GENDER, SEX, SEXUALITY(IES), SEXUAL ORIENTATIONS AND SEXUAL IDENTITY(IES) IN POSTCOLONIAL AFRICA
Dr. Saliou DIONE
The postcolonial literature has been perpetrating for a long time the male-female binary system dictated by the politics of patriarchy and capitalism. However, a new scholarly trend embodied by both men and women has emerged and attempts at exploring new long-time held taboo issues such as sex, sexual orientations and sexual identity, thus challenging the existing heteronormative conception for a new sexual consciousness spearheaded by “new” essences that are more concerned about their sexual pleasure and fulfillment-seeking. Up to now, not enough researches have been conducted in the gender and sex and sexuality-related field in Africa. In fact, today, sex, sexuality(ies), sexual orientations and sexual identity(ies) have become central to human being’s life and development in so far as they provide them with somehow the “balance” needed in life. Unfortunately, myth and taboo have always surrounded African sexualities. The continued insistence that the one-dimensional conception of heteronormativity-based sexual orientation represents a slice of African realities, even when historical documentation and ethnographic and sociological findings question its validity, provides ample evidence that reality is indeed (re)creatable. New sexual consciousness against the hegemony of sex, gender and heterosexuality has now emerged and is claiming existence and recognition. So, how can one justify or excuse the “conspiracy” in erasing the other woman, the other man, that independent, strong, and pleasure-seeking human being, whose presence, sexuality, sexual orientations and sexual identities, as well as lifestyle are often misunderstood and rejected in most African societies?
The topic will unearth the interrelationships that exist between the different elements, their closely related, as well as the new postcolonial gender discourse embodied by some female scholars who do not identity with the Eurocentric conception of gender. This work of research intends to explore the implications on masculinity and femininity, which have, however, somehow known a new trend and requires a new approach and analysis. Cultural factors can also be looked at as accounting for the emergence of sexuality and gender stereotyping as well as the “new” human beings that have emerged as a result of the impact of the global economy, neocolonialism, contact with other cultures, cross-cultural influences. As this has produced new orders and new essences representing the male and female subjects, there is need to ponder over the ongoing reversed gender stereotypes, roles, sexualities, patriarchy, masculinity, polygamy, heterosexuality, among other vices designed to create a feeling of otherness.