ktravula – a travelogue!

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 Takes 100 Steps Backwards

A very curious thing happened in Nigeria today: a controversial bill that criminalizes not only gay activities but association with gay rights groups was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan. The bill recommends up to 14 years for convicted gay citizens, and up to 10 years for people convicted of supporting activities of (or belonging to) gay rights groups.

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So, here’s an addendum that is probably now more necessary than ever: In spite of the law, this blog (and I) supports (and will continue to support) the right of gay people everywhere, and especially in Nigeria, to pursue happiness; to love and to marry whoever they want, without interference from a prurient and puerile person, society, or government; and to continue to seek every avenue to express their love and affection for each other in public and in private. It is up to us, the conservative (or intolerant) society, to deal with the insecurities about our sexuality that expresses itself in fear, loathing, and suspicion of our fellow beings. The word of our national anthem that says “One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity” should yet apply to all, in spite of their gender, religion, race, ethnicity, and yes, sexual orientation. And until that time that it does, Nigeria shall continue to be an imperfect experiment needing the moral force of its active citizens to bring it to reckoning with its purpose: providing security and justice for all.

(Update: There’s a long but good read here about why the law is terrible, beyond criminalizing orientation)

How Do We Fix This Broken Educational System?

Nigerian writer Ikhide Ikheloa gave a couple of provocative (and really thought-provoking) recommendations on the ASUU-FG mess and what could help fix the broken educational system in Nigeria…

Regardless of where you are, there are certain things that must happen, to maintain an appropriate standard of education. With the current ASUU wahala, all sides appear unwilling or unable to learn anything new and refreshing. No one is willing to accept responsibility, and in my view, ASUU is the worst culprit. Let me simply observe that these dysfunctions did not start yesterday, they were already manifesting themselves robustly in my time at the University of Benin, Benin City, in the late seventies. It is hugely hypocritical for anyone now to suddenly wake up, look around and smell decay. And by the way, ASUU, Ikhide has been telling you to clean up something as simple as your website since 2009, yet not a typo has been touched. What gives Ikhide or anyone the confidence that anything will change when you get some more money? The culture of abuse and mediocrity is pervasive. There needs to be a Needs Assessment done in that area. Seriously.

A Week in Ignorance

It surprised one of my co-workers when, during lunch sometime during the week, I’d mentioned that one of my grouses with the Goodluck Jonathan presidency was his condonement of corruption, citing the example of his appointment of a convicted certificate forger onto the board of a university. The government has since vigorously defended it as proper and not out of the ordinary. Propriety, and setting a good example with exemplary public servants can go to hell.

“This really happened?” My co-worker asked, unbelieving of something that would otherwise sound like something copied out of a satire written by Wole Soyinka. It got the attention of a few more staff members at the table some of whom also had never even heard of Salisu Buhari or his present designation in the corridors of power.

“Yes, he did.” I replied, and the conversation went on and on about a few other ills that paints the administration as one of the most permissive of corruption in the history of the nation’s democratic experiments. “He also pardoned Alamayesiegha, among others.”

Why the conversation surprised me a lot was because I had assumed that everyone, like me, was interested in what was going on in government, and thus fully aware of the misgovernance taking place in our name. I am wrong, obviously. Nobody really cares. As long as the routine of our daily lives are not affected in any way by the corrupt dealings of the “top bosses”, we are fine. This is not a typically Nigerian problem, but as I am here, it is one that I have given a lot of thought. A few weeks ago in Ikogosi Ekiti, during the session on what young people can do to get proper representation in power to be able to effect the changes they want, the chairman of the governors’ forum, Rotimi Amaechi, had suggested to the faces of those present that no change would come as long as people sat pretty and gave the leaders a free hand to do whatever they wanted. How else could it be any different now, I thought, when we don’t even know, or care, about what is going on in the first place? A number of young people have twitter and Facebook accounts. But how many are relevant enough to effect change? When next an “Occupy” protest comes on and locks down the streets, preventing people from going to work in order to demand for one change or the other, the very first people to complain that the protests have gone on long enough are going to be these ones who (though are very hardworking and well-meaning citizens) have no idea what the heck anyone of us should be worried about. After all, salaries get paid on time, and the road to and from Lekki are good enough in the morning on the way to work, and during evenings on the way back home.

This is the problem, and I can think of millions more who are merely content to go on with their lives without a worry in the world about anything else.

I don’t have a solution.

It just makes for a rather curious study in citizen revolt and participatory democracy.

Morning in Baga

It is 9 am, Lagos, and the dust has settled from automobiles whose tyres grazed the road tar from the early seconds of the breaking day. It is 9am. Workers have settled into their seats and morning rote slowly beginning. The city moves on with an indifference to change and fear. Indifference. After all, 187 people, or so, mowed down to the brute rhythms of the state’s guns are forever going to be faceless. No national media is going to splash their names and faces on its front cover. There shall be no state funerals or flags at half mast. There shall be no presidential declaration to find the culprits and bring them to book, if only in rote satisfaction of some archaic government protocol. Government magic. Unknown soldier. Vagabonds in power. Collateral damage. Yesterday’s men in green jackboots and auto rifles.

It is 9pm, in Baga, sometime on Friday. Dozens of families woke up to rattles of the government guns pursuing faceless culprits in a shadow war. Forget Boston. Who cares if a city can find one terror suspect in 24 hours without a single collateral damage to innocent lives and properties. This is the giant of Africa! Forget a public information network to alert the public about who the enemy is. Heck, forget the idiotic law that mandates military action only in times of war. Boko Haram lives within you, the guns rattled, they die, as do you. A gun does not tell apart a somnolent villager and a terror suspect hiding within the leaves of a banana plant. Ratatatata, the rhythms of flesh and blood splattered to the beats of falling limbs and tree stems.

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The national news is silent. Reuben is waking up in the bosom of a dame in the Abuja Hilton. Mr. Jonathan had just composed his condolence message to the families of the three victims of the Boston blasts. The state governor in Borno plans his next foreign trip. Lagos wakes, early as it does, with the soft rhythms of dust and rubber tyres. Temperature: 87 degrees Fahrenheit. The dour morning promises rain, and welcome indifference. Across from us, thousands of miles away, pain, and the next planned carnage of the state. Miranda rights and collateral damage just went on an ill-fated date in the wilderness.

“Little Blood Flowed” – Presidency.

The dead of Baga sprawl with the leaves on loaves of lead.

Removed from us in mute indifference, we the living dead.

On the trigger that night were notes of “Them? Oh, who cares?

There was where evil hid. Let the living make repairs.”

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NEWS:

“President Jonathan Quiet more than 48 hours After Massacre in Borno” (Premium Times)

“Pity Boston, Ignore Nigeria: The Limits of Compassion” (The Daily Beast)

“Massacre in Nigeria Spurs Outcry Over Military Tactics” (The New York Times)

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