tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post4873235654193874598..comments2023-05-31T14:16:36.022+03:00Comments on Otto's Random Thoughts: The Continuing Divisions Between North Africa and Sub-Saharan AfricaJ. Otto Pohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07457089758142264049noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-10925797406160700692013-12-26T15:03:45.719+03:002013-12-26T15:03:45.719+03:00Good questions and ones that I wish I had much bet...Good questions and ones that I wish I had much better answers to.<br /><br />1. West Africa which had the Trans-Saharan slave trade and East Africa which had the Indian Ocean slave trade both have a lot of antipathy to homosexuality. The laws in Uganda are particularly strict. But, less draconian laws also exist in Ghana. South Africa officially legalized the practice and prohibits discrimination on the basis. However, South Africa due to a much stronger European influence differs from the rest of Africa in a lot of other ways as well.<br /><br />2. I have no idea how to quantify this. Obviously such practices exist in Ghana despite condemnation from the government and churches. My gut instinct like yours is that it is less prevalent than in North Africa and the Middle East. On the other hand this may be a function of a greater literary tradition dealing with the subject in the Islamic world. <br /><br />3. I am pretty sure that some of the Trans-Saharan slave trade was for this purpose. It is a delicate subject, but the scholars dealing with slavery in the Islamic world all seem to mention it in passing.<br /><br />4. This is hard to measure. A lot of people claim that indigenous African cultures have always condemned the practice. But, it is hard to know and a lot of the current rhetoric is clearly drawn from the Old Testament. That suggest to me it only became an issue after the arrival of European missionaries.<br /><br />5. Point well taken. This is an embryonic idea so I was thinking in terms of Black-Arab unity versus conflict in Africa. But, the unity part is as you note not very substantial and probably not relevant in this context.<br /><br />6. I will look at Colley's work. The historiography on the subject is fairly weak unfortunately. J. Otto Pohlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07457089758142264049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-32676157925334959212013-12-26T05:40:20.447+03:002013-12-26T05:40:20.447+03:00It's an interesting question, and one I don...It's an interesting question, and one I don't have a good answer to myself--nor can I easily find one easily on Google. Which indicates you could do good work on this! But a few idle, preliminary thoughts:<br /><br />1) Is African antipathy to homosexuality stronger in areas that were directly exposed to the Arab slave trade? If yes, you have a very interesting correlation. If not, you may just have a coincidence.<br /><br />2) Given that Muslims/Arabs officially condemn homosexuality severely, and privately sanction it, I think we should see if a similar syndrome is going on in Subsaharan Africa. That is, how much actual homosexual practice is there, whatever the rhetoric? I <i>think</i> that there is less homosexual practice in Subsaharan Africa than in the Arab/Muslim world, but I'd be cautious about that statement.<br /><br />3) Relatedly: since accusing your enemies of homosexuality is an easy trope of polemic, I would want to be very cautious about black African accounts accusing the Arabs of seizing/buying slaves for homosexual purposes. It could be true, it could be not; one would need to check.<br /><br />4) Relatedly: how far back does anti-homosexuality go in African cultures? It could be age-old, could be recent, could depend on the region. Also worth checking on that.<br /><br />5) I wouldn't bother framing it against Pan-Africanism, since that seems piffle anyway.<br /><br />6) You should read Linda Colley's <i>Captives</i> for background. Her thesis, accurate as far as I know: Early English captivity narratives (1600s) about being captured by the Moors center on the threat of Englishmen being raped, registering real fear of powerful Muslims; later ones (1700s) focus on the threat of Englishwomen being raped, more in the way of lascivious entertainment, with the Muslims no longer considered a major threat. It would be a good context for African cultural reactions to the Muslim slave trade. And just generally a good book, as I remember.Withywindlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11465319711207992232noreply@blogger.com