Thebusinessofgayness

Trading Places
Europe used to be the antigay continent, whereas Africa was the tolerant continent. Now Europe is the most gay tolerant continent, and Africa is the most antigay.

King Henry VIII had just signed the Buggery Act in 1533 in England, which criminalised sex between two males. The last men to be sentenced to death by hanging in England were in 1835 for engaging in homosexual sex; After all, buggery, was a capital offense in England from 1523 to 1861. That’s more than 300 years during which you could die for something that like a third of straight menhave tried in their lifetime. England exported these buggery laws to all its colonies, which is why homophobia is rampant in so much of Africa and the Caribbean.

whilst at the same time there was an openly gay monarch, King Mwanga II of Buganda (present day Uganda), who actively opposed Christianity and colonialism.

Trading Places
Europe used to be the antigay continent, whereas Africa was the tolerant continent. Now Europe is the most gay tolerant continent, and Africa is the most tolerant

The Igbo and Yoruba tribes, found mostly in present day Nigeria, did not have a binary of genders and typically did not assign gender to babies at birth, and instead waited until later life. For example, the Ndebele and Shona in Zimbabwe, the Azande in Sudan and Congo, the Nupe in Nigeria and the Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi all engaged in same-sex acts for spiritual rearmament — i.e., as a source of fresh power for their territories. It was also used for ritual purposes.

It is ironic that an African wearing a three-piece suit, caressing an iPhone, speaking in English or French and liberally quoting the Bible can dare indict anything for being un-African.

For centuries, across the

Senegal
Gorjigeen Dakar the San Francisco of Africa

In colonial times, Senegal’s metropolis Dakar was famous for its open and tolerated homosexual prostitution market, and as late as in the 1970s, as many as 17 percent of Senegalese men admitted having had homosexual experiences.

The old Wolof name for homosexual men is gor-digen, or men-women. Armand Marie Corre, a French navy doctor stationed in Senegal in the 1870s, writes how he met many locals “with feminine dress and demeanour, who he was told, made their living from prostitution.” Dr Corre referred to the Wolofs’ appetite for “morbid eroticism” in his critical report; the oldest known written records of homosexuality in Senegal.

Mr Gorer interestingly notes that these openly gay men “do not suffer in any way socially, though the Mohammedans refuse them religious burial.” French colonial authorities, although not trying to stop same-sex prostitution, however claimed to be bothered by the practice but blamed it on “Muslim culture” – a widely held misunderstanding among Europeans at the time.

British historian Michael Crowder, travelling West Africa in the 1950s, was also puzzled by the visibility of the gor-digen and male prostitution in Dakar. Even on Place Prôtet – which is now Dakar’s prestigious centre square Place de l’Indépendence – young Senegalese males waited to be picked up by elder men.

in 1949, when Michael Davidson, a British traveler, visited its town of Dakar. Later published in 1970 as “Dakar,” , in colonial Senegal, of a dissident, subversive, and creative black Senegalese transgender and homosexual culture that thrived on the fringes of the country’s capital city while interacting with a European clientele that was exploitative and denigrating toward people with no

The elders and faithful Muslims condemn men for this,” Mr Crowder noted, thus documenting a slowly growing intolerance towards homosexuality from the local clergy. “But it is typical of African tolerance that they [the male prostitutes] are left very much alone by the rest of the people,” Mr Crowder however added.

British traveller Michael Davidson described Dakar in 1949 as “the ‘gay’ city of West Africa.” When he returned nine years later, “Dakar was gayer than ever” and nobody did have to shy about his homosexuality in the city. And by 1958, he recalls, homosexuality was not confined to the French dominated centre of Dakar, but to the nightlife in the “native quarters” and shantytowns surrounding the capital.

Mr Davidson reports about brothels and nightclubs dominated by the gor-digen. A suburban club “was full of adolescent Africans in drag. … Most of them were indeed in girls’ clothes: some in European, some wearing the elaborate headdress of the West African mode. … They danced together. They camped around like a pride of prima donnas. They came to our table and drank lots of beer with us,” he recalls.

Ghana

The Nzima of Ghana had a tradition of adult men marrying each other, usually with an age difference of about 10 years. Similar to ancient Greece,

During the 18th and 19th centuries in the Ashanti Kingdom, male concubines in Ghana were a common sight. These male concubines were sex slaves who were expected to dress and act as women.

Benin

Furthermore, in the Dahomey Kingdom in Benin, males who were castrated during rituals served as royal wives within the upper courts. These eunuchs were regarded as more female than male and occupied influential positions in the courts, thus granting them extensive power over the Kingdom.

Nigeria

Throughout Western Africa, especially in Northern Nigeria, the Hausa tribe's vocabulary included "dan Daudu" which means 'men who are like women'. When a child was recognised as a dan Daudu at an early age, he would be given female-specific toys and encouraged to express his gender openly regardless of biology. As adults, they would perform the tasks of women such as preparing and selling food at the marketplace. Furthermore, they would continue to live with other women until taking a husband.

