Africa - On _In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology_, Joseph Beam, Editor
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Tracy Flemming
Apr 27, 2011, 12:22:47 AM4/27/11
to USA Africa Dialogue Series
Writing about Joseph Fairchild Beam
I am in the early stages of developing a project on the history of
homosexuality and Africa. Some of you may be familiar with the work of
Joseph Fairchild Beam. His writings have played a critical role in the
development of the activist and intellectual landscape in the African
diaspora and in Africa. “Black men loving Black men” is a
revolutionary act…those are indeed still revolutionary sentiments.
They engage us and inspire us to think about things from the
perspective of one who can write about a topic that touches on aspects
of life which we have been taught to hide. For example, Joseph
Fairchild Beam was not a person who I learned about at an elite
historically Black college for men like Morehouse College in the
Department of History or in the African American Studies Program ….
Beam wrote about the politics of identification in the African world
in his essay “Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart." He described
an anger filled him as much as water, that he, too, like Audre Lorde,
knew anger as a creative force. Creative anger has defined much of the
history of homosexuality in the African diaspora and Africa but not
exclusively.
The work of Joseph Beam can open new windows of interpretation in the
study of Africa and its diaspora, for African and African American
histories are inextricably bound; they are in dialogue. My ongoing
research on the controversy surrounding a pan-Africanist whose
criticism of missionizing Christianity and his openness to Islam
alienated him from western people of African descent (i.e., Edward
Wilmot Blyden) is also interlaced with my own subject position as a
writer, historian, and scholar of Africa. Beam reminds us that we have
to make ourselves from scratch. A recent article on Beam can be found
at the following link:
http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/aae/38-feature/2096-in-the-life-paved-way-for-generation-of-black-gay-men
.
On Pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial contexts, see _Boy-Wives
and Female-Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities_ Will Roscoe
and Stephen O. Murray, Editor, for a general overview of the sub-
field: http://us.macmillan.com/boywivesandfemalehusbands .
_In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology_ (new edition)
http://www.redbonepress.com/books/inthelife/index.htm
Any assistance with this developing project is greatly appreciated in
advance.
I am in the early stages of developing a project on the history of
homosexuality and Africa. Some of you may be familiar with the work of
Joseph Fairchild Beam. His writings have played a critical role in the
development of the activist and intellectual landscape in the African
diaspora and in Africa. “Black men loving Black men” is a
revolutionary act…those are indeed still revolutionary sentiments.
They engage us and inspire us to think about things from the
perspective of one who can write about a topic that touches on aspects
of life which we have been taught to hide. For example, Joseph
Fairchild Beam was not a person who I learned about at an elite
historically Black college for men like Morehouse College in the
Department of History or in the African American Studies Program ….
Beam wrote about the politics of identification in the African world
in his essay “Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart." He described
an anger filled him as much as water, that he, too, like Audre Lorde,
knew anger as a creative force. Creative anger has defined much of the
history of homosexuality in the African diaspora and Africa but not
exclusively.
The work of Joseph Beam can open new windows of interpretation in the
study of Africa and its diaspora, for African and African American
histories are inextricably bound; they are in dialogue. My ongoing
research on the controversy surrounding a pan-Africanist whose
criticism of missionizing Christianity and his openness to Islam
alienated him from western people of African descent (i.e., Edward
Wilmot Blyden) is also interlaced with my own subject position as a
writer, historian, and scholar of Africa. Beam reminds us that we have
to make ourselves from scratch. A recent article on Beam can be found
at the following link:
http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/aae/38-feature/2096-in-the-life-paved-way-for-generation-of-black-gay-men
.
On Pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial contexts, see _Boy-Wives
and Female-Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities_ Will Roscoe
and Stephen O. Murray, Editor, for a general overview of the sub-
field: http://us.macmillan.com/boywivesandfemalehusbands .
_In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology_ (new edition)
http://www.redbonepress.com/books/inthelife/index.htm
Any assistance with this developing project is greatly appreciated in
advance.
Lavonda Staples
Apr 27, 2011, 1:52:03 PM4/27/11
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Tracy, I'm offering this to you. I'm not an African. I'm a Black American woman of obvious African descent. Here's what I have to say regarding what appears like homophobia in Africa (and I really and truly request that you pick a country and not continue to say "Africa"). Ready? Here goes:
I don't know much. I'm just giving you what I got and you can take it or leave it. If we pick the Yoruba culture there are linguistic, religious, and artistic elements which glorify the feminine. Even to the every day beauty of those staccato hip movements (I call it the booty flip) we know that these people do not deny the power of one who assists the Creator.
As anyone who ever read "Things Fall Apart" knows the greatest sins are (1) suicide and (2) being unable to produce children/child killing. Children are treasure, they are abundance, they are fertility and they are life.
No matter what you do or say if you put two men or two women in the bed - ain't nobody gonna get pregnant. Lack of fertility creates a civil death in these societies. Who will take care of you? Who will learn the story of your family? Who will you give your knowledge? For that matter, what will you talk about with the other folks around the table/fireplace/inground pool/village pond? My Nigerians friends and professors are constantly amazing me with their dedication - to the end of all things - to their children. By extension, the remittance economies of Ghana, Nigeria, et al are proof positive of the need to cultivate children and elders.
