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Wednesday 1 September 2010

Dispatches: Africa’s Last Taboo


Saw the above titled programme, on the 30th July and it was well worth it. The documentary was an eye opener. The general theme was about how some Africans are in denial about the existence of homosexuality in the continent.


What struck a chord with me was when the journalist interviewed a gay sex worker on his clients.

The sex worker says he is offered more money to sleep without a condom. He also agreed that he was hiv positive but needed the money to survive as he is ostracised from soceity and forced to live in near isolation...

((sorry to divert but a lot of us are not any different in this love for money, I have asked a lot of African professionals what their life goals are or where they see themselves as reaching self actualisation. Well their answers are 100% tied to material needs. So hey we are not any better than this guy.))



Anway six things immediately became clear:

1. He lived in squalid conditions with his 6 yr old baby sister, he needs the money badly and no amount of advice, preaching, sanctiminous and patronising camera crew will meet his need to survive.

2. He has been ostracis...ed yet still get as much as 4 clients in one night. Meaning more gay men but still in the closet! This reflects the leevl of denial in that country.

3. In the process of denial, his clients, apparently get married to women to present a facade of a family as dictated by their community..and of course must have unprotected sex with them to have children.

4. These same gay men in the closet with a family would be deeply unhappy with their lot and might display certain aggressive and bizarre behaviour in their homes or workplace. They would definitely be depressed about being forced to go in secret to sex workers to meet their sexual needs. (Those same sex workers that have been isolated from soceity with no medical aid nor other means of livelihood and so will do anything to survive including sleeping without a condom even while being hiv positive)

5. Ignorance is still rife in many places as one can hear an African say there is nothing like hiv so he/she doesnt need a condom or he is 'protected' by charms. etc etc

6. These gay men in the closet have the added burden of creating a persona that goes through the rituals which usual represents the main character traits of a paternal society. Behvaiour like being overtly sexual, macho, chauvinistic, and parts of those ritual is too be seen as promiscous, and oversexed. Naturally their alternate personas will sleep around, or keep several mistresses and if infected will definitely pass on the virus to other families ..ad infinituum.

It is time for Africa to face the truth and stop this denial...





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10 comments:

Nutty J. said...

hmmm...this is scary at best.

And its really inexcuseable...the love for money doesnt transcend to not having a conscience. he is transmitting HIV on purpose becos its what makes his heart merry....saying its becos he needs the extra cash is an excuse he has convinced himself to give as a reason.

He is not just sick in the body, he is sick in the mind too.....and no amount of being ostracizes should excuse that....

Toks said...

Nutty J well said.

I for one, blame African women. This is why such is rampant all over Africa, even in Nigeria.

people dont ve the fear of God again in doing all this rubbish,i ve not read anywhere in the bible where there is such thing. God will help this generation

Donatus said...

Look, we abandoned the african cultures and traditions, now see the things happening,
AM NOT HAPPY ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN NIGERIA ,HOW WE ARE ADOPTING GAY SEX. WE ARE NOT ENGLAND AND WE ARE NOT PRAYING TO BE THEM.WHY SHOULD WE BE AMONG THE GAY COUNTRY?WE SHOULD REMEMBER WHAT HAPPEN BETWEEN SODOM AND GOMORAH WHICH GOD WE STILL DO TO ANY ONE THAT IS PART OF THE SAME THING,IAM TELLING ALL NIGERIAN THIS .IAM LIVING IN INDIA ,I KNOW IF ANY ONE SAY THE TRUTH, THEIR LOOK FOR THE WAY TO KILL THE PERSON BUT ALMIGHTY WE NOT ALLOW THEM TO COME CLOSE ME.WHY NIGERIANS LIKE TO IMTATE BAD THING BECAUSE ENGLAND IS WESTERN WORD WILL LIKE TO FELLOW BAD THING WHICH IS NOT GOOD READ YOUR BIBLE .HELL IS REAL

John Utaka said...

@ Toks: How ignorant of you to blame African women in 2010. A 'bad' child is the mother's fault. Derogatory portrayal of women is called misogyny. Of course it is the same in Nigerian society as a whole. Go to churches, the ogbanjes and emere who are hypnotized or forced to confess their imaginary and mental-torture-induced evil deeds are women and girls. Nigerian men who are the principal evils and architect of our present woes are saints.
That, unfortunately, is the level of our social, spiritual, political and very sadly too our intellectual development. We are about 100 years behind the advanced countries of the world, yet we are challenged to meet the modern standard of life. Without meeting up with that, we cannot function well in the company of other nations of the world. Unfortunately, we cannot meet up, because we have “social-insincerity” as our modus operandi when approaching issues. Hence my country is more confused than the people they accused of gender or sexually maladjustment.
Your comment had nothing to do with the issue in the blog, just opening our mouth blaming mothers for what has been scientifically proven to be natural.

Mena UkodoisReady said...

I identify morals, culture, and the inevitable nature v nurture debate. But what do you think about the observations as reflected in the article? Thanks all

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