2.3. Gender and Culture
2.3.2. Male Initiation Rites of Passage
in heterosexual marriages. In other words, a male can be both married to a female and at the same time, have other male sexual partners. In this regard, gay men‘s sexualities are not necessarily linked with their gender. Therefore, no matter how much a gay man may have sexual desires for other men, he is culturally compelled to marry and sire children as a mark of maleness. This study is informative to my study because within Zambian culture, like in many African cultures, procreation is a mark of maleness.
Literature discussed in this section has shown that in some cultures, public performance of gay identities and sexualities is regarded as caricature as long as such performance does not signify the seriousness of such identities and sexualities. Therefore, for some gay men, public performance of their identities and sexualities entails acting out a heterosexual façade in order to maintain social standing. Furthermore, active partners in sexual relationships are regarded as exhibiting ideal masculinity. In some cultures, gay identities and sexualities are performed discreetly, as long as they do not tamper with the normative family model where procreation is expected to be the end goal of marriage. The studies by Asthana and Oostvogels (2001) and Epprecht (2004 and 2005) inform this study on the public performance of gay identities and sexualities and some cultural perspective on this. However, the question still remains: is it possible to construct gay identities and sexualities away from the ―public gaze‖? Hence, my interrogating of how gay Christians ―self-construct‖ their identities and sexualities.
Another locus for the construction of gay identities and sexualities within culture are male initiation rites as part of cultural practices. The section below attends to male initiation rites of passage.
Rites of passage are cultural practices marking a watershed from one phase of life into another. Of interest to this study are the male initiation rites of passage, also known as puberty rites.
Puberty rites are ceremonies performed to mark the time during which young people move from childhood to adolescence. They initiate young people into the adult world, marking the physical changes that signal the transition from the asexual world of childhood to the sexual world of adulthood (Lugira 2004:69).
Initiation rites take many forms, from circumcision, instructional teachings and secluded hunting sessions. The main feature is that they mark a boy‘s transition from boyhood into adulthood, where he will be expected and sanctioned to perform his sexuality. In his book The Rites of Passage, van Gennep extensively deals with the rites of passage which he categorizes as ―rites of separation, transition rites, and rites of incorporation‖ (1960:11). Male initiation rites of passage fall under transition rites which van Gennep adds are ―liminal rites‖
(1960:11). The male initiation rites of passage are liminal rites because they represent what I term as the ―ambiguous limbo state‖ between childhood and adulthood. It is an ambiguous limbo state because the initiates who undergo this rite of passage are neither boys nor adults.
It is also ambiguous as the initiate may not know whether to behave like a child or an adult. It can be argued that during this liminal space, some level of cognitive dissonance takes place as the initiates navigate their way into adulthood. Rites of passage are:
rites of separation from the asexual world, and they are followed by rites of incorporation into the world of sexuality and, in all societies and all social groups, into a group confined to persons of one sex or the other (van Gennep 1960:67).
Male initiation rites of passage are a bridge between an asexual world and a sexual world.
Initiation is not necessarily a license to engage in sexual activities immediately after the rite of passage but introduces initiates to their first sexual encounter, with the view that they grow into sexually matured men who will marry and sire children.
Initiation rites of passage occur in various cultures in the world and in some instances involve circumcision. Writing about male circumcision as a practice within Xhosa initiation rites of passage, Vincent observes that it ―is regarded as a central public endorsement of a culture‘s accepted norms of heterosexual manhood‖ (2008:434). This is usually accompanied by
training in life skills lessons. Male circumcision involves the cutting of the foreskins of initiates‘ penises and is symbolic of the initiates‘ valor as well as incorporation into the adult communal life. Although male initiation rites are regarded as being a possible conduit for the manifestation of homosexual activities, by and large, they are meant to promote and enforce heterosexual maleness and not necessarily homosexuality. In spite being condemned in some circles as life threatening,
ritual circumcision is often defended on the basis of its usefulness as a mechanism for the maintenance of social order, particularly in relation to the perceived crisis in youth sexuality marked extremely by high levels of gender-based violence as well as HIV infection (Vincent 2008:431).
Initially, male circumcision was culturally significant as a signifier of the boyhood-adulthood transition and maintenance of social order. However, in the era of HIV and AIDS, it has assumed a new significance, as a preventative measure among youths and adults.
