rather than proof) of homosexuality in such societies, Tamale notes: "But to be sure, the context and experiences of such relationships did not necessarily mirror homosexual relations as understood in the West, nor were they necessarily consistent with what we now describe as a gay or queer identity."Equally important, Tamale cites (a) cases of female-female marriage, as among the Kurya of Tanzania, which had nothing to do with homosexuality but rather with reproductive rights, and (b) homosexual acts that were driven NOT by pleasure but by the pursuit of spiritual rearmament, such as protection of territory. Thus at the center of what would pass today as homosexual relations were practices imbued with ritual purposes and rites of passage OR engaged in as a means to access magical powers to guarantee bountiful crop yields, abundant hunting, good health and to ward off evil spirits. In societies that held such beliefs same sex liaisons were then tolerated not because they were normal or the human right of the practitioners but because they served a social need. It is surprising therefore that from such concrete explication of what same sex relationships represented Tamale would draw the conclusion that today demand for "freedom" to engage in such acts amounts to demand for human rights and that objection to homosexuality amounts to a "mantra" that "negates everything that African history and tradition has transmitted to posterity."That said, in their articles Sylvia Tamale, Basi Alimi and Eusebius McKaiser allude to the existence of African terms that "signify" homosexuality as evidence of the presence and acceptability of homosexuality in precolonial African cultures. What they ignore is what such terms actually meant and signified about societal attitudes to homosexuality. Alimi notes that the Yoruba term adofuro, which was a colloquialism for someone engaging in anal sex, was actually an insulting and derogatory term, which would mean that among the Yoruba same-sex intercourse was unacceptable. Likewise, the Hausa term Yan Dauda, a description of effeminate Hausa men, was derogatory. In Hausa the term dauda means dirt in the general sense of contamination. Thus same-sex liaisons were considered by the Hausa to amount to wallowing in dirt and infectious.Although Tamale, Alimi and McKaiser endeavor to claim that history is on their side evidence suggests that there is very little they can stand on. Historians certainly do not share their claim that homosexuality in pre-colonial African was indigenous or the norm in Black Africa. I share the following views which I synthesize from discussions among historians which I was part of in 1995 and 2001 on this very same topic.In a historical novel entitled Segu, Maryse Conde highlights the dilemma of a Nago man from the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo who had migrated to the Oil Rivers region where the Portuguese were doing business from the 15th century onwards. Because of his good looks the Portuguese used him as a woman. When he no longer could find employment the thought of returning to his native land was fraught with the danger that awaited him because of what he had become, a man used as a woman. He knew that his people, the Nago, would not hesitate to kill him and bury each limb at different crossroads, so that his remains would not soil the ground which real men walked upon.The late Cheikh Anta Diop, famous Senegalese Afrocentrist, noted that homosexuality was introduced into West Africa by Moroccan troops during the conquest of Songhai in 1592. Many of the Moroccan troops were "renegade" Spanish mercenaries! Diop's assertion is corroborated by the accounts of al-Kati and al-Sadi (authors of Tarikh al-Fattash and Tarikh al-Sudan respectively), who date the decline of morality, and especially the introduction of sodomy into Black Africa, to this period, i.e. the Moroccan invasion of the Empire of Songhai.According to the Funj Chronicle, homosexuality in 18thy century Sinnar was not tolerated. In SInnar, the practice was stimulated through contact with foreign cultures, especially with Arabs. Likewise, in northern Nigeria homosexuality was attributed to Middle Eastern influences (i.e. Lebanese) especially in regard to Yan Lawud, the counterpart of Yan Daudu already noted above. By the way, Yan Daudu were men who spoke like women (i.e. soft in voice), dressed like women and behaved like women. However, they only had sex with one another even though many also had wives. More importantly, despise being despised they played some role in local ceremonies.According to Prof. Samuel Kasule, a native of Buganda like Sylvia Tamale, homosexuality in Buganda began with the advent of Arab trader and sodomy hitherto unknown came to be known as "okulya ebisiyagi" in Luganda. Contrary to Tamale's assertion, Kabaka Mwanga was not openly gay but rather clandestinely preyed on his court pages. When they eventually objected to being sodomized he had had them executed. Likewise, as I noted in a previous email same-sex intercourse in Zanzibar was induced rather than inborn, both in regard to liwat (pederasty) and tribadism) "kusagana."Finally, where acts akin to homosexuality occurred as rites of passage these would have been similar to such acts among the ancient Greeks, for example. They were meant to be temporary and were NOT supposed to be carried on into adult life! Likewise, where such acts were tolerated it was so because they served some purpose and were NOT mean t for pleasure for pleasure's sake. As a lifestyle, homosexuality was likely to be censured than condoned. Customary laws of many Kenyan cultures where Oluoch comes from exacted fines and even expulsion of those who engaged in sex contrary to what the cultures deemed appropriate. I certainly concur with Sylvia Tamale that "the context and experiences of such relationships did not necessarily mirror homosexual relations as understood in the West, nor were they necessarily consistent with what we now describe as a gay or queer identity."Best regards,Lawrence Mbogoni__._,_.___
Posted by: Pater Patrick <ppaternus1@gmail.com>
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