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Let’s Talk About It! Kenyan Author, Wainaina Binyavanga, Gives A Tell-All On Homophobia in Africa

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Kenyan novelist, Binyavanga Wainaina, who also happens to be one of Chimamanda Adichie‘s besties, came out last week to a mixture of praise and criticism. {Read here}”I am, for anybody confused or in doubt, a homosexual. Gay, and quite happy,” he said.

This week he posted a set of videos about homophobia in Africa. If you’re interested in getting a sense of the larger cultural and political issues at stake in the debate about homosexuality in African, make sure to see the videos. The point is not to convert you into a believer in homosexuality. “I am not interested in conversion. I’m interested in conversation,” Binyavanga says. So much is said in the video that will make you think deeply, but here is a quick overview to get us talking.

To those who claim that it is a very African thing to be anti-gay, Binyavanga reminds them that the anti-sodomy laws in the legal cannon of many African countries were placed there by British colonialists.  Homophobia is not cultural resistance against western influence but instead a continuation of oppressive laws that go as far back as Victorian England and the establishment of the colonial project. There is nothing new or original or uniquely African about anti-gay laws. The Nigerian government has simply picked up a set of old and tired laws formulated by the west, dusted them up, made them more vicious, and  imposed them on its people.

If the west has toned down on homophobia and gone a step further to provide legal protection for homosexuals, it is not because tolerance is a western thing. It is, perhaps, because they know the evils of legally orchestrated forms of discrimination. Lest we forget, Binyavanga reminds us that gay men and lesbians were among the victims of the Holocaust. Binyavanga calls to mind this particular history of extreme violence against homosexuals to make the simple point that in being anti-gay, African countries like Nigeria are not being African. They are simply choosing to be blind to history. And we all know what happens when people adamantly refuse to learn from history. They set themselves up to repeat the atrocities of the past.

Blindness, yes but also a crisis in imagination. Binyavanga sees homophobia as a refusal to imagine beyond prescribed limits of desire and the body, a refusal to imagine that there are multiple ways of being African just as there are different ways of defining love. Colonization was a powerful regime that sought to control how Africans lived and to define the limits of their imagination. From the colonial educational system to its religious imposition, the aim was to discourage Africans from thinking independently and from building a modern culture of innovation. This recent push to control the bodies of Africans with anti-gay laws is, for Binyavanga, a continuation of the same logic of oppression – governing the masses by blunting their ability to imagine multiple ways of being.

People say that homosexuality is not African. How can they speak for an entire continent? Isn’t that a bit presumptuous? As Binyavanga points out, it has become normal to make these grand claims without the least bit of knowledge of the diverse histories and cultures that make up the continent. In the name of what historical, linguistic, and political expertise do people speak when they claim with such authority that homosexuality is not African? It’s no secret that the average Nigerian doesn’t travel much around Nigeria, knows very little about other ethnicities and social groups in Nigeria, and even less about Nigeria’s past before colonialism. How can such a person speak so authoritatively about what defines the entire continent?

Africa is diverse. Diversity means difference. No society thrives by abolishing difference. Nazism tried it. South Africa’s apartheid government tried it. Where are they today? Liking or not liking the idea of gay sex is not what is at stake here. The lives of Africans, their freedom to live in peace and security in their own countries without fear of being harassed. That’s what is at stake. Anti-gay laws institutionalize violence against homosexuals. That’s why they wrong.

Watch the full clip of Binyavanga’s video and let’s talk about it – intelligently and respectfully.

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 Ainehi Edoro is a doctoral student of literature at Duke University where she studies African novels. She is also the founder and editor of the African literary blog called Brittle Paper – an African literary journal

I'm finishing up a phd at Duke University where I study African novels, which I believe are some of the loveliest things ever written. Brittle Paper is a blog where I live and write fun and ridiculous things about African literature and the African literary scene. Come say hi at {brittlepaper.com} Twitter handle: @brittlepaper Instagram: @brittlepaper

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