The Hausa people have terms in their language that are used to describe homosexuals. Two terms are common,‘yan dauda, which is usually translated as “homosexual” or “transvestite” and‘dan dauda, which translates as a homosexual “wife.” The ‘yan dauda in Hausaland engange in stereotypical professions, much as marginalized gay men in the west often do. In Hausaland, they are often engaged in the sex trade – both as male prostitutes and as ‘procurers’ for female prostitutes. In the latter role, they do not behave as ‘pimps’ do in the west, maintaining of female prostitutes under their subjugation, but rather simply as go-betweens, arranging, for a fee, liasons for men seeking the commercial charms of female prostitutes. In this role, they often engage as male prostitutes themselves when the opportunity arises.

Cameroon

Amongst Bantu-speaking Pouhain farmers (Bene, Bulu, Fang, Jaunde, Mokuk, Mwele, Ntum and Pangwe) in present-day Gabon and Cameroon, homosexual intercourse was known as bian nkû”ma– a medicine for wealth which was transmitted through sexual activity between men.
There are many stories among the Pangwe of Camaroon of men who hate women and prefer the company of men even when offered a large brideprice, of men who court other men, etc. That these behaviors existed within this tribe prior to European contact is evidenced by the richness and number of these stories.

The vocabulary used to describe same-sex relations in traditional languages, predating colonialism, is further proof of the existence of such relations in precolonial Africa. To name but a few, the Shangaan of southern Africa referred to same-sex relations as “inkotshane” (male-wife); Basotho women in present-day Lesotho engage in socially sanctioned erotic relationships called “motsoalle” (special friend) and in the Wolof language, spoken in Senegal, homosexual men are known as “gor-digen” (men-women). But to be sure, the context and experiences of such relationships did not necessarily mirror homosexual relations as understood in the West, nor were they necessarily consistent with what we no

Congo

In traditional, monarchical Zande culture, anthropological records described homosexuality as ‘‘indigenous”. The Azande of the Northern Congo ‘‘routinely married” younger men who functioned as temporary wives – a practise that was institutionalised to such an extent that warriors would pay ‘‘brideprice” to the young man”s parents.

homosexuality has always existed in all societies, but in different forms. In Africa, it has often been associated with magic and mystical practices, he says. He says that on a trip to Kasai (Ed. in the center of the country) in 1977, he found a small group of homosexuals frequented by diamond searchers, who supposedly needed them to be lucky in their work.

Angola

Andrew Battell, an English traveller in the 1590s, wrote this of the Imbangala of Angola: " they have men in women's apparel, whom they keep among their wives."

Francisco Manicongo, a cobbler’s apprentice known among the slaves as a sodomite for ‘performing the duties of a female’ and for ‘refusing to wear the men’s clothes which the master gave him.’ Francisco’s accuser added that in Angola and the Congo in which he had wandered much and of which he had much experience, it is customary among the pagan negros to wear a loincloth with the ends in front which leaves an opening in the rear… this custom being adopted by the sodomitic negros who serve as passive women in the abominable sin. These passives are called jimbandaa in the language of Angola and the Congo, which means passive sodomite. The accuser claimed to have seen Francisco Manicongo “wearing a loincloth such as passive sodomites wear in his land of the Congo and immediately rebuked him.

In the early 17th century in present-day Angola, Portuguese priests Gaspar Azevereduc and Antonius Sequerius encountered men who spoke, sat and dressed like women, and who entered into marriage with men. Such marriages were ‘‘honored and even prized”.

In many African societies, same-sex sexuality was also believed to be a source of magical powers to guarantee bountiful crop yields and abundant hunting, good health and to ward off evil spirits. In Angola and Namibia, for instance, a caste of male diviners — known as “zvibanda,” “chibados,” “quimbanda,” gangas” and “kibambaa” — were believed to carry powerful female spirits that they would pass on to fellow men through anal sex.

Like elsewhere around the world, anal intercourse between married opposite-sex partners to avoid pregnancy was historically practiced by many Africans before the invention of modern contraceptive methods.

South Africa

In the 18th century the Khoikhoi of South Africa used the word koetsire to describe men considered sexually receptive to other men, and soregus was the word they used for a friendship which involved same-sex masturbation.

