http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1296892,00.html
"Some defend violently anti-gay reggae music on the grounds that
homophobia is "part of Jamaican culture". Racism was part of Afrikaner
culture in apartheid South Africa, but that did not make it right. By
this logic, we should also accept cultural traditions like pogroms,
female circumcision, lynchings and honour killings.
In any case, homophobia is not authentic Jamaican culture at all. It
was foisted on the people of Jamaica in the 19th century by British
colonisers and their Christian missionary allies. There is no evidence
the Africans brought to Jamaica as slaves were homophobic. On the
contrary, homo.uality was common in many of the west African
societies from which they were stolen. It became more or less accepted
among many slaves in their Caribbean exile, especially given the
dislocation of traditional family life by the slave system. The
prejudices and laws against homo.uality were imposed by the British.
Yet most Jamaicans now claim homophobia is part of their own
African-derived culture. They are in massive denial.
Later conversion to Christianity provoked massive guilt and
self-hatred, which is still manifest in the vicious homophobia of
modern-day Jamaica. The descendants of these slaves today worship in
churches that encourage them to hate their black gay brothers and
sisters - the same churches that, in the past, supported the
enslavement of their African ancestors. " |