amantanyula

By BtM Correspondent

July 2002: I was reading the Swaziland 'What's On' and there was a revue of the book called (Emajaha Ekuluseni) meaning, 'boys in the field looking after the cattle'. And the subject of sexuality came up. It was the "amantanyula" or, boy's doing each other while looking after the cattle that grabbed me the most. The question is, as amantanyula is an African word and sodomy a western one, are they different things? My understanding is that amantanyula means sodomy. I may be wrong but many Africans do not have a problem with amantanyula but would have a problem with sodomy.

The Swazis, are part of the Nguni group of people and speak siSwati, part of the Nguni group of languages (which includes Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu); all are similar and speakers more-or-less understand each other. They were established in the region during the mfaqane movements of the early 19th century under King Sobhuza I of the Dlamini royal clan, which, as we have seen, is still the ruling family. King Sobhuza I was followed by King Mswati I, who started conceding land to speculators for gold and diamonds in return for payment to the royal coffers. This was continued under the hapless Ludvonga (ascended the throne at seven, poisoned at thirteen) and especially under the next King, Mbondzeni I. Swaziland is land-locked, but it is tantalisingly close to the Indian Ocean, only about 50 miles from Maputo in Mozambique and very close to the coastline of northern KwaZulu-Natal.

On my visit early this year I made sure to go to Mbabane and tried to get a copy of Emajaha Ekuluseni. It was a difficult shopping experience. Every one looked at me like I was a freak or a strange little black boy from some strange country. I was born, but not bred in Swaziland and my home town, Emhlosheni under the mountains, is not far away from Mbababe. But the democratic world were I live now (South Africa) has changed me. I do not fit in Swaziland's cultural lifestyle where I grew up. I feel it when I walk, in the way I talk and the way people respond and stare at me. It is a bit scary to feel like an alien in your own hometown. I keep on looking and asking in book shops to see if there is any luck with the book but there was none. I decided to go to the closest library just two blocks away from where I was and that's where I eventually found the book and many other books, which had related stories on amantanyula.

Talking about freedom of sexuality, we are not talking constitutionally, but culturally. Is it African to be gay or not? The book takes a very African point of view. Most of the young Swazi boys in the book grew up in the late 1980s and slept with other boys, and yet would still regard themselves as African. African boys who happen to take it up the ass as a boy. But we all grow up in a different way, in a different Africa. Isn't that so?

In some African countries, culture includes same sex behaviour but not gay identity or a gay community as like in western culture. Back in 1986-1987, until late1990 in a small village in South Africa called KwaNgwane, which is very nearby to Swaziland, you could find the same amantanyula practise. And inside Swaziland boys who looked after the cattle in the forest would have sexual intercourse with each other. This was only for boys over the age of 16 to prove their "man-hood" before they slept with any woman.

It was okay that both parents and the community would know about it and they would be happy that their boy is becoming a man. Though they never understood, what they were promoting was homosexuality, they respected it as traditional behaviour and they praised it and loved it - so much that some never stopped.

"Some boys passed into manhood and got married but now and then they still need some man's wood to remain pure men," say's Mr Bhokondvo Nkosi, a Maths teacher of Emagogeni high school. "The difference before the western influence is that it was ok to practice this type's of sexuality and now most African parents are considering it as "homosexuality" as it is labelled and therefore it is regarded as a silly influence from the civilised countries and as a western disease."

Most of the communities in Swaziland have not accepted homosexuality like other people have in South Africa and other developing countries. It is much better for the community to indentify one or two gay people but it becomes a problem when they discover that there is a group because it becomes an embarrasment hence not acceptable in their culture, this is according to the Ekuluseni book's view.

I spoke to a guy on the net on www.africaonline.co.za and he was expressing himself very proudly saying that he would rather continue sleeping with boys in the forest, than to be called names like faggot, homosexual or bisexual. He went on saying that to him being called gay is very silly and he hates the categorising that we as people put ourselves through. And he went on by saying that asking him about his sexual orientation, is like asking him how big his dick is; and who does he sleeps with, and how he does it in bed?