The Rise of Homosexuality in Modern Writings
The word 'art' is an embodiment of all forms of creativity the world over: the use of imagination to express ideas or feelings in painting, writing, drawing or sculpture and its history is as old as the history of humanity. The literature of the world today, as noted by Ibrahim and Akande (2000), deliberately aims at recreating the human society through the exposition of human experiences, religious beliefs and socio-cultural motifs of a society within the imaginative framework of arts that rely heavily on skills that have been developed from time to time through constant practice or t r a i n i n g . T h i s p h a s e o f metamorphosis has placed literature on the high pedestal of a social tool for propaganda, commentaries, ridicules, forecasting and a liberating force that orchestrates our freedom from integral ideas placed on us by traditions and cultures of years gone past.
Here in Africa, the periods of modernization were-- though not initially, considering how literate some African societies like Ethiopia, Egypt, the Swahili coast, etc. had been-- heavily influenced by the spread of Western civilization. This made those who had been schooled and exposed write or document traditional myths, folklore, folktale, chants, incantations, etc., in English, the language of civilization. Many indigenous writings that sprang up thereafter included slave narratives e.g, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), and those that attempted to correct history and or certain social issues that were prevalent e.g Ernest Dhlomo, South African writer’s The Girl Who Killed to Save : Nongqawuse the Liberator (1935), Ngugi wa Thiong'o’s The Black Hermit (1962) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958). Others recorded colonial impact on tradition, delved into liberation, segregation, independence, the black race, and a couple of other happenings that caught their fancy. In the post-colonial era, attention shifted to more contemporary issues, which mostly were oppression by indigenous governments, civil war, terrorism, military coups, corruption, moral decadence, gender equality, romance, extreme sex, homosexuality, etc.
Though homosexuality is one social issue that has been around from time immemorial, we can’t shrug off the fact that it’s taking the centre stage in today’s writing. Our first encounter with this subject matter dates back to the Biblical days of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 1:9), where people did all sorts of evil, including having sexual relations with people of the same sex. Henceforth, notwithstanding its contribution to the destruction of the city, it became widespread--without much notice, though--and passed down from generation to generation. Afterwards, it started crawling into the open, into literary space, gaining currency among people of like minds such that it drove the allowance and abolishment of the trend at different times until some countries started criminalizing it as an offence against nature. In 1791, the Kingdom of France became the first West European country to decriminalize homosexual acts. This gesture birthed the intensification of strings of advocacy from different stakeholders and LGBT societies that had been formed over time for its legalization, in the 21st century, in all civilized societies across the world and informed the decision of many other including Denmark (1989, 2012), the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2013), the U.S (2015), South Africa (2006), etc. Today, the trend as well as those that create the opportune moments for writers to go off the rails to accommodate unconventional writing styles and create new off-beat genres like flash fiction, micro-fiction, etc. grows wider and wider thus, necessitating a n u n u s u a l a t t e n t i o n o f homosexuality in contemporary African arts.
Abnormal sexual behaviour has never been a strange discourse on the African continent. Research says homosexual activities had been prevalent in many African societies before the arrival of European missionaries who campaigned against it. On the list were Congo, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Sudan, where the Zande tribe had a tradition of lesbianism in polygamous households and warriors marrying boys and paying a bride price as they would for girl brides. When the boys grew, they too became warriors and took boy-wives. Nigeria isn’t left out of the list. Although it’s herculean to trace it to a set of people where it was a tradition, there is no denying the fact that it existed here. Wole Soyinka features this theme in his 1965 novel, The Interpreters, through the character of Joe Golder, a queer African-American and his discovery of the same practice among a handful of Emirs with boys. Femi Ademiluyi did the same through a prisoner in his 1994 novel, The New Man.