Homosexuality and same-sex relations have been documented among various modern-day South African groups. In the 18th century, the Khoikhoi people recognised the terms koetsire, which refers to a man who is sexually receptive to another man, and soregus, which refers to same-sex masturbation usually among friends. Anal intercourse and sexual relations between women also occurred, though more rarely. The Bantu peoples, most notably the Zulu,[2] Basotho,[3] Mpondo and Tsonga people, had a tradition of young men (inkotshane in Zulu,[2] boukonchana in Sesotho,[3] tinkonkana in Mpondo, and nkhonsthana in Tsonga, also known as "boy-wives" in English) who typically dressed as women (even wearing fake breasts), performed chores associated with women, such as cooking and fetching water and firewood, and had intercrural sex with their older husbands (numa in Zulu and Sesotho, and nima in Mpondo and Tsonga).[2] In addition, they were not allowed to grow beards,[2] and sometimes they were not allowed to ejaculate. Upon reaching manhood, the relationship would be dissolved, and the boy-wife could take an inkotshane of his own if he so desired.[2][4] These relationships, also known as "mine marriages"[3] as they were common among miners, continued well into the 1950s.[5] They are usually discussed as homosexual relationships, though sometimes the boy-wives are discussed in the context of transgender experiences.[6][7]

The vocabulary used to describe same-sex relations in traditional languages, predating colonialism, is further proof of the existence of such relations in precolonial Africa. To name but a few, the Shangaan of southern Africa referred to same-sex relations as “inkotshane” (male-wife); Basotho women in present-day Lesotho engage in socially sanctioned erotic relationships called “motsoalle” (special friend)

Other Bantu peoples, including the Tswana people,[8] and the Ndebele people, had traditions of acceptance or indifference towards same-sex sexual acts. Before battle, Ndebele male warriors, as well as Zulu warriors, would have sex with each other, typically intercrural sex. Effeminate men in Ndebele society would often become healers and spiritual leaders.[9] In these societies, homosexuality was not viewed as an antithesis to heterosexuality. There was widespread liberty to move between the two, and engage in sexual activity with both men and women.[10]

There is evidence that Shaka, the famous Zulu monarch, engaged in same-sex sexual relations, specifically intercrural sex with his male warriors.[11] In modern times, Zulu society also recognises the terms skesana, which refers to effeminate gay men or transgender people (typically people born male but who act, dress and behave as female) who have sexual relations with men, and injonga, masculine gay men.[12]

Tanzania

Uganda

During precolonial times, the “mudoko dako,” or effeminate males among the Langi of northern Uganda were treated as women and could marry men. In Buganda, one of the largest traditional kingdoms in Uganda, it was an open secret that Kabaka (king) Mwanga II, who ruled in the latter half of the 19th century, was gay.

and in the Wolof language, spoken in Senegal, homosexual men are known as “gor-digen” (men-women). But to be sure, the context and experiences of such relationships did not necessarily mirror homosexual relations as understood in the West, nor were they necessarily consistent with what we no

Kenya

the Kikuyu and Meru tribes in Kenya, special religious leaders called mugawe dressed and wore their hair like women, and in some cases were even recognised as being married to other men.
The Kamba tribe in traditional Kenyan society allowed same-sex marriages between two women in order to encourage fertility. For the Kamba tribe, a son represented the past, present and future, and without a son, a family's future and their ancestors would be spiritually erased. Where a woman was unable to produce a son for her family, she was allowed to marry another woman who would then act as a surrogate. The son of this surrogate mother would then become the torchbearer of the original husband and wife's family spirit.

Ethiopia

Travelling Ethiopia in the 1920s Irving Bieberencountered "Uranism" found among the Semitic Harari people, and noted that "sodomy is not foreign to the Harari. Albeit not as commonly, it also occurs among the Oromo and Somali." He also noted mutual masturbation by both sexes and all ages for all three peoples, and specified that among the Harari, "Uranism" was practiced as often between adult men as between men and boys.^[5] More recently, Frederick Gamst reported homosexual relations among shepherd boys of the Cushitic-speaking Qemant (Kemant) of central Ethiopia.^[6]

Among the Maale people of southern Ethiopia, Donald Donham documented "a small minority [of men] crossed over to feminine roles. Called ashtime, these (biological) males dressed like women, performed female tasks, cared for their own houses, and apparently had sexual relations with men".

Sudan

Homosexuality is also recorded among the Siwa of Egypt.

Debunking the idea that LGBTI people are unAfrican is another powerful tool to further LGBTI rights on the continent. It all boils down to education. Studies have shown that tolerance for gay people is highest among educated Africans.

LGBTI people are among the most vilified groups on the continent today, but simply paging through the history books annuls the rhetoric of African leaders who propagate homophobic ideas.

Whether its African or UnAfrican, Africans still dont like gays

Tables turned,

Europe used to be the antigay continent, whereas Africa was the tolerant continent. Now Europe is the most gay tolerant continent, and Africa is the most tolerant

1. They cant reproduce, African culture is still largely agricultural, weddings are a big deal, as Africa urbanizes you might see bigger acceptance due to population

2. Religion is huge in Africa, if the standard of living in Africa increases people will turn less to religious leaders to solve their problems.

3. Africa has a huge fashion industry, many gays are behind fashion.