How'd The West Manage To Convince Africans..?

What did they do?

I guess you'd an awkward landing.How could you put a half-baked potato in my crimson plate? But hold on, let me tease your mind with this question: Why do people say 'heads up' when you should rather duck?

Hello.. buckle up your seat belts because I'm just about to do that. Just so you know, some things really don't make sense.But some way somehow we've bought into them.

The agenda-setters have shrewdly managed to sell the botched idea to us. Those that think they hold the plumb line, or call the shot have managed to flip us over like pancakes and shoved their poisonous-laced cake down our throats.

The paradox is, those botched ideas have stayed with us for ages, yet they don't make sense. What makes them think that theirs is right and ours is wrong?

What makes them think that ours is out-moded but theirs is fashionable? What makes them think theirs is godly but ours is ungodly? If equal right means what it suggests then why is my right or our right being trampled upon or disrespected?

Indeed, we're still struggling to wrap our heads around them because they don't make sense.

So, how'd the west manage to convince Africans that polygamy is evil but homosexuality is a human right?

This is the path I'm about to navigate.

And I've to make sure my headlights are on, so I can see yonder.This is a topic that's never crossed my mind. But alas, it has!

A teacher in the UK had had an eye-popping moments-- struggling to come to terms with this topic.

He told a friend's friend and the friend told another friend. And it snowballed thereafter. On the wings of social media the topic would catch fire.

At times we take a rugged road not because we like it or have no alternative route.But we do so because, times and conditions set the agenda for us.

Times tell us to wake up from our slumber--a rude awakening if you like.

You may not like my looks-- the shape of my nose, the size of my mouth or the weight of my frame or the texture of my skin colour. You may also not like what I eat, how I dress or what I wear, my way of worship, the way I dance or who I marry or choose not to. But it is what it is. Therefore, stay in your lane and let me be in mine, because we all have got rights and choices.

In his essay, 'The Case Against Encouraging Polygamy..' (2015) published in the Politico, essayist Freddie de Boers wrote and I quote: "The case against polygamy is incredibly flimsy, almost entirely lacking in rational basis and animated by purely irrational fears and prejudice."

Mr. de Boers further argues: .."Even if there are pragmatic reasons to deny state-sanction to polygamous marriage, we must extend it anyway because it is a human right. We must insist that rights cannot be dismissed out of short-term interests of logistics and political pragmatism."

So what's polygamy?

It's been described as evil, primitive, backward, ugly you name it. Indeed one man's meat is another man's poison.How could they, if it weren't so? They say ours is inimical to their society. But, they've increasingly and painstakingly tried to have us accept theirs anyhow.

Polygamy is the practice of marrying multiple spouses or marrying more than one wife or husband at the same time. When a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, sociologists call it polyandry.

Legalisation

Polygamy is legal in 58 out of conservatively 200 sovereign states. Africa and Asia are believed to have the majority particularly among Muslim-majority countries.

Elsewhere in the United States, it was reported in 1998 that about 40,000 people living in the state of Utah were part of polygamist family or about 1.4 per cent of the population.

On the other hand, homosexuality is same sex marriage. It's between man and man(gay) or woman and woman (lesbianism). In 2015, same sex marriage became legal in all 50 states.Though some people frown upon it but the practice has found traction backed by law. However, gay marriage remains illegal in parts of Europe, most parts of Africa and Asia, Australia and Oceania.

Human rights

Human rights are defined as basic freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. These basic rights are values like dignity, fairness, equality, respect and independence.

So who determines that some customs are good or bad or are right or wrong?

Indeed, if some things don't seem right you know them from the get go.Take for instance, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Trokosi. Even a first grader knows, this practice is bad. It's wrong, albeit some people are still practising it.

But how could you convince me that homosexuality is right but polygamy is wrong?

Is it because it's mostly practised by westerners?

Don't get me wrong, i don't support polygamy either. And I don't hate those that espouse it or are into it.

In like manner, I don't hate those who practice homosexuality because the scripture enjoins us to love everyone even our enemies.The problem I've though, is when the western world portrays their culture or custom or values as second to none and others are primitive or unacceptable.

That brings the inevitable question:

Where are the values enshrined in the human rights?

Where's that fairness? Where did that equality go?

Is dignity so extinct? How come some groups of people can't enjoy their freedoms or independence? Where did Africans go Wrong? And who made one a judge or ruler over the other?

Bottom line, if homosexuality is lawful and acceptable in the eyes of some groups or race then polygamy must be legalised and given same recognition too. Remember, what's good for the gander is good for the goose.

By Gordon Offin-Amaniampong