The increasing trend of this notation, in recent times, among new generation writers, has birthed a kind of radicalism that has never been seen in contemporary African arts. To what end this really aims, one can’t tell in totality. But from a viewpoint, probably on the surface, we can say that it tilts in the direction of harnessing support, from all corners, by advocates in all spheres, for people with unusual or abnormal sexual orientation (in the class of LGBT and maybe BDSM by extension). We see this in mass protests (in writing) of writers like Chinelo Okparanta, Romeo Oriogun, Sahro Ali, Munachim Amah, NoViolet Bulawayo, Akwaeke Emezi, Petina Gappah, Mia McKenzie, K. Sello Duiker, Tatamkhulu Afrika, Beatrice Lamwaka, Binyavanga Wainaina, etc., who may or may not be gay themselves. Their writings oppose, largely, the existential ‘homophobia’ believed to have been started by Christianity or Islam in many African societies; presenting it as a natural p h e n o m e n o n l i k e heteronormativity. We see this in Chinelo's Under the Udala Tree through the characters of Ndidi, Ijeoma, and the circumstances surrounding their continual existence in Aba, Nigeria, and the whole of Africa by extension. Ijeoma is apologetically portrayed first as a young girl who just helplessly gets sexually attracted to other girls. Next, she becomes so immersed that every 'attempt' she makes to let go proves abortive. As she grows older, she gets tortured by the spiritual truth she's been filled with but chooses to ignore, and the society's hostility towards the practice after witnessing the brutal killing of two of her club members in the hands of an angry mob. In the end, she abandons her marriage to become a full-fledged lesbian with her lover, Ndidi, in a discreet relationship. Jude Dibia portrays this from another angle in his novel, Walking with Shadows. Here, we are introduced to Adrian Njoku, head of a risk business unit, whose past sexual orientation is exposed by a colleague he's sacked on the grounds of corruption. At this point, Adrian is on the verge of losing everything he's worked for, including his marriage. However, the author still manages to shield him from condemnation by sympathetically portraying him as congenital, a trait his parents, brothers hated and made them abandon or treat him with inferiority in childhood.
From another viewpoint, we can say the radicalism aims at refuting the impression of dehumanization and anomaly perceived to be created by the society and supported by foremost writers like Emeka Ike and others through the amplification of the practice on the continent and humanization of those involved in it. These boy-wives, girl-husbands are made to look normal, act normal, have normal jobs, and even profess love the way heterosexuals do. We see this in certain anthologies dedicated to this cause. The ir true s tori e s a re documented to tell the continent they exist here, their emotions of fear are erased, the confidence or comfort they have in that state is x-rayed, and the society becomes nonexistent in their affair. Sometime in 2014, Nigeria and Zimbabwe criminalized same-sex relationships and the support for such. This gesture signaled nothing but extreme hostility and oppression to proactivist writers (gay or not) who work hard, developing homosexual themes aimed at becoming the voice of the 'oppressed' minority and reversing the criminalization of this ‘anomaly’ in all the African states it's been outlawed and backed up with severe or capital punishments. We see the portrayal in John Greyson's 2003 movie, Proteus. This film relives an early 18th-century court record from South Africa's Cape Town. Here, we see Class Blank and Rijkhaart Jacobsz both serving different prison terms on Robben Island spanning many years. For Blank, his journey to the prison has been orchestrated by an insult hurled at a Dutch citizen, while Jacobsz' has been unnatural acts with another man. After their meeting, they form a bond that leads to a discreet relationship where trips to a private water tank allow them to copulate every other time until they are caught and executed by drowning for sodomy. So knowing, as of now, that of the 54 countries recognized by United Nations and African Union on the continent, only two: Cape Verde and South Africa constitutionally recognize it is reason enough for interested individuals and even international bodies to plunge into the discourse through sponsored (queer) literary awards like LAMBDA, Nebula, etc. specifically created for that purpose.
In addition, we can say this radicalism aims at extending the tentacles of the 'ideals' of anti-heteronormativity to younger generations through propaganda. Propaganda is a common tool adopted by warring parties mostly to spread falsity to influence and control the opinions, thoughts, actions, and behaviour of a large number of people. It is also a common tool that a government adopts to warm up its way into the hearts of many. In this regard, the truth about the unnatural act of homosexuality is subverted, the spirituality serving as the basis is constantly ridiculed and undermined; all for the exaltation of its acceptance in the society. Chinelo Okparanta's Happiness Like Water and Under the Udala Tree say it all. She makes her characters question Biblical truth on homosexuality, relating that part of the scriptures to nothing but an allegory. Brethren, do we say gone are the days of critical, intellectual writings that possessed powerful charms of evoking intense emotions and logical reasoning? Or what runs wild in the minds of new generation writers, like most Nigerian musicians, is nothing but quick fame or wealth, thus driving the vehicle of creativity towards nothing but pure abstraction?
Conclusively, this terrain of discourse is such that it exhibits a newness that many other creative minds on the continent may also want to innocently explore. As well, it forms a model for further explorations of more daring terrains. Truth be told, the disadvantages of this course far outweigh the noise made a b o u t t h e o p p r e s si o n, dehumanization, etc. of homosexuals. Among which include a quantum increase in other moral vices like stealing and prostitution, which may one day catch the fancy of a set of new voices on the scene, advocating for their legalization too. For the future of queerness in African arts, this wave of radicalism will be nothing in reality but a referential era in the history of the development of contemporary African literature.
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