Monday, May 14, 2007

To the British Council

To take part in a live debate on the BBC World Service (World Have Your Say). The President elect was due to grace the event, but he couldn't make it. The Chairman of the PDP was there instead. There were two shows, one after the other, for different parts of the world. The audience was one part sycophantic and nine parts critical. A revealing moment came when the compere asked who voted. Eight hands out of approximately forty went up. In the second session, someone from Germany called up and asked about homosexuality in Nigeria. As one, a homophobic chorus rose up, with the usual diatribes about it 'not being our culture' and then reflexing to talking about HIV. It never ceases to astonish me that people here associate HIV with homosexuality, when the reality is that most transmission takes place in heterosexual relationships (wife trusting husband so no-condom, husband straying elsewhere without condom. QED)

It is always disappointing to be close to such medieval views. But to be surrounded in the flesh by snarling visceral hatred was toxic, to say the least. I managed to sneak in a comment about centuries of pre-colonial homosexuality, as witnessed by the yan dauda. To which someone replied that they have always been segregated. A little later, when someone mentioned that Nigerians are the happiest people on the planet, another member of the audience mentioned that 'even Fela had a song called Shuffering and Shmiling'. I couldn't help but let her know off mic that actually, the one who carried death in his pouch was being ironique.

9 comments:

Nigerian Woman in Norway 9:49 pm  

ha ha jeremy...touché.

you can't cure nigerians of their homophobia.

i was cured of mine when two of my closest friends came out of the closest.

of course i wasn't going to hate my friends because of who they sleep with.

how on earth does being heterosexual make anyone a good person?

Bitchy 10:48 pm  

Lol!! Yes these people are odd aren't they. And what is it about this bloody Yar'Adua not showing up to anything! My dad went to Abuja for some inauguration dinner that always holds to usher in a new president. Dude didn't even show up to that! What kinda President doesn't show up to his own dinner, and leaves his butt-kissers in charge to waste people's time? Also, bear in mind that he didn't show up to the debate he was scheduled to have with Pat Utomi in the run up to the elections. Tis odd. I will go google (abi goggle) and find out if anyone's actually SEEN him live and in technicolour since that death scare some months back.

Cee 11:06 pm  

I didn't know about yan dauda practice in Hausa land. Thanks for putting it out there.

I am tried of folks treating same- gender-loving individuals like "outcasts". actually worst than outcast. Ask them why ... My bible says so ...

I wonder is these same folks know that Christianity is to Africans what Garri is to Caucasians.

Cee 11:07 pm  

I didn't know about yan dauda practice in Hausa land. Thanks for putting it out there.

I am tried of folks treating same- gender-loving individuals like "outcasts". actually worst than outcast. Ask them why ... My bible says so ...

I wonder is these same folks know that Christianity is to Africans what Garri is to Caucasians.

Confessions of a moody crab 12:36 am  

Just like how sex b4 marriage is viewed as one-way ticket to hell (and make that first class)

Mind boggles!

azuka 4:21 am  

Sex before marriage is different in that people are not prepared to stone you to death if you actually say it out loud.

Homosexuality is a sin? Good. Now leave them alone to wallow in their 'sin' because they definitely will go to 'hell.' No, that's not enough -- they must be violently dealt with.

Nigerians...

Cyber Caravan 6:02 am  

Homosexuals and all human beings will one day have their full rights in Nigeria. In the meantime, it's an uphill struggle. A general lack of education, rigid intepretation of both Christianity and Islam, and hpyocritical thought patterns are to blame.

loomnie 7:07 am  

Criminalise homosexuality, then ban same sex marriage... Nigerian back-and-forth dancing.... (Oh, Jeremy, nobody told you that the yan dauda thing was brought to the Hausa through the corrupting influence of the Arabs? Yea, it is not indigenous to Africa! Everything can be explained.) I wonder when we will start to accept each other based on our common humanity.

Anonymous,  1:10 pm  

I was at the event. Loomie, it was said that yan dauda was brought by the Arabs.

It is interesting that Jeremy chose to focus just on the comment about homosexualilty. What Jeremy forgot to say is that one of the women he was with sounded like a PDP apologist. She said this was the first time in Nigeria's history where there has been no croonism or nepotism. Selection to a post was based entirely on merit. vomit! Vomit! Of course she is having a laugh. but I guess she is trying to impress the PDP National secretary who was there, perhaps for a political appoint.

After hearing the diatribe from your friend I started wondering about the kind of company you keep. But then another woman from your group spoke to challenge the PDP card-carrier and it restored my faith about Nigerian women's intellegence. Unfortunately, nearly all the women at that even except for your other friend were totally disappointing. They seem so bereft of ideas. And then women wonder why they are not getting anywere. Like your other friend said, is it enough that women are represented in OBJ's administration like they have never done before? Has the life of Nigerian women changed in reality since the SELECTION of more women? I leave it to your female bloggers to enlighten me.

Sadiq

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