Pinpointing when exactly culture begins constructing gay identities and sexualities is not clear cut mainly because culture is a day to day process. Arguably, ―the first, homosexual contacts are begun in adolescent initiation rites‖ (Herdt 1985:53). This is mainly due to the seclusion the initiates and their trainers are subjected to during the initiation rites of passage.
The initiation period is regarded as a time of transition and formation for the initiates.
Building on the works of Turner who studied initiation rites among the Ndembu people of Zambia, Kaunda argues that within the male initiation rite of passage:2
the liminal subjects are regarded as neither males nor females… they are liberated from conventional social structures with its hierarchic, gender binary and power relations. In the liminal state, these social relationships and the structural elements are dissolved…the liminal spaces create room for nonconformist forms of sexualities (2015:27-30).
Within the anti-structural gender paradigm of the initiation camps, initiates are allowed to engage in non-normative sexualities as part of transition. Within the liminal space of initiation, the boys are not expected to operate within the normative gender alignments. Their identities and sexualities are formed in neutral spaces in which gender does not seemingly
2 Victor Turner‘s work is extensively covered in chapter six of this study.
apply but the end result of such formation is expected to culminate into heterosexuality and not homosexuality. Non-normative understanding of the initiates and seclusion of males from females during male initiation rites of passage can be regarded as fertile ground for construction of gay identities and sexualities which sometimes may not be stopped from permeating the structured community.
In his analysis of the Onabasulu people of Papua New Guinea, Ernst (1991) observes that although the male initiation rites are no longer observed post-evangelization, the rite of male initiation is still performed and entails insemination of young males by adult males. This insemination is believed aid in the growth and maturation of young males. These transgenerational homosexual relationships continue until the young partner marries. As argued above, homosexual contact serves the purpose of reinforcing heterosexuality among initiates. Maturation into fertile heterosexual men is expected upon insemination by adult males. Implicitly, the older men who inseminate the young men attain a bisexual identity as they have sexual contacts with women and men simultaneously. Greenberg (1988) outlines the modes of intercourse in homosexuality within the male initiation rites of passage as being oral, anal, masturbation and smearing of semen on bodies of younger partners, novice anal insemination by slightly older initiates. It can be argued that homosexual contact in the male initiation rites of passage is shrouded with power as only older men can inseminate or smear their semen on the younger initiates.
Forms of Homosexuality
Greenberg outlines four forms of homosexuality: ―transgenerational (in which the partners are of disparate ages), transgenderal (the partners are of different genders), and egalitarian (the partners are socially similar) and fourth is where partners are of different social classes‖
(1988:25). Transgenerational and egalitarian same-sex contacts take place in the male initiation spaces, with the former being very common as it is often ―believed to transfer a special charisma to the younger partners‖ (Greenberg 1988:27). Older men have sexual contacts with younger men with the belief that younger men need older men‘s semen for them to become ―full‘ men who will be able to sire children and also to pass on special skills.
In some instances, older initiates are instructed to have sexual contact with other initiates for purposes of creating strong heterosexual men out of the younger initiates. Ajibade (2013), writing about the Yoruba people of Nigeria, argues that transgenerational and transgenderal homosexualities are important in many traditional African societies. They are believed to
facilitate proper maturation of infants into full adulthood, as well as achievement and transfer of spiritual powers and religious authority. While egalitarian homosexuality is mainly practiced by adolescents during sexual exploration among youths of the same gender.
The review of literature on the subject of male initiation has established that male initiation rites of passage are important sources of identity in some cultures. These mark the transition from childhood into adulthood, from the asexual world into the sexual world. It is a liminal space in which initiates remain secluded from structured society, thus, this seclusion creates possibilities of construction of gay identities. This is because in some cultures, trainers have same-sex intercourse with the initiates, believing that same-sex activities between an adult male and a younger male results in the potency of the initiates. In recent times, male initiation rites of passage have transitioned from being only valued for their cultural significance to being a means for HIV and AIDS prevention. These studies have established a cardinal cultural space in which gay identities and sexualities are constructed, however, they restrict such construction only to male initiation rites and do not attend to female initiation rites. It is this gap which my study fills by bringing together male and female initiation rites of passage as cultural sites for the construction of gay identities and sexualities.
Having looked at male initiation rites of passage in relation to the construction of gay identities and sexualities, I will proceed to discuss gay identities and sexualities in relation to the supernatural.