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Rome did not
fall in a day; neither did its greatness start with a homosexual
convention
E. Ablorh-Odjidja
Republished from
September 4, 2006
Come to think of it, how did some Ghanaians get to patronize
Colombian drug barons in an age when powerful countries are
fighting hard to keep them out and to steer away the disruptive
effects of illicit drugs?
For some in Ghana, once an idea exits
somewhere, never mind how troublesome it is, they will want to
bring it home.
Recently you heard some were demanding to hold a
homosexual convention in Ghana.
These were folks who might not necessarily be homosexuals.
But.they
would allow the convention because of the need to be seen as
tolerant and progressive.
Unfortunately, these
were folks who never stopped to
consider that it paid to put things in the development context
first: that tolerance of certain acts at this stage of our
development might be costly in the long run.
Still, what was the purpose of a gay convention in Ghana? Why
could it not be held somewhere in Europe where homosexuality was
tolerated?
An honest answer would show that those gay advocates
who were pushing for the convention in Ghana targeted this
country because of a reason or two.
These advocates, having been roused by the recent negative
reaction by African pastors, especially Anglicans in Nigeria, to
homosexuality in the priesthood, have for now focused their
sights for recruitments in Africa.
Should one dismiss the above reasoning, there is also the other which cannot be easily denied; that, historically, Africa
has been a soft target for all sorts of frivolous ideas.
Homosexuality is the latest.
Ghana, presently on the cusp of new found democratic
dispensations, has become a point of attraction for
many ideas seeking to gain foothold on the
African scene; homosexual
politics being one of them and Ghana a ground to advance the cause.
Fortunately, the Ghanaian government of the
day has refused to grant
permission for this convention.
But the decision will not deter the overall efforts of these
advocates and few opportunity seekers.
Because, like it or not, homosexuality may represents an economic
opportunity.
Given the conditions of poverty and the extreme lack of
opportunities for gainful employment on the continent,
homosexuality will become another window for
the sex trade.
For the gay tourist the destination of choice would soon be
Africa, if it is not already. Virile and impressionable youth
will be recruited at the drop of the dollar. And soon, we shall
have a class of gay practitioners who are not
necessarily homosexuals by
nature or cultural bent, but folks
who have stifled or compromised and diverted
their natural sexual proclivity for
the purposes of economic
gains.
But there will be a social cost to these
gains.
Being gay is an existential fact. And it is so because there are
gays in our midst. It also means that essentially those who are
truly gay cannot mate with the opposite sex
and therefore cannot procreate; this being the first phase
of our social cost.
Some would say that
this deficit or cost in itself poses no problem since there are others
who are capable of
picking up the slack.
Procreation can, therefore, continue
while gays continue
to shoot blanks and mate for pleasure;
a happy compromise that can only be maintained for as
long as straights outnumber gays.
But what if the gay population continues to
grow?
Given the prevailing
condition of poverty, the penchant to ape
others, and the general malaise that
stems from lack of opportunity, this growth can be highly
probable.
The chance to hold a convention is an
advertisement for the acceptance of homosexuality and
opportunity for its growth. It is a strike against the
cultural barriers that stand in the way of the practice.
With acceptance, others may be quick to point
out the other risk factors that pose threat, in addition to that
done to population growth;
diseases like HIV/AIDS and their impact on health and labor and
their economic costs. (It will be interesting to know whether the growth rate of
HIV/AIDS among the homosexual communities in Africa shoots up or down in the
next ten years and why.)
More serious is
also the need to know whether a white HIV/AIDS sufferer, a
tourist with
racist bent, who cannot find sexual relief in his home
country because of fear or guilt, will not seek countries in
Africa to dump his sperm or disease? The
gay convention in Ghana becomes an advertisement,
and attraction and opportunity for his kind..
But for the reason of dire poverty on the
continent, the gay advocate who wishes to hold a convention
anywhere in Africa, would have found it a
very difficult task. Are there gays in Africa? Sure
there are, but they are lodged within an infinitesimal group in
a culture that abhors the practice. And
some communities are even hostile to the thought. Perhaps,
we should wonder why the convention was not proposed for
Nigeria?
For many places
in Africa, it would
be difficult to
convince the real native, who operates on common sense cultural
level, that the homosexual advocate's
drive for human rights is not really a
disguise for a chance to introduce an abhorred and frivolous sexual
act into the community.
Homosexuality,
for most of the time, has long been considered a taboo within
the majority of the cultures in Africa, if not all. Why the
convention chose Ghana is not because the practice is readily
accepted there, but mostly because of the benign nature of the
Ghanaian community.
But benign nature or not, homosexuality is
still a taboo in many tribal cultures in Ghana, and, therefore, has been
suppressed there just like other aberrations in nature.
Like it or not, the discipline that has kept
the taboo alive is under attack by the proposal for the
convention.
The breakdown of this discipline has become a
serious concern for both advocates of homosexuality and those
opposed. The interaction between these
groups is what makes the
story of Rome a very fascinating
subject.
As a highly disciplined society, Rome grew and conquered
territories. Then decadence set in and it fell. With decadence
everything falls.
Ghana is not
anywhere
near where Rome was before her collapse. But, aaccepting every whim and fancy of
its citizens for practice as policy, when
that practice burdens or pushes the society
close to decadence, will be a foolish policy.
Discipline is what
is needed for progress but this has been a
lax subject of late
in Ghana. The more likely
substitute is “indiscipline;”
acts detrimental
to the society. Unfortunately, frequent
discussions
on this latter subject and the search for
cure for its causes have turned the word into an excuse for
doing nothing - a "bogey-man" on whom all sorts of
blame can be put in exchange
for absolution for failure to cure the causes
of the indiscipline.
And, it is in the midst of this massive
social indiscipline that others have chosen a homosexual convention
to be staged in Ghana. Considering what took place in
parades in cities like San Francisco and New York when these
conventions were held there, this proposal is a bad idea.
It is refreshing to note that the
government of Ghana is against the idea.
This is not to
say that government has the power to eradicate homosexuality in
Ghana. It will be in our midst. But like prostitution,
government does have the power to tamp it down with the belief
that the main street of its capital, Accra, should not be the
scene for a pissing parade.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Washington, DC, September 4, 2006
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