Wednesday 24 September 2014

Fwd: The sexual shenanigans of Ghanaians



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The sexual shenanigans of Ghanaians

My friend Akosua is a member of the leadership of her church. She is especially gifted at organizing fundraising events for her church, she is articulate and can read the bible in English as well as the Ghanaian languages of Twi and Ga, and is often selected to deliver a bible reading during church service.

Akosua also happens to be dating the choirmaster, who is married with 4 children. The choirmaster's wife lives in another town, so Akosua and her beau often attend church together.

Recently, Akosua told me that another leader of the church had said to her, "You're a fine woman, eh? I want to have a child with you". If you're wondering whether this church leader is also married let me save you the trouble, yes he is.
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I often wonder how people manage to live with what I assume will be a battle of values. The supposedly Christian values of 'one man, one wife', versus the reality of any number of sexual combinations: 'one man, a mistress and at least one girlfriend'; 'one woman, a steady partner, and several transient lovers'; 'older man, a wife and his student girlfriend'.

All these sexual combinations abound in Ghana, and invariably people involved in these relationships are religious people who attend church or some other religious institution regularly. Invariably the majority of these relationships are socially sanctioned. People tend to turn a blind eye when the 'big man' attends a party with a young woman whom everyone knows is not his daughter.

The married man and his long-term girlfriend attend events together. People have casual sex on Saturday night whilst ensuring they wake up bright and early for a 3-hour church service on Sunday. That is the state of sexual relations in the world's most religious country.

Virgin power is the answer, or not Cognitive dissonance

With the scenarios described above, one might easily jump to the conclusion that Ghana is a libertarian country with progressive views on sexuality and sexual relationships. That's very far from the truth.

Last year, the President of the Ghana Institute of Journalism urged journalists to adopt an anti-gay stance. Sexual education campaigns are still very much limited to the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use a Condom) approach, even though this mindset has been ineffectual against protecting a large number of Ghanaian women from HIV in a context where being a married woman can be the single highest risk factor where HIV is concerned.

Sex in the world's most religious country occurs in a context where in the 'public' domain conversations about sex are largely conservative, yet in the private sphere anything goes down. I have come across groups of young men watching pornography, yet no one openly acknowledges homoeroticism.

Child sexual abuse is a huge problem, but families cover up abuses to protect their reputation. Young people who are sexually active or curious about sex have no spaces where they can get access to comprehensive sex education let alone free contraceptives or * cue shock horror * advice on how to negotiate safer pleasurable sex.
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Yet another

A new openness

Yet there is hope. Or rather I choose to believe there is hope. In 4 years of blogging about sexuality, I have had numerous open conversations with Ghanaians about sex and sexuality, and I can say for sure that there is definitely a lot going on beneath the surface.

Perhaps a lot has always gone on behind the façade of conservatism and religious fervour. In the conversations on the blog I curate ('Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women') I see openness about sexual desire and the diversities of sexualities that are not reflected in the public space in Ghana.

'Adventures' has also provided a space for young women like Frema who are wrestling with their sexuality in the world's most religious country. Yes Ghanaians struggle to balance their beliefs with their sexual desires but the anonymity of the internet seems to offer Ghanaians the freedom to be themselves, a freedom they don't seem to feel they have in regular life.

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TITLE>>>>>>FORBIDDEN
CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY


.... After that day, the boys never went to the orange tree again and the story that it was a forbidden fruit was retold and everyone believed it, even the four boys. Though they knew it was not the forbidden fruits of the Bible but Mr. Jacob's forbidden fruits. Garba was angry when he learnt that it was Bawa who had told on him. They all began to avoid Bawa. But all these had been over thirty-five years ago. They grown and become men. Garba had turned out to be the star of them all, having excelled in school and had gone to Lagos and then to England. He returned to Dongongari and settled down. Now all the boys who went to the St. Aquinas now have children. But they all still sit together on weekends and talk of the past. Mr. Jacob and the forbidden fruits was always an exciting topic and they would laugh. "Only God know where the white master is today," Sule would say with nostalgia. "Perhaps long dead and buried," Tanko would say. "But he was a terror," Bawa reminded. He had succeeded. his father as the tobacco merchant in ,Jogongan even though he was once a banker. Garba would laugh. "Come to think of it, he was a good man. The lesson of the forbidden fruits was that of obedience. We ought to have obeyed him as our elder and teacher," he said: They all agreed with him. The End .... TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...JOIN US TOMORROW FOR MORE ON THIS FUNNY AND EXCITING STORY }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}


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