Sex or Sensation: What is new about sex?
Years ago, when I read "When Sex Threatened the State: Illicit sexuality, nationalism, and politics in colonial Nigeria, 1900-1958," what I found interesting in the book was not just the politics of morality and the fascinating debates it creates around illicit sexuality but its connections with the history of African sexual encounters which then intertwines with race, religion, and nationalism, medicine, urbanity in a compelling, complex and contradictory way. One of the exciting references of the author was to a lecture( paper not sure) given by Nnamdi Azikiwe, which seems to an extent an unhypocritical view of sex and sexuality. I know sex sells more than water. But what makes it exciting for a supposed religious country when sex or its tools are discussed? Is there a possibility that Nkechi Blessing is unveiling the mask of sex/sexuality in ways that challenge the code of secrecy around sex and sexuality? Are African women having sex? Why is women's sexual expression linked with illicit and decadent morality? In 2013 and 2016, one of the most searched things on google in Nigeria was pornography.
When I was about 10-12 years old, my mum pushed all of us and put the entire community out to look for a woman who ran away from home to self-harm. Something she did has become public gossip, and she has opted to end it. What she did is what people do today and talk about it everywhere, but at the time, you were not supposed to even say it. She had said it while exchanging notes with a friend about how to run the sons of Adam "mad" in the other room. The one she confided in spewed it to others; it has become community news, and her children have become ostracised.
Mum had returned from Ori Oke and heard that Iya X was missing, and her goal was to end it. Mum wanted to know what happened since Mum had just given her one of the freezers in the house to sell frozen food, and she could not comprehend what would drive her to that length. Someone found the courage to whisper to Mum's ear what had happened, expecting Mum to gasp. Mum said, "Nigba na wako, (and so what?) everybody, get out and search for her for me; if anything happens to her, I will hold all of you responsible". We all search for her for hours into the dead of night. We saw what they call "otapiapia" in her hand, heading for the bush. We dragged her home, and mum called for a community meeting with all the gossipers. As the unpaid PA that must not sleep until mum finishes her community Judge Judy business, I was awake. I was supposed to be reading, but I heard the details of everything, and the woman confirmed it. After mum had addressed the crowd and told everyone to mind their businesses. She turned to Iya X and said. "Who do you want to leave your children for if you have succeeded? Do you mean you want your children, orphans? e duro na, agbo iru eyi ri afin deru ba oloro ni,(We have not heard this, it is a way we scare the person involved). Let's assume what you did is against government law, go for the punishment, and be sure I will be there to check on you". She said many things and then asked, "ninu gbo oro to wa nile yi eko wo lo ko wa( what do we learn from this?).
What can we learn from the commercialization of Kayan Mata from a discreetly used sexual accouterment to a capitalist consumerist product sold to high clientele beyond the shores of Nigeria? What drives the use of adult toys across all classes of married and single women? Is it because Adam's sons are making Eve's daughter cry(cut onion), and both are saying in Ebenezer Obe's song, "ma gbe Keke re lo, ao ba e sere mo? (Go away with your bicycle, we are not playing with you again). What lesson /information do we glean from the Nigeria sexual economies? When we ask the government to take education seriously, they think it is because academics want fat salaries; they don't even know how research output positions a country differently in a committee of nations and how it impacts teaching until they put all of them on the BRT bus in London( I hope they learn). Tomorrow, when somebody decides to write about African women's sexuality, and they say they taught women sexual expression and agency, we will shout "extractive practices" and "renewed colonial anthropology."
Professor Sylvia Tamale's work has helped to link how historical process, events, and postcolonial African politics has clothes normative and non-normative sexuality in the language of sin, evil, and depravity, yet there is more to do. Barely two years ago, I saw someone while I was in traffic, heavily pregnant and hawking. I ask how people in Lagos have time to have sex and make babies, the answer may not be suitable for sanctified minds, and I may not be able to present it in a sanitized way.
Research is not always a moralist endeavor; sometimes, it is a quest to understand, explain, and track continuity, change, and new trends. If you are a scholar of African sexualities, check the blog "Adventures from the bedroom of African women." Also, if you know any of the recipients of Nkechi's souvenir, I want to talk to them about how they use it. If I find any research grant that somebody is not using, this will be an excellent contribution to studies of Nigerian eroticism.
Posted on Facebook on September 26, 2022.
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