The last time I had been to a live
poetry recital was in Toronto when I still fancied myself a poet. Then, I
was still involved with the Parkdale Street Writers and we occasionally
performed at the Gladstone at least once every year. Despite promising myself
that I was going to attend a least one slam poetry session in Paris (there is a
very vibrant scene over there), things were just too busy. However, never had I
imagined that 1) Abidjan would offer me my first live slam poetry recital and
that 2) it would be so good! It helped that I was already at the Institut
Goethe where the performance would take place in the doing some work that
afternoon. From the library, I could already overhear the sounds of the
rehearsal permeating through my earphones. I paid no further attention.
A few hours later, I found myself in the middle of one of the most interesting poetry gigs I’d attended to date on an powerfully controversial topic: Homosexuality. However, the sheer brilliance and complexity with which it was tackled left me completely stunned. Not because I didn’t believe in the talent of these poets, but because my own presuppositions precluded me from believing that such a delicate topic would be tackled in a fair and sincere manner. The results were way beyond my expectations.
Homosexuality in Ivory Coast,
just like in the West, remains a widely controversial issue. As countries
slowly embrace more liberal approaches towards the issue, a certain level of
apprehension is still present in all communities on the basis of religious,
moral and societal underpinnings.
However, this apprehension more often than not has caricatured the
debate presenting the very two extremities of the question: homophobia and
“tolerance”. Nonetheless, the debate is often significantly more nuanced.
People not supporting homosexual marriage are not necessarily intolerant, they
are occasionally torn between societal and religious pressures and their own
moral codes.
As Amina Meliane Bamba’s piece
demonstrated (even if presented more eloquently than this), “God does not hate
gay people, but it is against his scriptures. And He simply hates it when we
stray away from his scriptures”. Upon first hearing these lines and the crowds
loud cheers, I couldn’t help but impose my own precipitated judgment on the
piece and label it as “homophobic”.
But it was not until I heard the following recitals that I understood
that the tolerance/homophobia dialectic often present in most of the debates on
the issue fails to capture its cultural complexity. As an example
Olili Armelle Renée Zako’s piece mostly recited in Bété, showed that culturally
the word “homosexuality” simply does not exist in the language, thus
illustrating the incredibly foreign nature of the concept and the tension that
one could face while trying to come to grips with it. Another poem presented by
a gay poet certainly shocked some with its graphic content but appealed to
everyone through its lyrical complexity. It received identical cheers and
ovations.
But of all the poems performed, it was the ones delivered in Nouchi that I found the most interesting. They were rich in imagery and utilized very complex and imaginative syntactic forms. Most importantly, they powerfully delivered opinions from a very poignant vantage point – that of the everyday man struggling to make ends meet. “Si ils veulent il n’ont qu’a aller grayé Cabri/ moi je cherche Cabri a manger” (if they want they can go have sex with goats/ I am simply looking for a goat to eat). This illustration does not aim to offend or portray homosexuals in a demeaning manner, but rather portrays a form of tolerant indifference, typifying an average Ivorian with too many economic, social and political challenges to face to even be bothered by this "new" issue.
But of all the poems performed, it was the ones delivered in Nouchi that I found the most interesting. They were rich in imagery and utilized very complex and imaginative syntactic forms. Most importantly, they powerfully delivered opinions from a very poignant vantage point – that of the everyday man struggling to make ends meet. “Si ils veulent il n’ont qu’a aller grayé Cabri/ moi je cherche Cabri a manger” (if they want they can go have sex with goats/ I am simply looking for a goat to eat). This illustration does not aim to offend or portray homosexuals in a demeaning manner, but rather portrays a form of tolerant indifference, typifying an average Ivorian with too many economic, social and political challenges to face to even be bothered by this "new" issue.
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