Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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Biko Agozino

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Mar 30, 2021, 9:43:23 PM3/30/21
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By way of congratulations, I could not wait to dig into the creative commons copy of Chielozona Eze's treatise on Human Rights and creative narratives in Africa. I like soft copies because they are easier to search for discourse analysis. I noticed instantly that references to the work of Emecheta are plentiful and I look forward toi reading the book in detail. But I have a preliminary question:

I was shocked to find only one passing reference to the work of Soyinka and it looks like a misinterpretation of that piece of work, The Interpreters. Of all the works of Soyinka with relevance to human rights, why did Chielozona Eze choose The Interpreters as the exemplar of the representation of Human Rights by Soyinka? Not The Season of Anomy which represented the pogrom against the Igbo, not The Man Died, not his entire body of work in all genres?

The answer is that Soyinka raised the question of homophobia in that book and Chielozona suggests that Soyinka was using the representation to debunk the idea that no African can be gay. If that was the case, then the character who was suspected as being pro-gay in the novel would have been an African character and not an African-American character suspected of introducing a foreign habit that the protagonist was happy to reject as a primitive African who preferred to be left alone in his alleged backwardness. 

A different interpretation is that Soyinka was pointing out that there was no indigenous primitive law against same-sex relations whereas such relations were criminalized in the US at the time he wrote the novel in the 1960s. In other words, Soyinka was indirectly returning the charge of primitivity to the American cultural warrior given that there is no evidence of homophobia in indigenous African societies until foreign religions introduced their hysteria in the form of legal prohibition against same sex relations. When Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu announced the 1966 coup by decreeing that homosexuals will be shot, people wondered where such moral panic came from.

Chiel;ozona read it literally to suggest that African Americans must be more civilized or wiser than stupid Africans because African Americans are more tolerant of homosexuality while African Africans are not. He could have used case law on the 2014 recognition of marriage equality by the US Supreme Court under Obama's presidency to contrast the fact that Africans still allow women to marry other women as Female Husbands (Amadiume).  Yoruba men play Gelede and Igbo men play Agbomma masquerades as cross-dressers without any prejudice or violent attacks against the performers to show that Africans are not as homophobic as Chielozona implies.

Many Africans are led to hate Obama because his administration refused to argue in support of the Defense of Marriage Act but they do not know that it was the decision of the Supreme Court to strike down the law as unconstitutional long after the Constitutional Court in South Africa legalized same sex marriage under Mandela. The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality because it is a matter of property rights more than sexual rights given that same sex relations were no longer criminal. Without a marriage license from the courts, same sex couples who were duly married in churches would still be taxed as unmarried individuals and that is against the 5th Amendment right to be secure in their properties. 

African countries have bigger fish to fry than to retain the colonialist legislation against adults based on the sex of who they choose to fall in love with as consenting adults. That was the point of Soyinka, it is a matter of consent and dissent by adult individuals.

Biko

Chielozona Eze

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Mar 31, 2021, 4:44:14 AM3/31/21
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Well, Biko, I'm not sure we'll be better served investing our intellectual energy in conjectures. Please read the book first, or at least the chapter in which Soyinka's book was mentioned.
If you still intend on responding, then please do provide the context in which I mentioned Soyinka. I'm sure I'll benefit from that.
In that particular chapter, I mentioned established scholars who have done excellent job discussing Soyinka's representation of homosexuality. I then went on to discuss the contemporary generation of writers and activists challenging Africa's attitude to people of alternative sexuality.
We could actually avoid the fallacy of the straw man if we provided the contexts of our responses.
Take care.
C



Chielozona Eze
Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor
Professor, Africana Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze




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Harrow, Kenneth

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Mar 31, 2021, 9:45:04 PM3/31/21
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soyinka openly and clearly mocked the gay character in The Interpreters; there was no real concern over laws. anyone familiar with soyinka's masculinism of that period would not have been surprised. he was the most hostile to feminism, also of that period, of most authors one could think of, and that continued for decades. where he is now, i do not know.
djibril diop's charley, in touki bouki, was nother classical case of homophobia, where charlie was mocked in every which way, as a gay figure.

the resistance to changes in gay attitudes is still at the level of open warfare in much of africa, where laws and attitudes are often super hostile. in kenya the film rafiki was essentially banned by the govt, and only released briefly on international outcry. uganda has been notorious for its persecution of gays. even in senegal, where l'homme-femme, from st louis, was lauded, attacks also were and are common enough.
it is a struggle, and the courage of those now fighting for gay rights is enormously laudatory. i believe the time for change is here, finally
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chielozona Eze <chi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2021 10:41 PM
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters
 

Biko Agozino

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Mar 31, 2021, 10:17:57 PM3/31/21
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Ken, you are the literary theorist. All I can say is that Soyinka is a giant in human rights struggles and you will have to prove your charge that he was among the most homophobic African writers who was also against feminism in spite of the strong female characters in his work. 

