The Gambia: They need a sane President

Need for mental checks

If there is a case for assessing the mental health of leaders in Africa and more so their suitability for office, the President of The Gambia presents such an opportunity.

He has just ordered all homosexuals in The Gambia to leave the country within 24 hours or be beheaded according to the BBC.

He has threatened to enforce laws against homosexuality stricter than the ones in Iran.

It is outrageous that so-called leaders can subsume secular legal process with fundamental religious laws imposing such on people regardless of their degree of adherence to the religion.

He is in grave error

It might be well to ask foreign homosexuals to leave your country, but indigenous homosexuals are Gambian as the President is Gambian, they have every right of existence to live without fear in The Gambia just as the President exists in The Gambia.

However, he is in error, no President has the power to remove the right of citizenship to any indigenous person, he might have the right to deny a representative document of the country to allow the citizen travel out of the country as a Gambian.

If he does want to rid his country of homosexuals, he should facilitate their exodus, arrange for a country to accept the people he is trying to exile, ensure their safe passage if they decide to leave but he must follow due legal process and if any decide to stay and fight the authority of the President to impose such a sanction.

Anti-African concept

This kind of fundamentalist intolerance is alien to African, it does not belong to our culture, people might be ostracised for who they are but not to the point that they are menaced in this way.

This is the same President who claimed he had found a cure for AIDS but was involved in some hocus-pocus herbalism and mantras which could not stand the scrutiny of commonsense talk less of medical inquiry.

In his stupidity he announced his new found powers to the diplomatic community and they should have laughed him to derision.

They are like you and me

People might have their issues with homosexuality and homosexuals, that is their prerogative – they are fellow human-beings, have the right to life and freedoms as the other man in their citizenry and persecuting homosexuals does not begin to address the serious issues of governance that these idle useless incompetent leaders should be addressing.

It is a distraction and unconscionable, we cannot sit back and watch the dereliction of duty to the service of governance made insignificant for some super-moral society that delivers no solutions to the people.

Having idiots in leadership is bad enough, having a rabid mad man in leadership is twice a misfortune and having Yahya Jammeh as President of The Gambia is a catastrophe visited on a people who deserve a whole lot better.

The buffoon is 43 tomorrow, I cannot believe we were born in the same year – this is really bad it is horrible. Like I wrote in February 2007, The Gambian is being overrun with an epidemic of stupidity that needs to be wiped out, first with getting rid of that man.

Getting my head examined

As I wrote about South Africa recognising same-sex relationships, there could be people who still think homosexuals should have their heads examined – I say, maybe we should all have our heads examined – the story of the man below shows that some people just have to come to terms with who they are regardless what others think about them or their lifestyles.

Loving yourself

And the story goes and this is not half the whole tale, as he relaxed and settled into the couch chatting to his shrink to help exorcise the demons that have plagued his life since he could ever remember.

How do you get to the greatest love of all? The ability to love yourself for who you are and then go out to the world and help people get beyond where they have limited themselves.

Feelings and men

So, he starts, I have had feelings for men since I was 7, I always wondered why; beyond the sexual abuse by my aunt and other seemingly innocuous bodily tampering by the house servants, something pleasurable about this thing was seemingly not right – I should get my head examined.

Why, bother? I would grow out of it, then in secondary school, the first time I heard the word copulate, it was one boy asking me if we could play, and play we did – I should get my head examined.

So, I had “friends”, not lovers, sex, but not as we all know it, I was a ladies man to everyone, but I had my eyes on men – something inside, so strong, maybe I am going mad – I should get my head examined.

The religion of self-loathing

It did not really become an issue till when I took religion, the animosity, and the uncompromising message of abominable deeds that got preached out to me more than the gospel – so, it was guilt, self-loathing, self-flagellation and the desire to die, then times seemed good before one fell into the self-same quagmire of abominable sin and incessant confession – I should really get my head examined.

We had deliverance, we prayed like the world was at an end, the Bible was my headstone, but my mind sought men. We were told, people had changed, they were gay and now they are married with kids – There must be something wrong with me, must get my head examined.

Secrets that amaze

Then, a leader of one of those self-help groups died and it transpired that neither his wife nor his children knew about his old life, so no one could send condolences to his wife – this is no life – We all should get our heads seriously examined.

The path to marriage beckoned, I will take me a wife and it would all be well, or so it was with the leader of an evangelical movement in America, then it all came tumbling down, he has been canoodling with men in secret whilst condemning gay marriage from the pulpit – Now, that is one head that needs examining.

