I’ve heard so many times that white people brought homosexuality to Africa. These are the ways in which Black people justify their homophobia. By insisting that white people forced “their way of life” on Black people. As if the entire continent of Africa didn’t have any Homosexuality prior to colonialism.
Europeans have a way of erasing African history. Pretending that Africans had no real society, no civilization, until colonization. When in reality, Africa was a continent full of rich traditions with differing societies and a plethora of beliefs. One of which was having multiple cultures acknowledging the existence of non-binary and gay people. It’s very interesting how in one instance, Black people admonish the Europeans for erasing rich African history, but at the same time, Black people cling to the European ideals that erase that exact history.
But it turns out that what Europeans brought to Africa was intolerance and hate justified by the bible and Christianity. The African countries with the harshest anti LGBTQIA laws were colonized by the English. You can’t really step into any part of the world that hasn’t been colonized by Europeans. Neo-colonialism counts as well. So what they did was outlaw traditions across a continent and impose their Christian doctrine and hatred.
“…it is not homosexuality and trans identities that are a colonial import into Africa, but homophobia and transphobia instead.” Mohammed Elnaiem
Someone asked me why I didn’t want to deal with homophobic people. First off, if I know you’re homophobic, that means you’ve said or done something and are not satisfied with being a closeted bigot. I’m from NYC and lived there for 45 years. I know a lot of gay people. Maybe that informed my feelings on the matter. But I’m team let people live. If no one is harming people, what’s the issue with love? And if you can’t just leave people alone, then that’s really hatred. The fact that people still mention pedophilia when they speak about Homosexuality shows how ignorant society is.
ADRIAN MARIE JONES 