On the famous beaches of Mbour, Senegal, the police discovered two men, 16 and 38 years old, while having sex. The agents immediately arrested the two lovers, who risk being sentenced to 5 years in prison. The news triggered the homophobia of the press in the African country, with a lot of titles on the two “gordjiguénes,” an insult in Wolof against gay men. Sen360 shouts “Mbour Beach: A Couple of ‘Fags’ Surprised in Full Action,” while Galsen221 titled “Mbour: Two ‘Fags’ Surprised on the Beach and Arrested.“
Meanwhile, despite the two men are both Senegalese, PressAfrik gives ample space to an alleged and unlikely witness who attributes the spread of homosexuality to white tourists: “They come here and push young people without money to these practices.“ The witness adds: “A friend of mine, talking to me in high school, explained to me that a friend of his proposed to him to join their network, allowing him to earn a lot of money. Homosexuals made this proposal to him right here [in Mbour; Ed].” But the website offers another absurd explanation: “Stars influence young people with their behaviour close to homosexuality.“
The homophobic mobilisations
The media take up and reinforce, in a vicious circle, the prejudices spread by religious and political organisations and figures in search of easy publicity. For example, on July 21, the collective And Samm Jikko Yi organised a demonstration against homosexuality. They described homosexuality as “cultural aggression, a westernisation of customs that confuses children’s identities in the country.” It’s true historical nonsense if we consider the long tradition of tolerance towards sexual minorities in the country. The same term “gordjiguéne” means “man-woman” and in the past indicated without disparaging nuances transgender women or cross-dressers. Only in relatively recent times, this word became an insult.
A few days before the event, the Islamic organisation Jamra raised the alarm on a phantom special evening in support for homosexuality. They even denounced the imminent arrival of thousands of rainbow t-shirts like the one worn by the singer Wally Seck, who had sparked a wave of scandal. Jamra asked the prefect to ban this event to stop “the prolongation of the evil tentacles of the global LGBT octopus towards our peaceful Senegal.” The organisation explained: “No libertarian theory, no matter how smoky it may be, will ever convince a people so steeped in cultural and religious values that the Creator conceived this anatomical organ, the human anus, for a function other than evacuate faeces!“
“Help, an LGBT Qur’an!”
Absurd homophobic positions are also present in the appeal of Professor Ibrahima Faye, head of religious missions to the Senegal High Economic, Social and Environmental Council. Frightened by an alleged increase in homosexuals in the country, the scholar invoked Christian and Islamic traditions and launched an appeal to the parliament to introduce a law to forbid homosexuality. But Article 319 in the 1965 Penal Code already forbids homosexuality, with penalties of up to 5 years imprisonment!
The discovery of a “Qur’an with LGBT colours” raised another absurd alarm. The preacher Oumar Diagne discovered a copy of the holy book of Islam with rainbow pages and launched a campaign against this alleged homosexual conspiracy. But it isn’t hard to discover that an Islamic publishing house that has nothing to do with the LGBTQIA movement, Orientica, printed the book. They use rainbow colours not only for aesthetic reasons but also to emphasise the 30 parts (juzʾ) in which Muslims traditionally divide the Qur’an to read and learn it more easily. But the preacher, like other homophobes in the country, is only interested in one thing: finding excuses to get publicity.
Pier Cesare Notaro
©2019 Il Grande Colibrì
image: elaboration by Yoann Gauthier (CC BY-NC 2.0)
