ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Opinion category.

How to Kill the Nigerian Publishing Industry

This comes from new article by Jeremy Weate (founder, Cassava Republic Press) published on Africa is a Country in which the hypocrisy (or counterproductive measures) of the Nigerian administration is laid bare in the new series of tariffs placed on book importation, in contravention of a treaty signed with UNESCO.

Here’s an excerpt:

The reality is, Nigerian publishers who wish to sell good quality books at an affordable price are forced to print overseas. There’s nothing particularly innovative or unusual in this: many Western publishers now print in Asia too. Cheap electricity and labour, access to international paper markets as well as technical know-how limit globally competitive print facilities to a small group of countries. Nigeria has no hope of competing with these countries any time soon. A wiser alternative policy decision would be to not even try. Nigerian paper mill and printing companies catering to local (non-book) printing needs can be supported through tax breaks and subsidies to nurture market development, without the need for protectionism. The lesson learnt from other sectors in Nigeria (such as textiles), is surely that tariffs and import bans stimulate piracy, rather than local market development. It is therefore also likely that book pirates may benefit from the punitive tariff. In other words, authors as well as Nigerian publishers will suffer.

More here.

We Must Free Our Imagination

For those who haven’t been following the matter (or who didn’t know there was any matter to begin with), the coming out of Kenyan-born writer Binyavanga Wainaina as gay added a personal and human dimension to the culture wars brewing currently on the continent on the wings of religious fervour, bigotry, and intolerance on the one side, and that of freedom, compassion, and inclusiveness on the other.

In this six-part YouTube video series, recorded and released after the coming out declaration was made, the author makes a case for the expansion of the imagination – beyond the limits of the boxes imposed by colonialism, religion, and our own cultural myopia.

Must watch.

Also: Here, a recommended read, from Think Africa Press

Debating a Bigot

I start with a caveat that not everyone who opposes same-sex unions (or denies the existence of a homosexual orientation as natural or normal) is a bigot. I have met many that come from a position of ignorance, some from pure religious, social, or political conditioning over a long period of time. There are many others however with no other arguments than that people different from them should just not be allowed to have any rights, privileges, or aspirations. They come from positions of fear, loathing, ignorance, heterosexual privilege, conservatism, and bigotry. It is for them that this list might be useful. They are questions and arguments I’ve had from those to whom the support of gay rights is unthinkable.

1. Being gay is “unnatural”. Have you seen a gay animal?

Dextrocardia is unnatural (a congenital condition in which people have their hearts on the right side of the chest), among many “unnatural” human conditions that we have not legalized against. And about gay animals? Quite a lot, actually!

2. Being gay is unAfrican.

So is kissing, oral sex (and what has been popularly glorified in literature as the position 69), anal sex between heterosexual married couples, and every other sex act that “civilization” brought to us. If you’re offended by homosexuality, are you also offended by these unAfrican sex acts?

3. Being gay is bad because it doesn’t lead to procreation and children. (This is one of the popular arguments.)

Neither does celibacy, by the way. (And neither does kissing, oral sex, etc.) Do you want a law insisting that EVERYONE in the country MUST have children? What of a law to mandate all married people to have children by force? How about telling them how many children to have?

4. Alright, gay people exist, we agree. But why do they want rights like everyone else?

Good thing you admitted that. It’s a first step. However, the question answers itself. Why not? (In Nigeria, at least, what I know about the matter is not that gay people “want rights”, but that they don’t want their human rights taken away. 14 years in jail for being who you are is pretty excessive.)

5. Legalizing gay marriage will make it acceptable to be gay. Would you want you child to be gay? If your parents chose to be gay, would you have been born?

Legalizing alcohol hasn’t turned all kids in Nigeria to alcoholics. Legalizing against kissing or oral sex won’t make it go away either since it usually takes place behind close doors. Secondly, being gay isn’t a choice, just like being straight isn’t. I didn’t choose to be straight. Gay people won’t disappear because of the legislation either. If my parents were gay, they clearly wouldn’t have married each other (and maybe I’d have been better for it).

6. Gay marriage will ruin the institution of marriage, and destroy civilization if everyone becomes gay.

I am a married man. I do not see how giving other men and women a chance to pursue happiness of marriage with each other will take away from my own happiness. And about civilization getting destroyed, I don’t understand that. People don’t become gay. I lived in the US where gay unions are legal, and I never became gay as a result, nor developed any inclination to become one. Gay people exist. I’ve met a number of them. So do straight people. I have colleagues and friends who are gay. I also have colleagues and friends who are straight. The didn’t “influence” an orientation change in me, just like having smoking friends didn’t turn me into a smoker. Having white-skinned friends didn’t turn me white either. Straight people will keep having children (so don’t worry about the world dying off), and gay people will keep dating each other, and NOT having children. Everyone wins.

7. I hate the idea of gay sex. I can’t imagine it. It’s disgusting. Think about it. Does it make sense to you?

I don’t imagine gay sex either. I also can’t imagine anal sex between man-woman couples. That’s why I don’t do it. However, I don’t want a law against it, as it does nothing to remove from the intimacy I share with my own spouse. There are clearly those who can imagine it, and who enjoy it. Their happiness doesn’t irritate me. Why does it irritate you?

8. Marriage is between ONE man and ONE woman!

Says who? The bible? Not really.

9. Being gay isn’t Christian.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu clearly doesn’t think so. And neither does the Pope, anyway (talk of being holier than the Pope). In any case, homophobia/intolerance isn’t Christian either.

10. You have been corrupted by the West. That’s why you’re arguing this way.

Draconian laws against gays, minorities, etc also had its heyday in the United States. For a number of years, blacks couldn’t even marry out of their race. Unbelievable as it sounds, there are no written accounts of ancient African societies penalizing people on the basis of their sexual orientation. (At least I haven’t read of any). So, in an ironical way, homophobia is the real pernicious Western influence.