Everyone knows that the author is not always represented autobiographically by the characters in his creative writing. Some characters are based on other people that the author may not even agree with. Is it possible that Soyinka represented a homophobic character as part of empirical realities instead of whole-heartedly agreeing with the views of such a character? 

I believe that Soyinka, whatever his limitations as a person, has been redeemed by his sacrifices in the struggle for human rights worldwide. He is imperfect as we all are but he cannot be trashed by anyone on human rights struggles.

Biko

Toyin Falola

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Mar 31, 2021, 10:22:45 PM3/31/21
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Biko:

There was a conversation around this in the 1980s, so Ken locates the context.

You can fight for human rights and still run into those issues---the MLK movement, for instance.

You will soon have the opportunity to ask him.

TF

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biko...@yahoo.com

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Apr 1, 2021, 2:29:42 PM4/1/21
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Iwin,

Comparing Wole Soyinka to the MLK movement is a huge compliment despite, or due to, the counterintel propaganda that the two heroic figures faced with their warts and all. 

I am aware of the critique of the sexist representation of the girl waiter in the mama put in The Interpreters but I read this as his way to expose the abusive and oppressive way that servants are treated in Nigeria by big Ogas and also by cash Madams. It is not the fault of the mirror that your face is ugly. Achebe also got a hard time for the toxic masculinity of Okonkwo but Achebe saw Unoka as his hero.

It will be a delight to get a chance to ask the Ogbuefi of African Literature, Baba Sho himself, some burning questions.

Biko

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Chielozona Eze

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Apr 1, 2021, 2:31:17 PM4/1/21
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Professor Biko descended on what he believed to be my interpretation of Soyinka’s The Interpreters and, as if writing for a tabloid declared: “Chielozona Eze Misinterprets The Interpreters.” For those who have not yet read the chapter five of my book, this is the very paragraph that contains my mention of Soyinka:

“Some of the narratives that deal with homosexuality in Africa engaged with the topic rather indirectly, in some cases to mock African denial of this aspect of being human. Wole Soyinka’s novel The Interpreters is one such narratives. In this story, Joe Golder, an African American professor teaching in Nigeria is the one who informs his Nigerian interlocutor, the journalist Sagoe, that homosexuality exists in Nigeria, providing him with convincing anecdotes, and yet Sagoe responds in a typical denialist way: “You seem better informed than I am. But if you don’t mind I’ll persist in my delusion” (Soyinka 1996:199). Chris Dunton and Neville Hoad have done excellent readings of Soyinka’s text.

OA’s claim to categorical knowledge seems to be what it is—categorical one-dimensionality. Only heaven knows what Americanized consciousness means. Is homosexuality an American invention?

“Soyinka and myself” I had to chuckle when I read the above line. Are you implying that every Yoruba person is already overdetermined by what you believe to be the gluing might of their society/culture? I hope you know that it is not a compliment to suggest that individuals are irredeemably structured by their culture? Anyway, I know at least two Yoruba people who are gay. And they write about it, hoping that people will understand and accept them for who they are. This ought to be simple.

“Not all African societies are monocultural.” And, no culture is a monolithic bolus. There are innumerable tensions and internal differences within every given culture/society. The same goes for families and individuals. That is actually what we mean when we talk about the human condition. It is what it is. Humans come in different colors, shapes, dispositions, and orientations. All we can do is live and let live. As my people would say: let the eagle perch, and the kite too.

Chielo

Chielozona Eze
Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor
Professor, Africana Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze




On Thu, Apr 1, 2021 at 5:39 AM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:



Ken.


