I don’t know whether African culture only permits superficial and simplistic view of life. It is our culture that dictates what we consider as the norms. It does not appear to advocate investigative research. If that is correct then it may explain why Africans never question the effect of Chinese whisper on most of their beliefs that have been handed down generations by oral history.

Investigative research into our traditional beliefs means the researcher is questioning the validity of our cultural beliefs and he is not conforming. If you don’t conform, you are considered to be either mad or a witch or a wizard depending on the whims of the assessor. Africans do not recognise research as a way to finding out more about life and why individually we are what we are. Research is alien to African culture and in some African cultures it is considered as a challenge to God’s authority.

It is our beliefs and lack of desire to research to find more about those things we consider as unusual that has impeded our scientific and technological development. This may explain why in spite of advances in medical sciences many avoidable diseases and psychological disorders still afflict Africa.

Recently in Kano, a research opportunity presented itself. Mr Abubakar Hamza, aged 19, who liked to dress up as a woman was fined and jailed for having “immoral behaviour”. Abubakar had been dressing up as a woman for the past seven years and was reported as using his female identity to sell aphrodisiacs in order to earn his living. The fact that this was a preferred option to armed robbery was of no concern to the moralists.

Abubakar used “Fatima Kawaji” as his female identity and gained access to married women quarters. And when asked by a journalist why his voice sounded like that of a woman, his reply was “God makes people differently. This is how my voice is”.

What is interesting about Abubakar Hamza story was as soon as the news broke out that he became a celebrity and his poster became a best seller in Kano, a predominantly Muslim city. That does beg the question why did he become a celebrity?

For centuries in Northern Nigeria, there have been men called “Dan Daudu”. These sorts of men dress and walk like women. They have voices similar to women but their voices tend to be high pitched. A Dan Daudu likes to associate with women. They do mainly what the people traditionally considered to be women’s work. Party organisers also hire Dan Daudu as part of the entertainment for their quests.

These men who dress and take up the appearance and behaviour of women are commonly called cross-dressers or transvestites. Abubakar was a cross-dresser and a heterosexual. He had no proven or logged case of mental illness.

It is important to differentiate between gender expression and sexual behaviour in order to avoid the mistake of classifying all transvestites as gay. A case in point is where some mothers in Nigeria dress up their children in the opposite sex clothes as a gender expression.

A German Physician, Magnus Hirschfeld (1910) argued that when transvestites are in the clothing of other sex they were not fetishists but people overcome by a “feeling of peace, security and exaltation, happiness and well-being”. Magnus Hirschfeld was the person that coined the word “transvestite” and was himself a transvestite.

The American Psychiatric Association has a diagnosis for "Transvestic Fetishism" in it’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)”, which is a guide to mental disorders. In It "Transvestic Fetishism" was defined as a heterosexual male recurrent intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving cross-dressing……has acted on these urges or is markedly distressed by them." This definition clearly implies women are not cross-dressers.

However, Sexologists are of the view that transvestites are homosexuals and that they are almost entirely men. Personally I do not subscribe to that conclusion. Cross-dressing is not an exclusive male preserve. Women have been known to dress and take the appearance of men (William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night – Viola was a woman cross-dresser). Whether the proportion of men that cross-dress is the same as for women is a question without a definite answer at the moment.

Perhaps, as most people would expect, most published studies on cross-dressers or transvestites was done by psychiatrists. Psychiatrists are of the view that cross-dressing is pathological and cross-dressers are considered to have a perverse fetish. It is in their view a mental illness. Psychiatrists therefore advocate psychotherapy as a treatment for the perversion.

The psychiatrists’ research findings should not come as a surprise because the participants in the research (the sample population) were patients in their care who were already diagnosed as mentally ill. It was in effect a bias sample and the result would be influenced.

I am not aware of any specific Nigerian published research on the subject. This is understandable considering the low level of funding for research activities in Nigeria. It would be interesting to know through research why some Nigerian men and women cross-dress and how wide spread is the practice. This is really the question on people’s lip.

Different professional groups so far provide research findings that are aligned to their professions as to why people cross-dress.

In summary, I do not find any of the research findings to date compelling enough. It is hard for one to believe that there is one particular reason why people cross-dress. However, what is certain but sad is that Jonathan Demme's “Silence of the Lambs” (1991), portrayer of cross-dressers as psychopathic serial killers does not help to change the negative image of cross-dressers.

Nosa@Olotu.org

Robot  Villager

# 1 I don’t know whether African culture only permits superficial a...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 22.02.2008 14:22

Sapele Man  Villager

# 2 Investigative research into our traditional beliefs means the researcher is questioning the validity of our cultural beliefs and he is not conforming. If you don’t conform, you are considered to be either mad or a witch or a wizard depending on the whims of the assessor. Africans do not recognise research as a way to finding out more about life and why individually we are what we are. Research is alien to African culture and in some African cultures it is considered as a challenge to God’s authority. Good point. That explains everything else about the technological underdevelopment of Africa, apart from corruption. But I never stop wondering why any man would want to dress up as a woman. I am inclined to believe the psychiatrists' view that these sorts of people have mental illness. Also there was an Igboman that lives next door to ours who had the habit of dressing up as a woman. So I do not agree with using only Kano as the only example. Posted by Sapele Man| 23.02.2008 07:01

Enforcer  Villager

# 3 As a follow up, below is a BBC news report that would confirm Sapele Man' observation in the last paragraph of his post. Cross-dresser jailed in Nigeria Last Updated: Tuesday, 4 March 2008, 12:18 GMT A Nigerian court has sentenced a man to 18 months in jail after he admitted he dressed up as a woman. Uche Ndubuisi was arrested loitering around Lagos international airport. He pleaded guilty after women's clothes and makeup that belonged to him were brought in evidence. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was not given the option of a fine, an official at the court in the Lagos suburb of Ikeja told AFP. Another 18 men face charges of vagrancy and indecent behaviour in the sharia-run northern state of Bauchi after they were arrested in a hotel allegedly dressed as women. Lagos is not a sharia state, but has recently seen police arrest women for wearing revealing clothes. Cross dressing in Nigeria is linked by authorities to homosexuality, which is illegal in the country. Nigeria has come under criticism from human rights groups for their laws. It is not known why Mr Ndubuisi was wearing women's clothes, or why he had 22 pairs of women's pants, four bras and several make-up kits. But the BBC's Umar Elleman in Lagos says at the time of his arrest last week police said he was trying to extort money from travellers. Posted by Enforcer| 05.03.2008 07:21