So, it may indeed be homophobia. To answer the question, "Are their great African leaders who were homosexual" is a worthwhile endeavour. But when you combine homosexuality with the subjugation of men and boys into sexual slavery you are mixing two things which have nothing in common. I do believe that people are born gay. I do not believe it is a choice. Sexual slavery TAKES AWAY that choice and that is why the subjects do not belong in the same paragraph. One thing simply is and the other thing is created.
Just my nearly ignorant two cents....
--
I don't know much. I'm just giving you what I got and you can take it or leave it. If we pick the Yoruba culture there are linguistic, religious, and artistic elements which glorify the feminine. Even to the every day beauty of those staccato hip movements (I call it the booty flip) we know that these people do not deny the power of one who assists the Creator.
As anyone who ever read "Things Fall Apart" knows the greatest sins are (1) suicide and (2) being unable to produce children/child killing. Children are treasure, they are abundance, they are fertility and they are life.
No matter what you do or say if you put two men or two women in the bed - ain't nobody gonna get pregnant. Lack of fertility creates a civil death in these societies. Who will take care of you? Who will learn the story of your family? Who will you give your knowledge? For that matter, what will you talk about with the other folks around the table/fireplace/inground pool/village pond? My Nigerians friends and professors are constantly amazing me with their dedication - to the end of all things - to their children. By extension, the remittance economies of Ghana, Nigeria, et al are proof positive of the need to cultivate children and elders.
So, it may indeed be homophobia. To answer the question, "Are their great African leaders who were homosexual" is a worthwhile endeavour. But when you combine homosexuality with the subjugation of men and boys into sexual slavery you are mixing two things which have nothing in common. I do believe that people are born gay. I do not believe it is a choice. Sexual slavery TAKES AWAY that choice and that is why the subjects do not belong in the same paragraph. One thing simply is and the other thing is created.
Just my nearly ignorant two cents....
--
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La Vonda R. Staples
Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Sciences
Community College of the District of Columbia
"It is the duty of all who have been fortunate to receive an education to assist others in the same pursuit."
Tracy Flemming
May 2, 2011, 8:44:49 PM5/2/11
to USA Africa Dialogue Series
http://semgai.free.fr/doc_et_pdf/africa_A4.pdf
"Homosexuality in 'Traditional' Sub-Saharan Africa and Contemporary
South Africa"
An overview by Stephen O. Murray
> >http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/aae/38-feature/2096-in-the-life-p...
"Homosexuality in 'Traditional' Sub-Saharan Africa and Contemporary
South Africa"
An overview by Stephen O. Murray
Tracy Flemming
May 5, 2011, 4:07:45 PM5/5/11
to USA Africa Dialogue Series
African homosexualities, their roles in the formation of the Pan
African subject, and the use of religious resources among men who have
sex with men in Africa are understudied. How does the construction of
a spiritual landscape by self-professed “guardians of the gates” of
the spiritual world relate to the conservative origins of Black power
ideology in the African Atlantic and African worlds? What is the
importance of the emergence of an African gay masculine aesthetic?
Both western and African anthropologists, such as Stephen O. Murray,
Will Roscoe, and Malidoma Somé, provide rich starting points for the
historical analysis of the erasure of the central role that African
men who engage in homosexual relationships play in the creation of
spaces that are not widely known or discussed among historians of
Africa. How do we situate the history of homosexuality in the African
Atlantic world, for example, through an engagement with themes
initially outlined in the work of Joseph F. Beam? Spiritual Black
Nationalism and Pan Africanism, traditions that were first articulated
in the 18th century, exploded into a political Black Nationalism and
Pan Africanism during the 19th century and had a remarkable impact on
20th century Black writers and artists, yet the impact of Black power
ideology on Black homosexuals such as Joseph Beam, editor of the
groundbreaking In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, remains ignored by
mainstream scholars in African American, African, and Atlantic
studies. The use of religious resources in the history of Black
Nationalism and Pan Africanism is indisputable. What roles did
homosexuals play in the invention of Black subjectivity and in the
intellectual history of Africa and its diaspora?
African subject, and the use of religious resources among men who have
sex with men in Africa are understudied. How does the construction of
a spiritual landscape by self-professed “guardians of the gates” of
the spiritual world relate to the conservative origins of Black power
ideology in the African Atlantic and African worlds? What is the
importance of the emergence of an African gay masculine aesthetic?
Both western and African anthropologists, such as Stephen O. Murray,
Will Roscoe, and Malidoma Somé, provide rich starting points for the
historical analysis of the erasure of the central role that African
men who engage in homosexual relationships play in the creation of
spaces that are not widely known or discussed among historians of
Africa. How do we situate the history of homosexuality in the African
Atlantic world, for example, through an engagement with themes
initially outlined in the work of Joseph F. Beam? Spiritual Black
Nationalism and Pan Africanism, traditions that were first articulated
in the 18th century, exploded into a political Black Nationalism and
Pan Africanism during the 19th century and had a remarkable impact on
20th century Black writers and artists, yet the impact of Black power
ideology on Black homosexuals such as Joseph Beam, editor of the
groundbreaking In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, remains ignored by
mainstream scholars in African American, African, and Atlantic
studies. The use of religious resources in the history of Black
Nationalism and Pan Africanism is indisputable. What roles did
homosexuals play in the invention of Black subjectivity and in the
intellectual history of Africa and its diaspora?
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