All I can categorically state regarding Soyinka's position on gay rights in the Interpreters no matter how that treatment is interpreted are that:

1.  This discussion. ( on this listserv) is heavily influenced by the Americanised consciousness of discussants.


2.  Soyinka's position is influenced by the Yoruba society from which he and myself come.  Yoruba society does not encourage gay marriage ( male or female) the gender distribution  inequality was perhaps what led to the institution of polygamy.

3. Soyinka was ( and still is) a macho man, so whats wrong with that?  Are all men supposed to be effeminate?

4.  Not all African societies are monocultural, so the idea that titanic gay right struggles are going on in Kenya or Uganda does not mean it is time for a continental- wide decree to be passed one way or the other.  Africa unlike America is not one country that is one continent.  Isnt the abhorrence of such totalising concepts that the scholarly community fought valiantly in the last 50 years of the 20th century after the calamitous debacle of the second world war?  Does anyone still wonder why the outbreak of HIV in West and East Africa is not comparable, even when there had been unfulfilled calamitous predictions for West Africa?

5.  I cannot believe that I read from Ken the statement that the time is right for all of Africa to promote gay rights.  That is naked American imperialism transplanted in one fell swoop on Africa. No, the time is not right for any such gamble!


OAA



Sent from my Galaxy



-------- Original message --------
From: "Harrow, Kenneth" <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 01/04/2021 02:55 (GMT+00:00)
To: 'Ayotunde Bewaji' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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soyinka openly and clearly mocked the gay character in The Interpreters; there was no real concern over laws. anyone familiar with soyinka's masculinism of that period would not have been surprised. he was the most hostile to feminism, also of that period, of most authors one could think of, and that continued for decades. where he is now, i do not know.
djibril diop's charley, in touki bouki, was nother classical case of homophobia, where charlie was mocked in every which way, as a gay figure.

the resistance to changes in gay attitudes is still at the level of open warfare in much of africa, where laws and attitudes are often super hostile. in kenya the film rafiki was essentially banned by the govt, and only released briefly on international outcry. uganda has been notorious for its persecution of gays. even in senegal, where l'homme-femme, from st louis, was lauded, attacks also were and are common enough.
it is a struggle, and the courage of those now fighting for gay rights is enormously laudatory. i believe the time for change is here, finally
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chielozona Eze <chi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2021 10:41 PM
To: 'Ayotunde Bewaji' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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Harrow, Kenneth

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Apr 2, 2021, 11:54:47 AM4/2/21
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dear oaa
a few of my basic notions on this topic
--gay rights are human rights.
if this concept can be accepted, we can really move on.
if it is a human right, it is not a "western" or "american" right. it is human.

it is not a vile or dirty aberration, with ugly origins in arab cultures, or anything of the like. it is human, it is part of how humans experience desire; it is experienced with a range of practices with human bodies. if we can accept it as human, we can understand it better instead of simply rejecting it.

i think of homophobia in the west, as in the u.s., where there were laws punishing gays, where there was enormous social disapprobation, ugly incidents, etc. life was often made miserable for gays: they existed, but hid it. "in the closet."
this was certainly true when i grew up in the 1950s. so there was no push from the west to expand gay rights; just the opposite then.
like black rights, gay rights had advocates in the 1950s, and the movement of civil rights grew as did gay rights. sometimes there was overlap, as with women's rights.
rights should give us two things: legal protections. and eventually, social acceptance.
i certainly understand the african reactions against all this; citing armah or vilifying arab states only undermines the opposition. it is shameful, and in fact ignores the reality that arab states proved as hostile to homosexuality as did all contemporary states.

i would hope that those who understand the horrors of racism and misogyny could come to overcome any prejudices against groups of people. i think, for instance, of hitler's attempts to eliminate homosexuality by gassing gays alongside jews and gypsies and other "inferior" people.

we need progressive coalitions to improve our world.

when we lived in cameroon in the 1970s we knew of a french prof who was gay, and in touch with the underground gay culture in yaounde. it was there, but disapprobation forced it underground. some presidents became tolerant; others like mugabe or musaveni repressive. yet cineastes like kanuri persisted. courageously.
more films that portray gays are now beginning to be made and become known, like rafiki. we have a specialist, one among many, like lindeway green-sims, who has published a fair amount on this topic, and others are following. despite repressive zones, like northern nigeria where the punishments for any religious deviation are very severe.

i guess that sums up my thoughts. i do not see anything particularly american about my views: progressive views on gay rights are widespread now around much of the world. so too is homophobia. i view it as yet another case where it is our duty to support people unjustly punished; in this case they are gays.
k
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com>
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Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters
 






Thank you Chielo for providing the context of your assertions.

