The Spiritual Significance of Gender-Nonconforming Identities and Their Sacred Roles in Pre-Colonial West African Societies
World-Sense & Worldview
While some may regard gender fluidity as a modern phenomenon, a deeper exploration reveals that fluid understandings of gender are woven into many rich and ancient traditions, including those of the African continent, before the shadows of colonial powers fell upon them.
In pre-colonial West Africa gender fluidity was not only accepted but celebrated. Here, gender-nonconforming in dividuals were honored for their distinctive expression and perceived as holding a sacred connection to the divine realm. This bond was understood to bring blessings not only to the gender-nonconforming person themselves, but to the community as a whole. This cultural reverence for gender diversity highlights a tradition in which spiritual and social well-being were deeply intertwined, enriching the lives of all who shared in it.
The gender theory of Oyèrónk Oyěwùmí, a renowned scholar in sociology and gender studies, offers essential insights into understanding perspectives on gender within pre-colonial West African societies, particularly as they contrast with Western frameworks. Oyěwùmí argues that, in Western thought, biological determinism forms the basis for constructing categories of gender, race, and class. This allows biology to serve as a legitimizing tool for claims rooted in social, economic, and political ideologies. This approach echoes colonial narratives that justified dominance and privilege through assertions of biological superiority. Oyěwùmí argues that Eurocentric culture combines social constructionism with biological determinism, creating a worldview deeply rooted in what is perceived visually. Through imperialism and colonialism, these ideologies were imposed on African societies. Ho wever, in various communities within pre-colonial West Africa, gender was not organized within a rigid binary framework. Instead, a more fluid understanding prevailed, influenced significantly by their spiritual and religious traditions.
Our focus will now turn to Yorubaland, a cultural region situated in present-day Benin, Togo, and Nigeria. Oyěwùmí states in The invention of women: making an African sense of Western gender discourses: “In Yoruba culture social relations derive their legitimacy from social facts, not from biology”. In this culture the focus is more on ‘age’. In Yoruba culture, they do not privilege 8 Cul Magazine the physical world over the metaphysical.” Yoruba people engage with the world through a variety of senses beyond the visual, a phenomenon Oyěwùmí describes as the world-sense of pre-colonial Africa. This perspective is metaphysical, encouraging a sensory engagement with the world rather than a strictly sight-based approach. In this context, gender was understood as a fluid spectrum, allowing individuals the freedom to explore and express themselves across a range of identities. These identities are not solely based in a single sense, like sight, but are shaped by a blend of many senses that reveal the individual.
The Yoruba Religion & Christianity
T his distinction can be partly understood through Yoruba metaphysics, where the concept of good and evil operates differently from the binary framework found in European christian thought. In Yoruba culture, various aspects of the divine are honored through offerings and rituals dedi cated to specific deities. Scholars debate whether Yoruba religion is polytheistic or monotheistic: while it recognizes an almighty force, Olodumare, it also venerates numerous deities: the Orishas. The Orishas manifest a spectrum of forces that encompass masculine, feminine, and intermediary qualities, believed to be present within human beings as well. Individuals who embody what might be considered both masculine and feminine traits, hold a significant role as healers and mediators with the spirit world. Since they have access to more parts of the self. Within this tradition, these individuals are not categorized as non-bi nary, as the concept of a rigid gender binary is absent. Instead, communities used unique names to honor these individuals, describing them as powerful figures who harmonized both masculine and feminine forces and brought this into their spiritual and healing practices.
Gender fluidity and expression were, rightly, celebrated as vibrant and enriching aspects of human identity. European colonizers often associated the acceptance of same-sex relationships, diverse gender expressions, and varied sexual behaviors with African spiritual beliefs, labeling the Yoruba religion as heretical. Western anthropologists interpreted these cultural practices as indicative of what they deemed outrageous sexual behavior. They perceived the openness surrounding gender and sexuality as a direct threat to their own social constructs and belief systems that underpinned Western society.
