Re- Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters
It's possible that the moderator was of the opinion that I am a sinner, that I had sinned or was being sinful and that's why I'm carefully re-wording and then re-posting my contribution to this discussion hoping that it will be posted, because apparently my earlier posting was disapproved of by our moderator and that's why it hasn't appeared. Of course I could take recourse to expressing myself more fully and without the customary restraints or any fear of censorship or reprisals, here at my own personal blog We Sweden, without regret and free from any encouragements or interference by the thought police.
At the height of the Satanic Verses Controversy, on the way home after a meeting sponsored by the Swedish Section of PEN International, I was asked this memorable question by a Swedish writer Torbjörn Säfve: "Is there something so holy, that we can't talk about it?" At which time I thought "the ineffable Name of God" otherwise referred to as the "Tetragrammaton"...
I guess that the corollary to that question is this other question: Is there something so unholy, or so forbidden that we can't talk about it?
For instance here's a little about "Yoruba Ifa on homosexuality" // Ifa on homosexuality
There's also Rabbis on homosexuality
There are all kinds of fears, phobias about entering or participating in this kind of discussion: that homosexuals are very powerful people, that they have their special networks etc etc etc
Time and again homosexuality has been discussed in this forum, in even extreme jargon as in this instance: Was Satan Straight or Gay? Robert Mugabe Weighs In, Again!!!
As we all know, homosexuality and homophobia as a reaction to homosexuality is one of the most contentious and one of the most sensitive issues in our realm of human affairs. I think that this is so, to the extent that our moderator is not willing to allow certain views through in this forum's realm of freedom, the USA- Africa dialogue series zone over which, to all intents and purposes the flag of The First Amendment is still flying without abruption, and for many of us it's also still axiomatic that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness… "
Nor do we believe that "Hate speech "should be given any space in this forum - and hate speech in this case would endorse the death penalty and other punitive measures for the theory and practice of homosexuality. Therefore to begin with let me sincerely denounce hate speech and continue with what is manifestly not hate speech and is maybe love talk:
If Olyainka Agbetuyi's perception that "This discussion. (on this listserv) is heavily influenced by the Americanised consciousness of discussants" is correct then Kenneth Harrow's apocalyptic "i believe the time for change is here, finally" would be a prophesy on the cusp of fulfilment, that we are now living at the very end of days and what Kenneth Harrow says tallies with the fulfilment of what some of the Nigerian pastors are saying, that for a little while longer Satan the prince of darkness will be doing his rounds, doing his best to lead mankind astray, to make lawful that which God Himself has declared to be unlawful, but not for much longer, because Satan will soon be chained…
The fact is, statistically speaking, the unquantified and probably unquantifiable "heavily influenced by the Americanised consciousness of discussants" is mere conjecture - most people on this list are still culturally very conscious twenty-first century Africans when it comes to drawing the line, the live and let live line between tolerance and acceptance of diverse sexual orientations. Practising homosexuals and the super heterosexuals may celebrate renowned homosexuals such as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, Oscar Wilde, Patrick White for their literary output but I have not yet heard any of the Black and Beautiful discussants among us glorifying homosexuality, simply because, most of the believers among us have yet to oppose the religious mores of homophobic Islam and homophobic Christianity, not to mention the "people of the Book" whose book the Tanakh is also extremely hostile to homosexuality, in spite of which and notwithstanding, Tel Aviv is currently the Mecca of the Gay, because Modern Israel being a secular state and not a theocracy, Homosexuality is legal in Israel
Once upon a time Bob Dylan sang,
"You're going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain't nobody there
Would want to marry your sister…"
And it is this Sodom and Gomorrah episode in the Bible that our Bible thumpers love to quote when railing against homosexuality
African consciousness and attendant attitudes towards homosexuality very much alive in Senegal to where Barack Obama once flew on Air Force One, just to tell the Brethren there that they must legalise homosexuality, they must listen to his Americanised Consciousness which says free your mind and your ass will follow or is it supposed to be the other way round, "free your ass and your mind will follow!"? It's possible that Brother Obama had calculated that the French Colonial assimilation policy which I assume includes homosexual practice as a legal part of French culture must have penetrated so deep and must have taken deep roots in Senegal, to the extent that that's the place in Africa that he thought that he could probably start a successful campaign to make homosexuality kosher, as never before – so that in the name of democracy, some Senegalese Bro could be singing to his fellow Senegalese Bro,
"Oh baby, we'll be making love again
We'll be going down so deep
The river's going to weep
And the mountain's going to shout, "Amen" "
Wole Soyinka doesn't have to be "vindicated"; Human Rights Activist Wole Soyinka's position on homosexuality is not hidden, so we don't have to play hide and seek or hide and speak with him. Just as dear Biko Agozino says, we cannot and may not refer to that lone, taunted, ridiculed, satirised but not despised character Joe Golder who fulfils his function in " The Interpreters" as the sum total of Soyinka's stand on Human Rights for the gay people of Africa and everywhere else.
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