Most Yorùbá of my generation know that homosexuality existed in Nigeria of the period of the Interpreters and that it essentially filtered into Yoruba society from parts of northern Nigeria where it is endemic ( which probably filtered there from the Arabic North Afruca . See Ayi Kwei Armah's Two Thousand Seasons.)  Remember also military coup godfather Col Nyiam leveling the same charge of bisexuality against the dictator Ibrahim Babangida, ( and his yadaodu boys) stating that it was common practice in northern Nigeria.  If homosexuality was endemic or pervasive in indigenous ( pre-Islamic/ pre- westernised) African societies why would Ayi Kwei Armah treat it like a sore thumb and why would majority of Ghanaians agree with him that his mores were representative of Ghanaian culture even after he left for America?

It was because the Yoruba knew it was filtering in from other areas that people were being told to enforce society mores by enforcing the taboo structures

In the boarding house experience which I shared,
one of my dormitory house mates who had his elementary schooling in northern Nigeria was constantly being taunted with this fact by some of my seniors who called him ad××× (which translates as one engages in anal sex.)  I was shocked for discovering for the first time that such a thing was actually possible because of the association of the anal part only with defecation. 

 That is why till today I still regard gay males as truly dirty ( I can even tolerate lesbians because they are not dirtying themselves in a similar manner.)  This was informed by my own sexual precocity, so that between ages 5-7 I had reached what we call in psychoanalysis the stage of secondary sexual organisation which most people attained in their teen age years.  That means being able to identify the female person as the object of male sexual gratification and that there are specific organs for this ( and never the male.)  The same thing went for precocious females in the play groups who never saw fellow females as object of sexual consummation


How did the African American know what the African who grew up in the society did not know if he himself was not gay?  That is the question.  It was not as if the gays let it all hang out so foreigners can see it in the Nigerian society of that time policed by taboos.

Let me repeat here that it is not as if there were no gays at all in Nigerian society of the time particularly in the Lagos scene which was the setting of the novel.  Because of the proximity of the Atlantic and foreigner influx, it was unavoidable.

I think I have stated it here once that one of the seniors l served in the dormitory who came from Lagos was actually gay.  A son of a recently departed Olúbàdàn who was also my senior used to taunt him about his female shaped buttocks which he joked was the result of excessive consumption of fatty and sweet food, with the suggestion it was unmanly to eat such food.

Even this tormentor ( a spartan macho man ) did not know he was gay and I did not confirm until he sent me to collect money for him from his gay lover an hour and half walk away from campus ( confirming one of the unethical reasons GE cited for gays turning themselves into rent boys. I was also always short of money in the boarding house but I did not turn myself to a rent boy, so its not an acceptable excuse.) 

Since my senior and his lover were not from the same ethnicity and I knew he was not his uncle, it was not hard for me to put two and two together.  His lover was posted out of the headquarters in Lagos where they probably met.  But it was shocking precisely because it was rare and he spoke to me in hushed tones about the errand because he knew it was unacceptable in our society.


Yes, most  African discussants who are liberal on this thread do so because of their Americanised consciousness and that it is a public forum that can be excerpted for their American students.


OAA

Sent from my Galaxy



-------- Original message --------
From: Chielozona Eze <chi...@gmail.com>
Date: 01/04/2021 19:37 (GMT+00:00)
To: 'Ayotunde Bewaji' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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Professor Biko descended on what he believed to be my interpretation of Soyinka’s The Interpreters and, as if writing for a tabloid declared: “Chielozona Eze Misinterprets The Interpreters.” For those who have not yet read the chapter five of my book, this is the very paragraph that contains my mention of Soyinka:

“Some of the narratives that deal with homosexuality in Africa engaged with the topic rather indirectly, in some cases to mock African denial of this aspect of being human. Wole Soyinka’s novel The Interpreters is one such narratives. In this story, Joe Golder, an African American professor teaching in Nigeria is the one who informs his Nigerian interlocutor, the journalist Sagoe, that homosexuality exists in Nigeria, providing him with convincing anecdotes, and yet Sagoe responds in a typical denialist way: “You seem better informed than I am. But if you don’t mind I’ll persist in my delusion” (Soyinka 1996:199). Chris Dunton and Neville Hoad have done excellent readings of Soyinka’s text.

