The paradox of loud anti-gay cries

.... and the absence of libation at national events

The debate over the appropriateness or otherwise of the gay practice in recent times seems to have taken the better part of our national discourse. Listening and watching from afar, the part of this whole debate that amuses me most is the attempt by some social commendations, or should l say anti-gay campaigners, to hide behind culture to criticize this practice. Before you get me dragged into this I must state here unequivocally that I have my own personal reservations about gay and lesbianism.

As a matter of fact I believe the practice is a clear violation of national law for a man to be attracted sexually to another man in the midst of all these beautiful ladies and a woman to be attracted to another woman sexually in midst of all these men seeking their attention.

Whether this unfortunate practice is a biological disorder, genetic disorder or simply a case of bad sexual orientation is of little concern to me. What matters to me is the culture argument – whether it is part of the Ghanaian culture or not. In situations like this one is always forced to ask what really constitutes the Ghanaian culture presently. Is it about what we wear, what we eat, how we dance and sing or what? Culture, by its basic definition, is said to be the way of life of a particular group of people. If the above definition is anything to go by then I am at a lost as to what the so called Ghanaian culture is currently. Is it not interesting or perhaps hypocritical to see the very people who claim to be defending our cultural heritage in customized European-made suits jumping from one exotic restaurant to another in a bid to fill their ever-increasing pot bellies with one foreign dish or the other. The question is what happened to our rich Agotime and Bonwire hand- made kente and the flamboyant Dagomba smocks. Have we also lost appetite for our local cuisines like akple and okro soup, tuo zafi, Ga and Fante kenkey and the likes or they are no longer part of the Ghanaian culture we spent many hours defending on all manner of platforms. I am not oblivious of the fact that culture is dynamic but I believe we should not throw everything of ours to the dogs in an attempt to modernize. At least three major religions namely Christianity, Islam and African Traditional worship are recognized in Ghana. I believe in their bid to maintain a sense of unity among believers in these three faiths the founders of this nation thought it wise to allow prayers to be said by representatives from these major religions at national events. As such pouring of libation, which is the main form of communicating with the Supreme God in traditional African religion, has been a major part of national ceremonies like Independence Day Celebrations, Swearing in Ceremonies for Presidents, Farmers’ Day Celebrations, etc until recently when it has disappeared conspicuously from the line-up of national programmes.

From where l sit, pouring of libation which usually involves the use of water mixed with corn flour or drinks cannot be placed in the same category with outdated cultural practices like female genital mutilation, human sacrifice, etc and should therefore not also find its way to the history books so soon. My greatest fear is that if this trend continues unchecked the chiefs and queens who are the custodians of these cultural practices would one day find themselves unwelcomed at national ceremonies all in our bid to modernize.

But in a country that some traditional leaders who are supposed to be the custodians of our culture try as much as possible to sound more British than the Queen of England when they speak the English Language I am not surprised at the deafening silence from their end as people we have elected into political office try to trample upon the little that is left of our culture, whatever they say it is. The current state of our culture is so appalling to the extent that some chiefs and queens now wear suits and ties to national events, even the priests and their gods at our local shrines prefer foreign drinks to local gins and our political leaders continue to wear western attires to international meetings even when our Nigerian friends have demonstrated to us times without number that wearing the traditional agbala, kente or batakari to UN summits will never impair your sense of judgement. The piece of advice I have for the anti-gay campaigners is that those who detest gays and lesbians because of religious and legal reasons should do well to stick to these points and fight the war against this social menace from these angles. They should stop hiding behind the so called Ghanaian culture because there is very little to point to presently as far as the Ghanaian culture is concerned. The cries against gays and lesbians must get even louder but let’s leave culture out of it.

But come to think of it, gays and lesbians are simply part and parcel of the foreign culture that has infiltrated the Ghanaian society. If as people we have accepted the foreign ways of dressing, have developed an insatiable appetite for exotic foods and drinks and now sing and dance to all kinds of foreign music at the expense of our borborbor, adowa, kpanlogo and the likes then we are going to have tough time trying to do away with gays and lesbians in our society because they are part of the whole baggage that we are importing or better still, attached to the numerous loans and grants we beg for on daily basis.

Author’s email: [email protected]