Sentinelle, Ndibis and Duval are homosexual young men living in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. Homosexuality is illegal in the country, so they pose as bisexuals for social conformity.
By Anne Mireille Nzouankeu, Yaoundé
Sentinelle, 30, was excommunicated from his church on allegations of homosexuality. As for Duval, 24, his family tried to have him exorcised by a priest. They believe that homosexuals are somewhat possessed.
For most Cameroonians, homosexuals are members of some evil sects where sodomy is a part of mystical rituals. “There are people who do not accept us as we are. In the streets, people call us names like faggots. They blame us for destroying the youth”, explains Duval.
Between rejection and discrimination
All these beliefs only exacerbate existing homophobic sentiments and ultimately lead to the rejection of homosexuals. Gay people in Cameroon are also discriminated against, especially regarding access to healthcare.
“Sometimes during sexual relations, we bleed. When we go to the hospital, we are usually requested to bring our partner along. We have to lie in order to receive medical care. We often say that our girlfriend is out of town”, Sentinelle explains.
Living two lives
Unlike Ndibis en Sentinelle, Duval shared his sexual orientation with his family. Both young men have female and male partners. Ndibis’s ‘man’ is married with two children. “I don’t feel betrayed. He took a wife because of family and social pressure”, he says.
Sentinelle recalls having his first sexual relationship at the age of 14, with a girl. “I did it because of peer pressure. All my friends had girlfriends, so I thought: why not”, he recounts. He hasn’t been sexually involved with a woman ever since, even though he is currently engaged to one. His fiancée is not aware of his sexual orientation and she is so religious that she does not want to have sex before marriage.
Something Sentinelle finds quite convenient. He wants to marry her, not only to avoid raising suspicion about him, but also because he loves children. “I will not resort to adoption when I can have children of my own. I want to have children with my wife”, he says. At the same time, he is also intimately involved with a married man.
Legalisation of homosexuality
The three young men cannot openly live their sexuality, for fear of both social and legal reprisals. In fact, article 347 of the Cameroonian Penal Code states: “Whoever has sexual relations with a person of the same sex shall be punished with imprisonment, ranging from six months to five years and with a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 CFA Francs (between 24,50 and 245 euros)”.
Coordinator of Paemh (Projet d’assistance et d’encadrement des minorities sexuelles or Project for assistance and guidance for sexual minorities), Stéphane Koche, reveals that, on authority of this article, “200 people, on average, are arbitrarily arrested and detained every year in Cameroon”. Meanwhile, homosexuals keep on hoping for the eventual legalisation of homosexuality in the country.
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hello to all,am sorry to say this publicly,am a gay and i need a partner.
a partner that will take care of me not like my previous relationship.
here is my email bronklyns@yahoo.com
is been long since i have been touched,am highly waitin for a cute partner
It is high time our society wakes up to modern day reality. Are we still savages killing each other? Being GAY is a gift from God or whatever word you chose to name that special force in life, I'm afraid to say that is the absolute truth, never forget that point. The sooner one realizes that reality the better things will be for everybody. When people talk with such wickedness about gay people, they are only mirroring their own inner insecurities. Honestly, I don't give a fig whether he or she is gay or straight, for I know myself. How can gay people destroy society? families?, churches? schools? Universities? jobs? The answer to that question is not the gay people, but pure ignorance or the refusal to be educated out of the darkness surrounding their mind and vision. Due to my advanced age there was plenty of time to do extensive research on gay people and their cultural values given to the world, in works of arts, and in literature to name but a few. Those gay people so blessed and with faithful determination have given incredible and remarkable treasures to each and every one of us today, and to future generations wherever we might find ourselves. A good number of these people were religious individuals throughout history in monasteries and convents or merely amongst us as neighbours or members of our very own families. Let's not forget Gay people do have a mother, a father, and perhaps brothers and sisters. Are they evil for giving a gay baby? Going a wee bit further sorry to inform our readers that gay people don't go out there in our streets or elsewhere to recruit children. Such attitudes are sicknesses. That is pure rubbish and 100% stupidity!! I love children dearly and never once would I think of such a filthy disgusting idea. Not too long ago after watching a film about a priest I read two official reports written by professional academics in response to a list of wild accusations pouring out on its possible interpretations, and thus claiming gay people were paedophiles. Thank goodness 2 professional social workers voiced their displeasure over such despicable nonsense. I believe there was a combination of almost 18 or more years where they never once had a gay person as a paedophile during those years. Every one of them came from the so-called untouchable straight communities. I do wish people would get the facts straight before labelling gay people in such fashion. Jumping on the band wagon and shouting hatred only poisons the world even more. Although the bible is an excellent historical book for guidance, misusing its contents, can destroy innocent people whether our mother, father, or siblings. That evilness is nothing more but the work of the devil. People preaching such vile hatred should be ashamed of themselves, as far as I am concern, they are only two-faced. In regards to the item written at the top, that person in Africa urgently needs to be educated about the fact of life in the twenty-first century. I never chose to be gay nor anybody else, I accepted what GOD gave me. I ain't a chicken running away from life. Listening to God's words, don't be afraid, I am proud to stand on my two feet to face the world to see that preciousness of life in everybody. In my profession I have given thousands of people pleasure by merely being a gay human being with a heart. It is sad how such evilness spreads around in the name of God destroying God's own creations. It is not my job to condemn, but to enlighten people with a joyous, overpowering richness to make life worth living. For those innocent folk being mislead in Africa by evil preachers or people, hopefully sincere prayers will stop this dreadful attack against their own gay brothers and gay sisters amongst them. I personally have been so gifted to see people from all over the world, and they are gifted people worth our love and support.