OA’s claim to categorical knowledge seems to be what it is—categorical one-dimensionality. Only heaven knows what Americanized consciousness means. Is homosexuality an American invention?

“Soyinka and myself” I had to chuckle when I read the above line. Are you implying that every Yoruba person is already overdetermined by what you believe to be the gluing might of their society/culture? I hope you know that it is not a compliment to suggest that individuals are irredeemably structured by their culture? Anyway, I know at least two Yoruba people who are gay. And they write about it, hoping that people will understand and accept them for who they are. This ought to be simple.

“Not all African societies are monocultural.” And, no culture is a monolithic bolus. There are innumerable tensions and internal differences within every given culture/society. The same goes for families and individuals. That is actually what we mean when we talk about the human condition. It is what it is. Humans come in different colors, shapes, dispositions, and orientations. All we can do is live and let live. As my people would say: let the eagle perch, and the kite too.

Chielo

Chielozona Eze
Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor
Professor, Africana Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze



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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Apr 2, 2021, 2:28:19 PM4/2/21
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"Most Yorùbá of my generation know that homosexuality existed in Nigeria of the period of the Interpreters
 and that it essentially filtered into Yoruba society from parts of northern Nigeria where it is endemic
 ( which probably filtered there from the Arabic North Afruca." OAA

Would you classify same - sex sexuality within the Catholic Church  as Arab derived?

This matter certainly falls within the human rights portfolio and should transcend
crude assumptions and prejudices.We are yet to understand the range and scope of Indigenous sexuality beyond a 
particular region.

 I was quite impressed by the high level of  analysis in Dr. Josephine Olatomi's presentation on
 LGBTQ identities, at this morning's session of the  Texas- based Annual African Conference.
 She spoke  of  various gender identities, sexual orientation, romantic orientation, asexuality,
 aromanticism and so on. I look forward to her paper.

Sexuality and gender are  incredibly complex. None of us should claim the right to 
be both judge and jury on this matter. We need understanding, intellectual sophistication and 
tolerance.


GE


Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries




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Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters
 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Chielozona Eze
Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor
Professor, Africana Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze



To: 'Ayotunde Bewaji' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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Salimonu Kadiri

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Apr 5, 2021, 11:44:03 AM4/5/21
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​A problem with most of our Western liberals is that they always assume that whatever is done in Africa is bad and whatever is done in Europe and America is good. Consequently, they often seek to impose their own tastes on us, Africans, regardless of our objections, because they believe that we, Africans, don't know what is good for us. In Africa, polygamy has been practised for many centuries, contrary to Europe and America where monogamy is officially proclaimed even if serial monogamy is mostly the norm, in a chewing-gum marriage system where one chews to the point of no taste to spit out and pick new chewing gum. Rejecting polygamy in George Reynolds vs United States of America, the Supreme Court declined to accept polygamy as a legitimate religious practice and dismissed it as "almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and African people." "Polygamy is a blot on our civilisation," the US Supreme Court declared, and compared it to human Sacrifice and a return to barbarism. George Reynolds was a Caucasian and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was charged with bigamy under the federal Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act after marrying a woman while still married to his wife. Citing many verses from the Bible, George Reynolds claimed that his religion permitted him to marry multiple wives. He was convicted of bigamy (polygamy). Why should the same US (and in fact the entire Western world) that rejects polygamy want to force Africans to accept as normal lesbianism and homosexuality?  

