Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

Edited:

Well, I will not be a spoiler here since the student’s grade has been submitted. But it should be noted that homosexuality existed in Africa before colonial rule. In fact, when the Portuguese visited many African societies in the 15th century, they were stunned to observe that some Africans practiced homosexuality, particularly among the chiefs and their pages. The Portuguese were astounded because they perceived the act as a sophisticated lifestyle that Africans were incapable of practicing alongside heterosexuality, polygyny, etc. Briefly put, it was the colonial authorities that banned the practice of homosexuality in Africa because it was not prevalent in Europe at the time. Consequently, many Africans grew up under colonial rule perceived homosexuality as an abomination, a perception that was absorbed and appropriated as a cultural norm. It is the same Europeans backed by the US that are now forcing Africans to be tolerant of a practice their ancestors demonized and criminalized.

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Joseph J Bangura, PhD

Professor of History

Director of African Studies

Kalamazoo College

1200 Academy Street

Kalamazoo, MI 49006

Tel: 269-337-5785

Fax: 269-337-5733

Series Editor: Anthem Advances in African Cultural Studies
http://www.anthempress.com/anthem-advances-in-african-cultural-studies

https://www.cambridge.org/9781107197985

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2021 3:48 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

 

Final grades submitted, phew!! What a semester--full of highs and lows. One ambitious and bold final paper stole the show, arguing that aspects of modern Afrocentrism thrive on homophobia.

The student supplied evidence from both colonial sources (colonial moralistic documents, bills passed in the British parliament, missionary sources, etc) and African narratives. One particularly striking source is a Nigerian psychologist arguing in the 1960s that homosexuality was alien to Africa and was a colonial influence.

It's clear that today's homophobia in Africa has a genealogy that runs deep.

It's also clear that, in some quarters, homophobic discourses and praxis are intertwined with discourses of anti-colonial reclamation, of decolonization, and even of decoloniality.

My student concluded that efforts to banish homosexuality, understood as an imported colonial practice, from Africa, and to restore an alleged precolonial African culture devoid of homosexuality and sexualities outside heteronormativity have at times been legitimized by narratives of Afrocentrism and decolonization.

Since, according to him, a heteronormative precolonial Africa never existed, purveyors of Afrocentric homophobia have wittingly or unwittingly appropriated and Africanized Victorian colonial moral panic about homosexuality in Africa in order to make their case against homosexuality.

Simply brilliant! Yes, he got an A on the paper.

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