Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

And I must confess that I am not comfortable posting messages on identity issues. It is always difficult to do, balancing free speech with stereotypes.

Meanwhile, can we all stop talking about LGBT+, unless we want to support marginalized people. The mind controls what we say; what we say affects emotions.

TF

 

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 1:31 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

dear biodun

i appreciated a lot your open and welcoming tone and thoughtfulness.

 

as for postings on this listserv, i think we have a range of opinions: some are relatively expert and well-informed. some are pretty much just opinions, without much backing.

i view the exchanges as running that gamut from informative and valuable to mere chat. most of the chat is, in fact, the most enjoyable, and i don't mind that i'm not being given an informed lecture. i mostly dislike being lectured to, with the implication that my interlocutor has the only handle on the truth, leaving little room for exchange of different opinions.

 

but there is another flip side. mere chat/opinions that purvey biases that are hurtful or worse, harmful, are no fun, and i appreciate greatly when our dear moderator says, enough already, stop.

 

there are certain topics that lend themselves to this sensitive arena where harmful biases emerge, and homosexuality, gay rights, linked with african identity and notions of authenticity, are of that sort. we encounter racism much less on this list, but if it were a list in the u.s., racism would certainly emerge more. we have antisemitism that occasionally crops up, and more frequently anti-muslim rhetoric. all touchy issues, and more, with ethnic biases as well, which we all meet in life and need to confront. if we consider we are with colleagues and friends, and can discuss informally these issues, that would be ideal. we can disagree strongly, without rejecting the other. hopefully.

 

i love your conclusion that despite being yoruba, you are not the world's expert on everything yoruba. that should be carved in gold on the heading of all our postings. more than modesty, it is a recognition of the limits of how we bandy about identity claims, or knowledge claims.

 

not to eliminate claims; but to open them for discussion

 

ken

 

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dr BioDun J Ogundayo <akande1098@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2021 9:55 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

 

We have to be careful when we present our opinions an assertions as fact, or the only truth. Human sexuality (not gender) is very complex, partly because it involves behavior that people (across cultures) may indulge in privately, but would never publicly admit. What exactly is homosexuality? Is it specific behavior, a range of behaviors, choice, etc…?

J. Lorand Matory has done done interesting work on this topic in Oyo-Igboho, and beyond.

 

Just because I am Yoruba does not mean I know everything about my people. There is so much knowledge and wisdom out there that is beyond our ken. Yes, ken. 

 

We need to be reasonable, and not conflate our knowledge with the truth, nor present logic as the Truth.

 

 We need to remind ourselves that what we know today about any subject/topic can always be challenged, reassessed and reimagined.

 

 

 

On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 09:17 Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

what is the evidence that arab peoples tolerated homosexuality, much less spread it?

is there any, or it is just a prejudice?

ken

 

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2021 6:10 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

 

 

 

 

We've been here before.  Africa was not a monolithic centralised culture.  Some African communities like the Yorùbá banned homosexuality through the institutiin of taboos.  Some communities in northern Nigeria tolerated it as  part of the inflitrations from Arab countries.

.

 

So the statement that it was the Europeans that banned the practice in Africa is untrue.  It was already banned in many African communities before European incursion.

 

Yes its the West through its totalising mien that now wants all of Africa to embrace homosexuality irrespective of their past variegated histories toward the practice.

 

 

OAA

 

 

 

Sent from my Galaxy

 

-------- Original message --------

From: Joseph Bangura <Joseph.Bangura@kzoo.edu>

Date: 11/05/2021 00:31 (GMT+00:00)

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

 

BoxbeThis message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (Joseph.Bangura@kzoo.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info

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.

 

--------------------------------------------------------

Joseph J Bangura, PhD

Professor of History

Director of African Studies

Kalamazoo College

Tel: 269-337-5785

Fax: 269-337-5733

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Joseph Bangura
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2021 6:54 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Afrocentrism and Homophobia

 

 

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 practiced 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.

Sent from my iPhone


On May 10, 2021, at 5:19 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

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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