Nothing’s African about gays

The ire of the youth in Mombasa against a gay marriage is only too comprehensible. Considering that homosexuality is an aberration that militates against the African psyche, the youth were expressing what was natural — revulsion against what they considered deviant behaviour.

Once in this paper, a columnist argued that homosexuality is as African as the Ngong Hills. The thrust of his argument was based on his observation that homosexuality “exists in homes, schools and prisons across the country”. On the basis of that observation, he concluded that homosexuality is African. That seems fallacious.

I was once challenged by a nurse at Mathari Rehabilitation, Susan Gitau. She asked me to provide her with one vernacular term by a Kenyan ethnic community that interprets “homosexuality” or “lesbianism”.

The gays and those who sympathise with them claim that gayness is inborn and therefore they should not be held responsible for what they feel. This argument contextualises homosexuality in a biological facet. It places homosexuality and lesbianism at a level difficult to argue about. How do you go blaming somebody for something genetic?

When nature allows some rare biological exceptions like say the Siamese twins, we don’t get excited and marvel at the phenomenon. We don’t seek to nurture the anomaly. Rather, we take corrective surgical measures because we recognise that that is a genetic deviation from the normal.

Similarly, the measures that should be taken on homosexuality and lesbianism should be corrective. This is where South Africa went wrong.

WHEN SOUTH AFRICA LEGALISED same sex marriages towards the end of 2006, it not only stultified nature but sent bad signals to the rest of Africa. Home Affairs Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisha-Nqakula is quoted to have said: “When we attained democracy, we sought to distinguish ourselves from unjust painful past by declaring that we never again shall it be that any South African will be discriminated against on the basis of colour, creed or sex.” And with that declaration, South Africa cast a dark spell over any pride of untainted African moral sensitivity. The ripples are being felt in Kenya.

Homosexuality and lesbianism, South Africa’s legislation not withstanding, goes contrary to African cultural values. It is highly repugnant to African sense of moral decency. Little wonder that in some African communities, as Susan Gitau observed, the punishment accorded culprits of such behaviour was lynching.

Homosexuality and lesbianism should never be viewed in a cultural context. If Jane Kiura, an advocate of pro-life, has not changed her mind, she prefers to see homosexuality as cultureless. In her point of view, homosexuality is neither African nor Mzungu. It is a timeless human eccentricity which God punished at the times of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is my contention that homosexuality is a perversion. Appeals to scientific discoveries which purport to glamorise the vice with plausible terms like “sexual orientation” will never wash.

Chukwu Cletus, an African philosopher of repute, argues: “Whereas modern scientific society has spawned strong lobby in defence of homosexuality… making sex entirely free of any moral responsibility, no one can defend such perversions as sexual abuse of minors, rape, bestiality, sadism, masochism...”

Nay, homosexuality is not as old as Ngong Hills. It is as alien as the Goat Island in the Niagara Falls.

Fr. Waweru teaches in a Catholic school in Ngong Diocese. (dooomza@yahoo.com)