In Yorubaland where Wole Soyinka belongs, polygamy is practised contrary to what obtains in Europe and the US. Among the Yoruba, and indeed in most African countries, children are insurance against old age. Generally, it is ones owned child or the children of one's relatives that would take care of one at old age. Since the number of males are always less than the number of females in the society, it is practical for women to share a man as their husband so as not to be deprived of the chance to child birth, which is insurance against old age. Moreover, in a typical agrarian society of yester-years Nigeria, where more hands were needed in the farms, marrying more than a wife became necessary for husbands to get help. Besides that, polygamy, before colonialism, ensured that every adult female in Nigeria (Africa) was mated and there were no whores or concubines. The purpose of sex to most Africans is to procreate which was why in pre-colonial era, a Yoruba woman that had attained menopause age would take initiative to look for a wife still at fertility age for the husband. A Yoruba woman at menopause age considered the husband having sexual intercourse with her as wasting his sperm since it could not lead to procreation. That shows that it was not for sexual pleasure that men marry more than one wife in Nigeria (Africa). The sexual discipline among men in pre-colonial Africa was outstanding as Lord Lugard, the first British Governor General of colonised Nigeria observed, "The custom, which seems fairly general among the Negro tribes, of suckling a child for two or three years, during which a woman lives apart from her husband, tends to decrease population (p.66, Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa by Lord Lugard)." Unlike in Africa, the purpose of sex, first and foremost,  and especially in Europe among men up till date is for pleasure. The over-sexual and sexually indisciplined European men was the cause of overpopulation in Europe in the fifteenth century, in spite of the fact that bubonic plague wiped out 33% of the population of Europe in the 14th century. The overpopulation in Europe, due to lack of sexual control by its men, led to war of conquest, annihilation and colonisation of foreign territories to settle their population excess. If sex is for pleasure alone there would be no need for a partner to get such sexual pleasure since it can also be attained through masturbation.

A perusal of Yoruba language will immediately reveal that there is a word (name) for every part of human body and their functions. The gender of a child, male or female is determined by the physically seen sexual organ located in-between the legs of the child at birth. There is a name in Yoruba for a male and a female; a woman and a man; a wife and a husband; and a son and a daughter. And above all the Yoruba people know that regeneration occurs only through sexual interraction between a woman and a man at fertile age. There are no equivalent words (names) in Yoruba language for homosexuality (gay), lesbianism (tribadism) and paraphilia, especially the aspect of zoophilism in respect of sexual intercourse between humans and animals(dogs in particular) because such sexual perversities have never been practised. Every Nigerian values procreation and believes in the continuity of the family. Therefore, on what ground will a Yoruba person like Soyinka stand to approve homosexuality and same-sex marriage? Recently, the Vatican said the Catholic Church cannot bless same sex marriages as they (same sex marriages) are not ordered according to creator's plan. If we ignore the religious aspect of marriage, it is in the institution of marriage that sexual intercourse between a woman and a man for the purpose of procreating can take place biologically. Physiologically, biologically and anatomically, sexual intercourse between two males, whether married or not, can only occur in violation of the real anatomical functions of human body. Male homosexuals claim that the anus, to them, is a sexual organ which is equal to or is the same as vagina. Therefore, they claim that the penetration of a male's anus by another male is anatomically a sexual intercourse. On the contrary, the illustrous son of Africa and the Ghana born medical practitioner in London, Dr. Felix I. D. Konotey-Ahulu, in his 1989 book : What is AIDS, wrote, "The anus is not anatomically constructed to receive things from below; it is made to let faecal matter down from above (p.33)." He wrote the book to counterthe presumptive diagnoses being touted then, about the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa by the Western World and as a danger that would decimate Africa's population. Dr Peter Duesberg, a Professor of Molecular Biology at Berkely University, California, corroborated Dr Ahulu's anatomical function of the anus in his 1996 edited book : AIDS - Virus- or Drug Induced? Professor Duesberg explained, "AIDS began and prevailed among passive males' and females' recipients of anal intercourse. This is because the rectal mucosa and its supporting tissues are relatively fragile, designed for excretory, and not for intrusive activity. When the thin submucosa is eroded and blood vessels are damaged, the tissues and blood stream are opened to invasion by all the organisms of faecal microflora, by the pathogens of all the sexually transmitted diseases and many others (p.176)." On page 177, he disclosed that, "Male homosexuals have anti-spermatozoal anti-bodies in the blood, which cross-react with T-cells and have been linked to the occurrence of azoospermia and testicular atrophy in homosexual men." Thereafter, on p.179, he asserted, "AIDS is a disease acquired by self-preferred or imposed behaviours, which in themselves dysregulate immunity and homeostasis while also leading to exposure of various pathogenic and opportunistic infections."  Further in another book of his, titled : Inventing the AIDS Virus and under the subtitle - AIDS THROUGH CHEMISTRY - Professor Duesberg revealed how receptive anal intercourse became less painful for male homosexuals through excessive use of nitrites to relax anal sphincter for the purpose of facilitating the insertion of penis into the rectum (270-275).  For stating indisputable natural science facts, Duesberg was branded a homophobe just as the liberals are now calling Soyinka a homophobia. However, no one has ever produced evidence to demonstrate that anus is a sexual organ and that it is equivalent to the female vagina. And there comes the truth that it is a cheap liberal propaganda to label anyone a homophobia for saying that anus is not a sexual organ. 

