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Forbidden sexuality in Kunle Afolayan’s October 1 contentious sexual space

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Ojoniyi O. W.

International Journal of Pedagogy, Innovation and New Technologies

2018

vol. 5(2)

68-73

There is a sense in which we can speak of two levels of dominant and peripheral sexual spaces within the Nigerian discourse of sexuality. The dominant space deals with the generally acceptable sexual orientation that essentially draws its legitimacy from the biological configuration of sexuality within the African temper of mind. It lays claim, at one level, to the public/cultural sexual space and, at another level, to the private sexual space which also, presumably, directly follows from the cultural sexual course. On the other hand, the peripheral sexual space is seen, to put it in Guarav Desai phrase, as “any nonnormative sexual practices” (2007, p. 736). This marginal sexual orientation has perhaps largely operated within the level of private sexual space, but now it seeks to renegotiate the Nigerian cultural/public sexual space. It is this attempt to renegotiate the dominant cultural/public sexual space that seems to have raised the tension within the discourse of sexuality in Nigeria in recent times leading to the legislation that out-rightly criminalises alternative sexuality in Nigeria. It is this contentious sexual orientation within the African consciousness; its presumed origin, violence and politics of practice that forms the focus of Kunle Afolayan’s film, October 1. This paper looks at October 1 within the contentious discourse of that which is seen as a forbidden sexuality, its attendant violence and destruction in relation to the fluidity and the shifting bases of African cultural orientation in the face of individualism and fundamental human right.

The ghosts that will not be laid to rest: a critical reading of “Abantu Stand”

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Ojoniyi O. W.

International Journal of Pedagogy, Innovation and New Technologies

2018

vol. 5(2)

51-56

This paper centres on an existential consciousness reading of the production of “Abantu Stand” by Rhodes University Theatre. “Abantu Stand” is a product of pieces of workshop sketches on current social, economic and political conversations in South Africa. From my participation in the back stage conversations of the artists and the production crew towards the final making of the production, to the discussions with the audience after each performance, I realise that, of a truth, as the closing song of the performance re-echoes, “It is not yet uhuru” for the South Africans, particularly, the people on the peripheral of the society!” In “Abantu Stand,” in spite of her post-apartheid status, South Africa appears as a volatile contested space. Of course, in reality, in many areas, 70 to 85% of lands remain in the hands of the settlers. There are towns and settlements outside of towns – for till now, majority of the blacks live in shanties outside the main towns. Inequality, mutual suspicion, mismanagement and oppression operate at different levels of the society – from race to race, gender to gender and tribe to tribe. There is the challenge of gender/sexual categorisation and the tension of “coming out” in relation to the residual resisting traditional culture of heterosexuals. The sketches in the performance are woven around these contentious issues to give room for free conversations. The desire is to provoke a revolutionary change. However, one thing is evident: South Africa, with the relics of apartheid, is still a state in transition.

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2 International Journal of Pedagogy, Innovation and New Technologies

2 Ojoniyi O. W.

2 2019

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Forbidden sexuality in Kunle Afolayan’s October 1 contentious sexual space

The ghosts that will not be laid to rest: a critical reading of “Abantu Stand”