Update: If you’re straight and you still need convincing about the horrific nature of the new law in Nigeria, there is a great article here, titled The Straight Nigerian’s Guide to the New Anti-Gay Law. Read it.

Nigeria’s Culture War

As early as a couple of months ago in a heated debate with a friend and colleague while the Nigerian Gay Ban bill was still being debated in the National Assembly, I was confronted by what was supposed to be a winning argument against the “encouragement” or “tolerance” of homosexuality in the world: Imagine one Society A, he said to me, where all its citizens are gay. Now imagine another, Society B, where all its citizens are straight. Which one, over a hundred year period, will still have people living in it?

It was a simplistic argument, one I’d heard a number of times before, and in different forms. It was also easily parried, but that never ended the conversation which went on and on until we were both tired. In the end, out of respect for the years of friendship, we agreed to disagree with our egos and friendships intact. Having spent a whole day on Facebook today since the draconian law was finally assented to by the president, I have witness a recreation of more intense versions of that same argument between friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Like what I had with my friend, the arguments have centered on biology, morality, religion, culture, and politics.

It has been noted, for instance, that (unlike what is obtainable in other advanced democracies), major opposition leaders, and prominent politicians in the country, haven’t been pursued by hard-hitting journalists in order to get them on record about the new law that not only criminalizes sexual orientation and public displays of affection, but effectively bans the freedom of association already guaranteed under the constitution. Those committed to the easier (but empty) debate about “Adam and Steve” have done so as well, along with those who curiously believe that their cultures were as intolerant to people of different orientations as this new law is. A friend was asked to provide evidence that Yoruba people ever criminalized orientation before colonialism. He had no evidence. He however insisted that the absence of gay people in popular Yoruba literature is a sign that gay people NEVER existed in Yorubaland. His words. Those who hid behind religion were either shocked, disbelieving, or indifferent that the Pontiff recently exhibited an attitude of inclusion to those of different orientation than us.

It’s easy to wonder, in the safety of one’s heterosexual privilege whether the law does nothing more than scare people: a toothless bulldog. Then one reads a news story where barely hours after the law was signed, dozens of people have already been arrested, and the mind is changed. I told a friend that I already belong to an association that supports the rights and aspirations of everyone, including gay people, everywhere. That association is called: writers. (It should have been called “Christians”, I know). But then one looks twitter and just a handful of Nigerian writers have said anything of note against the law. Like Christians, it has become easy to keep quiet since, on the surface, it doesn’t seem as if one is personally affected. When the freedom of association is criminalized, then the floodgates for tyranny is already open. It’s a terrible setback, in any case.

As for the answer I gave my friend with whom I had the earlier debate, in a hundred years, both societies will still have people living in them. Society A will still be filled with gay people, many new ones joining them from Society B from where they continue to be banished, while Society B will still continue to be filled with its new generation of intolerant straight people. If straight people don’t want anymore gay people in the world, they should probably stop giving birth to them.

Otherwise, we’re all in this world together, and should find a way to live together with equal rights and opportunities for all. I, for one, could do with stable and regular electricity.

On Lagos Dining Experiences

I remember, with fondness now, a time when I would – on impulse – get in my 1997 Nissan Maxima and drive to a far or nearby town in search of food. It was a pleasure ride, for sure, because I lived in Southern Illinois where – like most parts of the United States, food could be ordered directly on the internet. A few minutes and a little tip later, the food was in one’s hands, delivered by a person who has gone through the hassle (of weather and traffic) to get the food down to the house.

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Choosing to, by myself, drive out was therefore good only for the fun of leaving the house, discovering new places, and of course hanging out with real people out of the house. For a small town, downtown Edwardsville boasted of a variety of tasty diners, for every meal of the day. Peels (I think that is what it was called), a restaurant near the campus, had the best pizza, different from what Papa Johns and other name pizzerias made. There was a Chinese buffet that cost just $10 and had a variety that at that time impressed and delighted. A few miles from downtown was a small 18th century cottage that housed a winery. It didn’t serve food, but wine could be tasted (as many bottles as one wanted) before a purchase is made. It was a good place to spend warm fall evenings.

Lagos has occasionally surprised, the biggest being the absence of a major breakfast diner. None – at least as far as I know – on the Island, and the one I have been told on the mainland doesn’t have such wide variety. There is a Mexican restaurant in the building right beside Cool FM open, as I’ve experienced it, till 11pm, with great (though not altogether convincing) Mexican food. There is also a Chinese restaurant somewhere close to Law School, with a beautiful menu. The last eating out I enjoyed was at Orchid Bistro in Ikeja. The service was great. The ambiance was even better. And who could forget the good hot homemade meals that Terra Kulture serves every day of the week. Beside the absence of (and affordable) breakfast diners in Lagos, one other thing about it is a perception (I had until experiencing it first hand) that restaurants are only for rich people. We don’t typically eat out in Nigeria.

A couple of months ago, through their involvement in the launch of LifeBank at the CCHub, I came across HelloFoods, a service in Lagos that seeks to connect the consumer to the source of food. The business model made sense to me then as it does now – a food delivery service that – without owning a restaurant themselves – allow folks to sit in their houses or offices and order food from any restaurant in the state (even those without a website of their own). I haven’t used them yet (because I still prefer to drive around the Island looking for new outlets), but the website presents an easily navigable way to compare prices, and get different types of food anywhere in the state, with the click of the mouse. It is a smart business model for sure, and one that fits into the patterns of behaviour by people in the city. For those interested in discovering new places to eat, it also provides an online database of names.

All that’s left to ask is this: beside cost, why are we not an overwhelmingly outgoing people when it comes to food?

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