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By
Richmond Tiemoko
The overwhelming impression of the sexual ethic
of culture and beliefs is that of repression and
negativism. The over moralization of sexual pleasure
and intimacy has led to the view that cultures and
sexual pleasure are antagonists. But sexuality and
particularly sexual pleasure and culture should
be viewed as mutually re-enforcing.
Many individuals seem to see religion as an over-moralizing
institution that does little to promote sexual and
reproductive health and rights. On the other hand,
listening to many scholars of religion and religious
leaders, it is clear that religion could immensely
contribute to sexual and reproductive health and
rights of the population. This issue of the Magazine
will attempt to bridge this gap by unveiling the
connections between culture, beliefs and pleasure.
The intention is to begin a discussion and research
on the way cultures and beliefs (could) promote
healthy and pleasurable sexuality and how these
processes could in turn revitalize African cultures.
Although there are many cultural practices and
religious beliefs that repress or deny individual
rights to sexual pleasure, this should not becloud
the various ways in which culture and beliefs (if
well understood and explored) promote sexual pleasure
and healthy sexual life. The seemingly repressive
nature of culture and beliefs on sexualities stem
from two sources: a) the conflation of culture and
tradition and 2) the individualist (selfish?) and
auto-centered nature of sexual pleasure in contrast
to the communal, shared and collective nature of
culture and beliefs.
Sexuality, Culture and Tradition
The discomfort many face with regard to sexualities
and pleasure under the banner of African culture
is a result of their own discomfort and misunderstanding
of culture. If culture is the shared values about
what is wrong and rights what is acceptable. More
importantly the main characteristic of culture its
openness transformation. Culture as such does not
necessarily oppose innovation and variety. Rather
wherever feasible and appropriate, it attempts to
accommodate and integrate it. In the field of sexuality
Simon and Gagnon [1] clarifies this through the
concept of the cultural sexual script. As they said,
culture is rarely predictive and it is generally
too abstract to be applied in all circumstances.
Tradition on the other hand is fixed and predictive
in nature because it is repetitive. Tradition applies
to selected and specific attitude and behaviour.
It would therefore be inaccurate to deny or repress
sexual pleasures and emerging sexual practices on
the ground of preserving African culture. After
all there is even a contemporary culture of sexualization
of the body and language. In short sexualities and
sexual pleasure should be celebrated and promoted
through African cultures as there used to be many
post-colonial settings. In There is no justification
to repress responsible healthy and pleasurable sexualities
in the name of African Culture.
Pleasurable sexuality and culture
The argument (by some cultural fundamentalist) that
sexual pleasure is individualistic and auto-focused
in contrast to culture that is shared and bonding
and collective is simplistic. Sexual pleasure could
be shared and in any case pleasure by strengthening
individual emotional and psychological well-being
could contribute to social cohesion. Important to
this discussion is the need to understand culture
largely diffuse and multi-layered and at each level
there could be prescribed and experienced culture.
Many cultures indeed recognize the importance of
sexual satisfaction and pleasure and have institutionalized
their practices.
Islam for instance clearly recognizes wife right’s
to sexual satisfaction (pleasure). The most clearer
case of culture support of sexual pleasure is among
the Wolof of Senegal. The proverb that if you want
a good and clever child you should have a good sex
clearly shows that sexual pleasure and satisfaction
could lead to common goods.
As indicated in Ikpe’s paper (in this magazine),
traditions and cultures in south-east Nigeria teach
girls skills to provide and get sexual pleasure.
Similarly some cultures such as those of the zulu
recognize and appreciate the physical and emotional
need of growing children and therefore teach and
condone non-penetrative sex.
Sexual pleasure is a so powerful motivation to be
completely deterred by any but the strongest negative
association [2]. It is time to revisit African cultures
and unveil their potential for responsible healthy
and pleasurable sexuality as promoted by Tumndo
Ne Leel (NGO) in Kenya. Conversely it might be time
to write ‘new’ sexual scripts that will not only
contribute to sexual health and well-being but also
value the ever changing African cultures.
References
1. Simon W and J. H Gagnon (1999) Sexual Script
in R. Parker and P Aggleton (eds) Culture. Society
and Sexuality
2. Abramson P.R and S.D. Pinkerton (2002) With
Pleasure: Thoughts on the nature of human sexuality.
Oxford University press.
* Dr. Richmond Tiemoko is the director of Africa
Regional Sexuality Resource Centre.
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