Homosexual Tendencies In Bessie Head’s A Question Of Power, Evelyne Accad’s Wounding Words And Amma Darko’s Beyond The Horizon

Abstract

This study explores three selected African texts to identify the writers’ representation of homosexuality, and the hidden homosexual signs within a supposedly heterosexual environment created by the writers. The fact that all three selected texts are written by female authors is only coincidental, and therefore has no effect on the analysis. Issues arising the analysis of the three texts reveal a pattern which, though portrayed differently, exists in all three texts. This pattern is, the African, and therefore the African writer, believes in the old and longstanding ideology that homosexuality is a Western practice imposed on the African continent. Inasmuch as the writers of the texts use varying styles of writing in crafting their works, they all seem to hold one message, which is, the African is not ready to swallow the hidden truth that homosexuality did exist in the continent; it is rather homophobia that was imported by the whites. By using queer and psychoanalytic lens, an identification is made of certain characters who are supposed to be heterosexuals indeed exhibit homosexual tendencies, though these tendencies are not glaring. This answers the first research question: in what ways do the characters selected in the texts portray homosexual tendencies? This assertion is developed by using homosexual signs and colour symbols, and also with the help of Sigmund Freud’s (1905) various theories on human sexuality. Freud’s (1905) theory, for instance, helps to expose how the id, or the unconscious part of the brain, influences human decisions and behaviour. The choice to use Freud solely is due to his belief that all of human’s urges are based on a sexual desire.