Born gay or thinks gay

The fear of AIDS could not compel us to change our ways, the mission was to find comfort and solace in the arms of another man, is this thing in the mind or is there more than meets the eye?

They now say, we were probably born gay, who is going to find the gay gene and get it out before we are unleashed on the world, corrupting its values in self-loathing and pride, whichever way you see it.

How much of a minority can you be? Being black, being gay and being told you need to have your head checked out – a benign type of bigotry that portends to live and let live, but pronounces judgment questioning the sanity of homosexuality.

Sometimes, one asks, why would anyone want to go against the grain, against the norms, against the majority and against conforming to what is expected – why take the hard way and still end up being vulnerable, victimised, discriminated against and so on.

Being a homosexual does not make you any less a professional than you should be, it does not make you any less a contributor to society than the other person – they want your money, they want your taxes, but no, they would not recognise who you are.

Accepting who I am

As he got up from the couch, the shrink looking in need of a shrink herself, offered him a cup of tea and as he sipped from the cup, he said – I have won the biggest battle, I think, accepting who I am.

She replied, that is what I have been trying to get to you in all the sessions we have had, you do not need your head examined, rather, whoever is giving that advice might be in need of some re-education on this matter – they just do not know what it is to be a homosexual.

He put on his pink suede shoes and as he stepped out of the door, he took a whiff of the fresh air and knew he would have a gay day.

That afternoon of therapy came about as a comment on my blog advises that homosexuals should have their heads examined – I would have agreed in the 1950s when they were put in sanatoriums, surely, that cannot be the remedy to acceptance.

Same Sex Marriage gets read the Riot Act in Nigeria

This is my substantial comment on the first reading of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act in Nigeria related to a blog on Naijablog.

Bugger did it

This is a very difficult matter and probably too difficult for the educated "elite" to appreciate.

One striking difference between the West and our "African" culture is this.

My parents are now in their mid to last 60s, when they studied in England, the worst thing you could call anyone was a "bugger".

It was viewed as and looked upon as the most despicable and disgusting thing of paedophiliac abuse not the love and victimless sexual acts between 2 men.

That informs many ideas that generation has of homosexuality.

So, imagine the furore that would be caused by outing yourself to your parents in Nigeria rather than indigene Western parents in Europe.

In fact, it is literally unmentionable.

Condemning Homosexuality and embracing inhospitality

As for the religious fervour against homosexuality, the 2 times Jesus mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah he was specifically talking about hospitality - that however, in those times might have been expressed as emasculation through some homosexual act.

The bigger challenge is for these religionists to learn the power of love by addressing what they find abhorrent with accommodation, tolerance and mercy.

No, they have taken the easier path, castigate and condemn the homosexual, highlight their supposed moral weakness and assuage your lack of charity by purporting to speak up for the moral majority.

In the end, the people who probably need the religious house the most are the most alienated from it.

Swing for skewed votes

Besides this, morality is somewhat a vote winner even if it does nothing appreciable for the way we are governed.

The 10 of the 11 swing states in the US where gay marriage was on the ballot with the presidential election in 2004 went to Bush.

The Democrats were caught napping and Karl Rove won the day.

Untrammelled rotten language on the floor

The bill is not good for Nigeria, but with no pressing desire to do the right thing about governance, leadership and solving real problems; the MPs have the opportunity to express themselves, out-doing each other with word-play, insult, innuendo and every imaginable unspeakable expression that would not be allowed on any other debating floor.

You will probably see Nigerian politicians at their worst because no objective debate can arise out the criminalisation of sexuality, people would contend about conscience even though they have no heart beating in their bosoms.

It is a black day in Nigeria; however, the vibrant if not bitchy Nigerian gay scene in West would just look on rather than fight lest they be singled out for flagellation and the dishonouring of their families back home.

The reality is homosexuality is about mankind not traditional values and Western influence, anyone anywhere can be homosexual – well say that to Bishop Akinola.

Sexuality blogs archive

A Google Queer Match – March 2006

Tough as a heart of stone – March 2006

Prison Exults with Gay Abandon – March 2006

When we were gay – January 2006

Does gay marriage affect your marriage? – November 2005

Understanding freedom, responsibility and tact – February 2005

Tolerance as a mindset of choice, prejudice and hypocrisy - Part 1 – April 2004