In Angola, where similar religious and spiritual practices existed, one Portuguese soldier remarked in 1681: There is among the Angolan pagan much sodomy, sharing one with the other their dirtiness and filth, dressing as wo men. And they call them by the name of the land, quim bandas … And some of these are fine fetishers … And all of the pagans respect them and they are not offended by them and these sodomites happen to live together in bands, meeting most often to provide burial services.” The freedom of expression found within indigenous African cultures posed a challenge to European laws and christian values. Especially, since the gender-nonconforming people seemed to hold a significant spiritual position, such as providing burial services, within their communities. When Europeans colonized West Africa, they not only enslaved its people but also systematically tried to erase the existing indigenous philosophies, cultures and traditions. The colonizers made it their mission to both dominate and dehumanize the people of West Africa. This process of cultural erasure was a fundamental aspect of colonialism and slavery. For the christian church, it was imperative that colonizers dismantle the indigenous cultures of West Africa and impose christianity, thereby neutralizing any potential threats to the christian society. Fortunately, they were not entirely successful in colonizing the minds and hearts of the people. Many of their stories are lost, but luckily some survived through time. In honor of the gender-nonconforming individuals who endured this oppression, I would like to introduce two remarkable figures: Vitoria and Francisco.
Vitoria & Francisco
T he Inquisition in Lisbon recorded the arrest of Vitoria in 1556, an enslaved person from Benin. Upon her arrival in Brazil with Portuguese colonizers, she rejected her slave clothing and instead wore a white waist jacket and a large skirt that she found in the stables of her enslavers. This act of reclamation served as a rejection of the bondage imposed upon her. Later brought to Lisbon by her enslaver, Vitoria started working at the riverbank as a prostitute. She was a gender nonconformist who identified as a woman and chose to wear clothing that was traditionally made for women, while also wearing a jacket traditionally reserved for men. Vitoria was known for her ambiguous presentation which confused those around her. Despite her self-identification as a woman, the Portuguese Inquisition found this unacceptable. According to their accounts, she was said to lure men in at the riverbank “like a woman enticing them to sin”. This disturbing statement reveals the depth of why Vitoria was seen as a threat and the rationale the colonizers used to justify their stance. It underscores the clash between her identity and the restrictive norms of a colonial system intent on controlling and categorizing human existence. Additional ly, the connection that is made between women and sin shows us part of the religious dimension of the matter. Through this lens, we can observe the tensions between individuality and an imposed order aimed at suppressing diverse expressions of selfhood.
According to historian Sweet, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vitoria’s case underscores how the interpretation of her gestures lay at the heart of her arrest. Observers noted her winking at men and carrying water from the river on her head – actions that were considered female gestures. Yet, others claimed to have seen her doffing her hat, a gesture associated with masculinity. T his fluidity of gender expression posed a significant threat to the Portuguese Inquisition. Ultimately, Vitoria was arrested on charges of sodomy and sentenced to life imprisonment. Records of her arrest reveal that the inquisitors focused primarily on her sexual behavior, yet other aspects of her identity may have intensified her perceived threat to colonial authority. A man named Jorge Fernan des testified that Vitoria had healed him and other men from an unspecified ailment, establishing her reputation as a profound healer. Her healing practices further mar ked her as a danger in the eyes of the colonizers, likely contributing to their urgency to detain her. The resilience of individuals like Vitoria, who boldly expressed her authentic self amidst the atrocities of colonialism, allows us to grasp the historical context of gender-nonconforming identities worldwide. It is crucial to recognize that trans, non-binary and gender-nonconforming individuals have existed throughout history; their presence is not a recent phenomenon. In truth, the erasure and hatred directed toward these individuals are deeply intertwined with the legacy of white supremacy and colonialism.
In 1591, a similar case emerged involving an enslaved African person named Francisco, who was denounced for sodomy by a Portuguese man named Mathias Moreira. Francisco resisted their enslaver ’s authority and continued wearing feminine clothing and expressing themselves in a nonconforming manner. When Moreira was called to explain Francisco’s gender expression and behaviour to the Portuguese Inquisition, he uttered a deeply troubling statement, steeped in lies and ignorance: “In Angola and the Congo … the negro sodomites who serve as passive women in the nefarious sin use these loincloths, and in the language of Angola and Congo, they call them jinbandaa, which means passive sodomite”. The colonizers labeled these individuals as abnormal, employing a European interpretation of these African terms to justify their views. Linguist Malcolm Guthrie notes that both uimbandas and jinbandaa were translated from a European perspective, resulting in misleading interpretations that carried negative sexual connotations. These translations arose from the homophobic and transphobic biases of the colonizers. Guthrie explains that the root of these African terms, “-mbanda,” are derived from words meaning healer, medicine man, or spirit medium. In other words, the colonizers translated what the African people call healers and spirit mediums to derogatory homophobic slurs. While the true translations reveal the deep connection between gender-nonconforming individuals and their roles within the social and religious spheres in pre-colonial West Africa. These individuals were condemned by the colonizers for what they were praised for within their own communities: fluid gender expression and the ability to heal others through spiritual forces.
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