On December 2, 2011, the AFP reported a statement by the US  Embassy in Nigeria that "the United States is concerned about reports of legislation in Nigeria that would restrict the expression, assembly or organisation based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The United States believes that all people deserve the full range of human rights and opposes the criminalisation of sexual relations between consenting adults." Thereafter, on Tuesday, 6 Dec. 2011, the media reported that the United States President, Barrack Obama, had directed that the American foreign aids be reviewed to reflect his administration's policy against the discrimination of  lesbians, bisexuals, transexuals  and gays. "The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenger persons is a global challenge and one that is central to the United State's commitment to promoting human rights," Obama was quoted to have said. True to the US homosexual policy, the United States imposed sanctions on Uganda on Thursday, 19 June 2014, over the country's anti-gay law which could see homosexual jailed for life. Remarkably, the US is not imposing human rights, for all African children of school age to have access to primary education, for all Africans to  have access to potable water, constant electricity and mondern house accommodations etc. The only human rights worth imposing on Africans is the right to choose sexual orientation or gender identity. But in Africa, as I have pointed out earlier, the gender of a child is known at birth according to the sexual organ between the legs of the child. In Africa it is abnormal for one to choose to belong to a gender quite different from the sexual organ one has. Therefore, a male can never choose to be a female and a female cannot choose to be a male. The gender of every individual is imposed by nature at birth. While the US led western world wanted to impose homosexual culture on Africans, homosexuality was not legal in all the 50 states of the US. In 2013, John Arthur, the homosexual husband of Jim Obergefell died, but according to the law Jim Obergefell was not recognised as Arthur's surviving spouse on his death certificate. Thus, Obergefell went to the Court for redress which lead to the US Supreme Court's, 5 against 4, decision of 26 June 2015 that legalised same sex marriage in all the 50 states of the US. Despite that decision, not all states in the US, as of date, have legalised same sex marriage.

While this discussion is ongoing, Dr BioDun J. Ogundayo posed a question thus, "Is it okay for Black people to be homophobic or anti-gay; given our history as a (Black) 'race'?" Dr Ogundayo's question is wrongly framed and very provocative. The Christian's Bible and the Muslim's Q'uran were respectively written in Hebrew and Arabic languages of the Middle East. That both religions specifically forbid same-sex intercourse and sex between humans and animals must have been due to the fact that such vices were practiced by the Hebrews and Arabs, the originators of Bible and Q'uran respectively. Billions of Bibles and Q'urans containing prohibition of homosexual practice are in ciculation throughout the whole world. Are Christians and Muslims believers of their holy books homophobes? For instance, the Christan Bible, Leviticus 18 : 22 commanded, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, it is an abomination." Listing other abominations, Leciticus 18 : 29 gave consequence of what should happen if any of the  commands is disobeyed thus, "For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the soul that commit them shall be cut off from among their people."   Further in Leviticus 20 : 13  in the Bible, it is stipulated, "If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Similar injuctions against homosexuality and penalty for committing the act are contained in the Muslim's Q'uran. Before the advent of Bible and Q'uran in Africa, Africans from time immemorial had known that the human mouth and anus are not sexual organs. By stating those obvious facts can simply not imply phobia for those who think and act otherwise otherwise. When Africans refuse to give pure biology a savage twist, they should not be labelled homophobe or anti-gay. The homosexual human rights in Europe and America is a perversion of human dignity in Africa to assert our human dignity is not an expression of hatred for sexual deviants.
S. Kadiri

Sent: 01 April 2021 12:00

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters
To: 'Ayotunde Bewaji' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Apr 5, 2021, 1:24:49 PM4/5/21
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Alagba Kadiri:

Thank you for your painstaking research as usual.

I would like to share with you and the listserv a recent portrait of the Obama sisters.



OAA



Sent from my Galaxy



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From: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Date: 05/04/2021 16:56 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chielozona Eze Misinterpretes The Interpreters

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