Sex and Hypocrisy, Cultural contexts

It’s a fact that our take on life differs from one community to another.

I have been reading this article- N.Y.'s Spitzer linked to prostitution ring. In short, the Governor of one of the states in the US was caught on tape arranging for a sex worker to meet him.

Sex is an interesting thing. It grabs the attention of humans like nothing else does.

In Uganda, we tend not to talk about sex. (Not in 'polite' society, the ‘savedee’ community is so big, and so vocal, that many tend to forget that sex is a major topic in the majority of the community.)

But it is a fact that people talk about sex and sexual things and the First Lady and fellow ‘Abstinence Campaigners’ are living in cloud cuckoo land. We do have sex, lots of sex, gay and straight.

And the culture of not talking about it in ‘polite’ society is so heavy that when one listens to those who shout, you may be forgiven to think that sex is not on the minds of Ugandans.

For example, most men in Uganda are polygamous. Matter of fact. It is the African way. On one memorable occasion, I listened with horror as the President of the country told the UN General Assembly that in Africa, we do not kill women. We marry them.

Horrible, when you think of what has been happening in the north of the country for years with rape as a weapon of war, as it is in the DRC. And the reports of rape, men, and women in Kenya.

Anyway, sex is this taboo subject which the political correctness of hypocrisy means that it may be considered a faux pas to intimate that the President does have other wives, other than the First Lady who preaches abstinence. I will not mention the First Ladies of Kenya!!

So, the New York governor gets a hooker, and pays her the equivalent of 5 Million Uganda Shillings for services provided (2 hours; and people wonder why Africans want to storm the promised dollar lands of Europe and the Americas!).

Poor guy, he is caught on tape. And, more than that, it is revealed to the press.

We are hypocrites in Africa about sex, but I must say that it is the new culture of sexual abstinence which has made us this bad. We used not to talk about sex, but talk about it so much that we did not need to put it out in the public domain. I mean, for me to say that my myriad half brothers and sisters are not because they are not the children of my mother would be seriously wrong. They are part of the clan.

But Americans, those are true sexual hypocrites! A land where sex is free, and at the same time so severely restricted that the mere intimation that Bush does have sex with Laura may be a scandal (except that they are married, so, their sex is sanctified)

In Uganda, something like this may not get a single day’s headlines. Maybe in the red rug, which by the way is headlining the world’s end in 2012. To say that Mao, Gulu District Chairman has a second or third wife on the side, and also sometimes takes a prostitute to a lodge, well, that is typical male behaviour. The Mayor of Kampala has the religion sanctioned 4, if I am not mistaken. And women? It is said that a man can never be sure that a child is his until his wife dies without repudiating the fact. (Or, these days, one can get a DNA test done to prove or disprove the facts.)

Ok, sex talk and hypocrisy, they seem to go hand in hand. Have to remember that I can only be gay in cyber space, but if you come to me person to person and demand whether I am, I will tell you, without a blink that I AM NOT GAY.

So, I am also a hypocrite. Bite me!

GayUganda