I believe we all have rights and liberties that are fundamental.
I also believe we need to respect and uphold our countries constitutions.
That said, I am cameroonian, living in america. Here they have their rights and I respect them here. I am extremely homophobic and I try to avoid the homosexuals as best as I can. Being gay is allowed here in the USA.
Back in cameroon, it is not allowed. It is criminal and people practicing that should be punished severely. Our once cherished values in our society already so degraded, please keep homosexuality to the west. Africa will not and should not participate in that moral decadence. I suggest these cameroonian youths get visas and fly out to the western countries so they can practice their abominations even in public.
Why is being gay immoral? Seriously, because I've never heard anyone explain why or how homosexuality is any morally different from heterosexuality. The reason people come up with are just plain bad:
* "It's unnatural." Irrelevant. Unnatural does not mean immoral. Disease and natural disasters are natural, but no one praises them as blessing. Fiber-optic cable and hair dye are unnatural, but no one believes they're immoral.
* "Gays can't have kids." Nevermind that, at least in the US, 10 million gay couples are already raising children. For those who don't, there's nothing wrong with non-procreative relationships; after all, no one criticizes voluntarily childless couples or heterosexual relationships between people who are too old to have children, so clearly the ability or want to have children is not a factor in judging the morality of gay couples.
* "Its gross." Straight couples do plenty of gross things in bed too. If you find gay sex gross, don't have gay sex. But please don't generalize your own private preferences as a rule that everyone else should follow.
* "Gays are possessed by demons." Ummmmmm... no. Being gay has a biological component and has been the subject of study for decades. In identical twins, when one is gay, there is a 50% chance the other will be gay as well; in fraternal twins, who share no more DNA in common than siblings born in separate pregnancies, when one twin is gay the odds of the other being gay are around 25%. That suggests a very strong genetic component. Being gay is rooted in biology, not superstition.
"Gays recruit children." No they don't. There's no evidence of this sort of behavior having ever existed -- more to the point, the claim is immediately disproven if you've ever taken the time to *talk* to gay people. Most gay people report their feelings as inborn, as being a part of them since their earliest memories. They've had gay feelings before they even knew other gay people existed, before they even know that their feelings had a name at all.
"If being gay is moral, so is pedophilia and bestiality." Really? What's the connection between committed, monogamous, consensual same-sex relationships bestiality? Why does that connection (whatever it is) suddenly disappear when we talk about committed, monogamous, consensual opposite-sex relationships? If I said "since being straight is moral, so is pedophilia and bestiality", you'd probably find it specious at best. The trick here is understanding that, whatever reasons you use to dismiss a connection between heterosexuality and pedophilia, you can apply the exact same reasons to dismiss a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia as well.
"God hates gays." So then, why does God hate gay people? He must have a good reason, right? Now, I can understand why God disapproves of thieves, rapists, and murderers, because those people harm people directly or indirectly in a very tangible way, those sorts of behaviors have a clear victim and an assailant. I can't understand the condemnation of homosexuality, because that behavior does not harm anyone in any direct or indirect way -- seriously, just ask yourself, who's the victim, who's the assailant? More importantly, ask yourself why the harm and victim/assailant roles suddenly disappear when take the exact same behavior and substitute a heterosexual couple instead. It doesn't make any sense. Homosexuality is supposed to be some terrible evil, but no one can explain why its even wrong in the first place. I think the biblical condemnations of homosexuality are less the words of god, and more the words of man which reflect the morals and values of their time.
In other words, there is NO moral difference between straight and gay couples. Being gay is 100% moral, and their love should be celebrated with the same intensity that everyone already has for heterosexual couples.
The only thing that's immoral are the viciously, malignantly, proudly anti-gay destroying the moral climate of the country. They're the ones who insist that gays are some great threat to the country without reason, they're the ones who want to destroy gay people's relationships, they're the ones with a warped sense of morality for promoting and engaging in a widescale rape and murder gay men and women, they're the ones putting gay people in prisons even when those gay people have never harmed anyone in their life. The real immoral, irredeemably evil people the ones preaching their genocidal campaign the purge continent of gay people.
I agree with you 100%. I cannot fathom why people continue to accuse gays of all sorts of terrible things and up to this day, they cannot produce a thread of evidence that shows that gays are a threat to humanity, or they are some form of evil destroying the fabric of society. I can understand people 2000 years ago becoming fearful of gays because of what the Church told them, but 2000 years later, isn't it time we take stock of ourselves? With all the advancements in human civilization, it is ridiculous we are still behaving like we were 2000 years ago - Stupid! When a mother and father who raise a child and teach him about wrong and right AND the day that child announce that he is gay, those 2 parents choose to kick that child out the house, community, family. WHY? How crazy can people be, that you are willing to kill your child for loving another. I pray to God, a change will quickly come.
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