In South Sudan, an invisible LGBT community

Source: Borglobe Network

By Majur Deng Nhial

For the first five years when Sudanese flocked to developed nations, what they told their counterparts in the West either at dinner tables or in class-room presentations was that “We don’t have gays in Africa and particularly in Sudan.” Ouch! It was simply said so because something was covert and abyss according to the Sudanese community standards altogether with its norms.

The people who came from Kenya through immigration status are almost ten years from now. Their lifestyles have drastically changed in people’s thoughts and deportment. This is the latest microevolution in the Sudanese Americans community. A few number of boys wanted to be girls and the reverse is true for girls who have features of being boys.

Some analysts put forth reasons for gender alteration that a decimal of the Sudanese populations suffer attitudes of uncertainty and conflicting emotions toward their genders. There are people out there who congenitally conceal their true sexes for fear of being considered abnormal and not to be regard with extreme hatred and hostility. They also remain impassive not to distort families’ histories that can bring inerasable shame to the kinships. Another reason is that, there are no potential mates interesting in anal intercourse.
Presumably, the mentioned suggestions could be why there was silence in their sexual behavior in the Sudan.

  It does not matter how they look physically, they are born homophiles according some scientific journals. What is a fun about it for a man to sway his butts in front of another man suggesting sexuality? He must be genetically suffering in conundrum, something that has no solution for the rest of his life, unless he transforms his sexual activity with one of the same sex!

The United States is the lawful nation where there is freedom of sexual orientation that benefited the long-time suffered brothers and sisters who had no choice of revealing their internal secrecies before coming here; surprisingly, four cases are frankly made known. Tracing back to their origins in South Sudan, Bor County in Jonglei State has two separate cases, one for a male and one case involves two females allegedly in a relationship. Duk County in Jonglei State has a male case and one male case from Rumbek in the Lake State. Dinka, the largest tribe in South Sudan held firmly by its traditional norms and customs now has individuals breaking records in the 21st century regarding homosexual history.

Living in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, Kuma (not a real name) was a fashionable gentleman who loved to hangout with girls quite often. His voice box and walking style was of a female, but everybody else was sucking a thumb saying “Oh! he got all of them, all the girls” because he had a physical grace and beauty that attracted girls; that was a moment he wrestled with his true gender identity, but nobody paid attention until his arrival to the United State where he found liberty.

It [homosexuality] is not in our character [...] it is not there and if anybody wants to import it to Sudan [...] it will always be condemned by everybody." The President of South Sudan Salva Kiir told the Radio Netherland last month. Well, they are there, but bounded traditionally to accept their opposites, scaring of being labeled as pariahs. It is not their desires to choose what they want to be. Not even nature. Could it be genetic mutation according to scientific theories? Should people keep discriminating them in the due communities while they are part of them? Should civilization and democracy stir up the hidden issues? Your view as a concerned citizen….