While gay African men are subject to some of the vilest forms of homophobia on the continent, they have a long and complex history among African people. In this episode, we explore the ways male-to-male sexual desire has been (and in some cases continues to be) navigated in African societies. We encounter a wide range of attitudes towards gayness in traditional societies from open acceptance, through discreet tolerance, to violent rejection.
Back in February 2023 as I did the research for this episode, I talked on X (Twitter) about how quite often, manifestations of queerness (and especially gay homosexuality) in Africa are tangled up in issues of power, control and access to resources in ways that contradict our modern sensibilities around freedom, consent and pleasure. Even more, gay Africans by their sheer existence, challenge the very foundations of the oppressive patriarchal systems.
“The mere existence of male-to-male African sexuality makes those who swing that way objects of fear and hate within the dominant sexual system. Males who like penises rather than vaginas are made into outlaws. Where it does not attract overt loathing and phobia, the sexual love of a man for other men almost always makes the man a marginal figure, an outsider within those societies in which patriarchal heterosexual masculinity is normative. Men who love other men end up as objects of homophobic rage because such love disturbs a cornerstone of patriarchal heterosexual power in that it shows that men are not of one mind and feeling when it comes to sexuality. Men who eroticise men instead of women engender a potential crisis in ruling ideas of true masculinity.”
- Kopano Ratele, South African Psychologist and Masculinities Scholar
My enduring hope continues to be that in understanding where we have come from, we can chart a better course for where we could go.
I hope you enjoy the episode!
(References and slides on the MA YouTube Channel.)
Homosexuality in Africa