While I join with, I'm sure, the majority of my brothers and sisters in expressing deep sadness for the plight of homosexual people ij Africa, this comment needs to be understood.
QuoteAninsia Kachepa, Mr. Chimbalanga's older sister, wept into her blouse at the simple mention of her jailed brother. "I have never heard of this homosexuality, and I am still not understanding," she said.
"Tell me, how is it physically possible, one man having sex with another?"
I am married to an African woman, who, like me, is not hetrosexual. It isn't that Africa is primitive, or backward.
Africa has its own culture where people graduate to each position in society as naturally as we graduate for children into adults.
One of the most startling things I noticed when I first went to Africa is the absolute innocence of children. They have no fear of being molested simply because it doesn't happen.
(I appreciate that it does, but it is so rare. Indeed in more communities than you might imagine, limited interaction between adults and their chidren is the norm. We might call it sexual abuse, they don't).
I have met African women who have chosen to remain single their entire lives. They often have a very 'butch' (for want of a better word), manner. They are completey accepted as Auntys by the local communities.
Efininate men are not common but tend to be accepted. Often taking on roles that cross the boundries between men and women.
I fear that Africa has suffered too much from interference over the last few thousand years, mostly from Arabs but laterlly from Europeans. It really needs time to settle and find itself.
