Naana Otoo-Oyortey; the Technical officer on Gender and Rights at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, shared her views on sexual pleasure and fantasy in Africa with the ARSRC Director.

How would you explain Sexual Pleasure and fantasy in Africa?

I would really like touch on the fact that in my opinion, discussion and discourses around sexuality in Africa are very limited to the discussion around homosexuality and lesbian issues. With regards to sexual pleasure, I think that the only way you could understand this, is practically through songs. In the sense that there is much taboo on public discussion of such matters.

  Even in terms of the literature, I have only recently started working on issues of sexuality and I have done only two training sessions in the past year. In fact, there is very little discussion around it, issues around sexual pleasure are hardly touched upon. It is actually more about sexual taboo, care, refraining women's sexuality including practices such as female genital cutting, which is basically aimed to subdue women's sexual pleasure. I think the whole discourse on women's sexuality if any, has really not come up,   there is rather a lot of focus on male sexuality, male pride and male virility and how all these transcends into male pleasure.   Despite all these, there is still very little discussion around them, again because it continues to be a taboo subject.  

   Working with the family planning section for reproductive health, my experience has been that even among service providers, there is the reluctance to talk about. I think this is because there is certain shyness or sense of embarrassment surrounding issues concerning sexual pleasure. Since the focus has been on disease, HIV/AIDS, maternal health and of recent, sexual health. The downside has to do with sexual rights, which has not really taken off even with discussion on young people and sexuality, there is always dominance on sexual autonomy, and sexual " don'ts " with very little about the sexual dos. In this sense you find don't do this and don't do that.   Then there's the question of how to ensure that young people do not have sex within a certain time frame. I must say that for me there is very little opportunity to really look at sexuality in such a very pragmatic way.

Some Proverb and songs are   example the public manifestation of sexual fantasies

It is very interesting because in Africa you will find that the very good way of finding out about issues of sexual pleasure and fantasy is actually in proverbs and songs. When you delve into these you will be able to thoroughly understand some of the intricacies around sexual fantasies, because again our culture is very much linked to naming but saying it in a very cautioned and blurry way.

Example of song or proverb related to sexual fantasy and pleasure

In Ghana what really comes readily is actually more against, it is about the 'don'ts'. I remember a local song which is sung by these women, who play the local music. I don't remember the name of the music, but one of the songs   actually translates like "when my husband holds my hand and he leaves my hand and touches my breast , I get pleasure''(local) .

    It is   - mi kon so mi sa   jah kon me foun   mi, ya na mi do, ya na mi do . It is an Akan song. It actually talks about some of the pleasures of sex. This is like a group of women, who stay together, sing and play the coral songs.

   It is actually sung in public, you may not really get the words. It is like I mentioned earlier, one of the best ways you can find out about matters relating to sexual issues is through songs and proverbs, you just won't find people sitting around and talking about it.

   I think the name of the song is either ' mar yom' or ' mar ago' . These women sit in groups and play their calabashes as they hit their sides and hands together. It was a very interesting thing, and then again you find some of the issues in which you can find sexual fantasies.   Especially in dancing, the Gan group of Ghana have a very sexualized dance. These kind of things help you realize that there are really a lot of fantasies around the female body, particularly the female buttocks and breasts. I had a training where I was talking about attractiveness and desire, that is the things men find attractive in women, and one of the things the men said was that a woman should have a big bum, big breasts, it's an indication that these men fantasize about the bigger the better.

Private manifestation of sexual fantasy or sexual pleasure and male fantasies

It is interesting in term of women's functions and fantasy around sexuality, again you find that in songs particularly in community where women have their own spaces and have the opportunity to come together, you would invariably find that a lot of the talk has to do with issues surrounding sexuality and that, as a matter of fact you would even find out sometimes in some languages if you are doing something painful, they would say ' but this kind of thing?, this is nothing compared to what you get from your husband'. I think this time around it is not so much about fantasy but    more about    voicing women's ability to enjoy sex. In terms of fantasy,    I see it very much in the abstract within the African context.

   I   can't say in the past, because I   have   not really done a lot   in terms of the   history of sexuality within Africa, I've just looked   in terms of how I view things now. It is more about glorifying the woman's body in terms of sexual fantasy.   With regards to how you want to position yourself or how you fantasize about different forms of sexual pleasure that kind of thing is a little bit far fetched for me.

Any link between pleasure or sexual fantasy and individual well being?

I would rather link individual wellbeing to sexual pleasure and satisfaction. It is interesting to note that although some   women say they were not taught openly about sex   and on the contrary can tell from   a woman's happy face if her husband satisfies her or not! Which of course would not be discussed openly. If you look at the absence of pleasure and well being then you know that the absence of pleasure particularly in the context of violence would affect women's general well being.   I would like to say that sexual pleasure and satisfaction is actually, good for women. But the interesting thing is that you look at different forms of pleasure as being very much a male thing. You would find that even in some of the rites of passage, women are taught how to give men pleasure, but hardly would you find occasion where women are taught how to pleasure themselves. So the pleasure is very much toward the male pleasure and satisfaction

Are men taught   how to give pleasure?

In the circumcision passage rite   some men go through in some communities , I believe some element of it is put in because based on the women's reply when they are asked about pleasuring their men , they usually reply "They (men)   taught us how to do it". Issues about ensuring men's pleasure is foremost and the various things you may have to do as a woman to give a man's pleasure. This is from a female perspective , I haven't actually   gotten much into the male perspective .There is a lot of taboo   surrounding sexual issues in Africa, may be   if you open up a dialogue women will talk about it, the problem is whether they would agree to open up about pleasure, whether they even have pleasure is another issue.   Sometimes opportunity for training gives you opportunity to talk about it because this gives people the opportunity to voice out their feelings and it is also at forums like this you discover that some adults have no idea what an orgasm is.

Public Discussion on sexuality or the sexuality discourse in Africa is more oriented toward sexual preference

I would say , it is important to   broaden the whole discourse around sexuality because a lot of people to be honest, are very narrow minded in terms of what sexuality is and the issues surrounding it. This narrow mindedness is very clear in the sense that once the issue of   sexuality is brought up, the first and major thing that comes to their mind is sexual orientation, sexual diversity and etcetera. This very narrow definition of sexuality makes it   very difficult to break that narrow perception of sexuality .

What would you say could possibly be the cause or solution ?

It is not only in Africa but a global thing. It is important to understand the different elements around sexuality, introduce it in schools like integrating it   into the university curriculum. In a way that it helps people to understand the different elements of sexuality. Not just Africa around sexual diversity but also issue around relationships, sensuality, and all these elements that have not really been discussed, such as body image, gender identity and all these issues, and putting them together into perspective as well as what we've been discussing today issues around sexual citizenship and broadening citizenship. I think these are some of the ways we could open discussions and dialogue.