“Values” was a word used often at a conference that looked at sexuality within the context of South African schools. In one of the more popular discussions, delegates crowded in to hear writer Credo Mutwa’s thoughts on African tradition and its place in sexuality education.
He was joined by Wilmot James of UCT’s Graduate School of Business who said that the crisis presented by HIV can be viewed as a path to the formation of values which flowed naturally out of the constitution.
Mutwa, who has experience of HIV infection in his family, called for the resurgence of African tradition to help form the values needed to combat the spread of the disease. He said that Africans had managed to fight off other diseases in the past.
“Many of us are forgetting that AIDS is not the first deadly disease to come into Africa, there was once a time when TB was as deadly as AIDS,” he said.
He had his audience dissolving in laughter as he described how some museums in South Africa have in their collections mysterious sheets of cloth the size and length of a man’s penis which were traditionally called “the trousers for riding” by Xhosa people. This he said proved that “Africans used condoms long before the white man came here.”
Mutwa said that in traditional African culture, women were highly revered as the spiritual head of the family. “There is overwhelming proof in history that women, far from being chattel and slaves, were leaders. We are a dying nation, hell bound because we have forgotten our history.”
To gales of embarrassed laughter he said that the “missionary position” where the man is on top of the woman during sex, was not in African tradition and was imposed by colonial religious belief. In African tradition women were more likely to be penetrated from behind – giving them more control and the freedom to escape.
When asked about his views on how AIDS came to Africa and could be cured, Mutwa stunned some delegates by saying that that AIDS was a man-made and race specific disease made to order by Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon and could be treated by traditional African methods that could cure viral diseases with ultra-sound.
The discussion left delegates no closer to concrete plans on how to incorporate traditional values into sexuality education, but most felt that it was important and should be included in some form.
"Hesabu" ilikuwa neno lililotumiwa mara nyingi katika mkutano uliotazama ngono ndani ya muktadha wa shule za Afrika Kusini. Katika mojawapo ya majadiliano maarufu zaidi, wajumbe walikusanyika kwa wingi ili kusikia mawazo ya mwandishi Credo Mutwa juu ya utamaduni wa Kiafrika na nafasi yake katika elimu ya ngono. Wilmot James, Mkurugenzi wa Chuo Kikuu cha UCT Graduate School of Business, alisema kuwa tatizo la Ukimwi linaweza kuonekana kama njia ya kuunda maadili ambayo hutoka kwa asili kutoka kwa katiba. Mutwa, ambaye ana uzoefu wa maambukizi ya Ukimwi katika familia yake, aliomba kufufuliwa kwa utamaduni wa Kiafrika kusaidia kuunda maadili yanayohitajika kupambana na kuenea kwa ugonjwa huo. Alisema kwamba Waafrika walikuwa wamefanikiwa kupambana na magonjwa mengine katika siku za nyuma. "Wengi wetu tunasahau kwamba Ukimwi si ugonjwa wa kwanza wa kuua ambao umekuja Afrika, kulikuwa na wakati ambapo kifua kikuu kilikuwa na hatari kama Ukimwi,"" alisema." "Mwisho wa mkutano huo, Rais Obama alielezea jinsi baadhi ya majumba ya makumbusho nchini Afrika Kusini yanavyokuwa na vipande vya nguo vya ajabu vinavyolingana na ukubwa na urefu wa kiuno cha mtu, ambavyo kwa kawaida viliitwa ""sanduku la kuendesha farasi"" na watu wa kabila la Kihosa." "Mutwa alisema kuwa ""Wafirika walitumia kondomu muda mrefu kabla ya watu weupe kuja hapa"" na kwamba katika utamaduni wa jadi wa Afrika, wanawake waliheshimiwa sana kama kichwa cha kiroho cha familia." <unk>Kuna uthibitisho mkubwa katika historia kwamba wanawake, mbali na kuwa mali na watumwa, walikuwa viongozi. "Tunaishi katika hali ya kufa, tunaelekea kuzimu kwa sababu tumesahau historia yetu.""Kutokana na kicheko cha aibu alisema kwamba ""msimamo wa kimisionari"" ambapo mwanamume yuko juu ya mwanamke wakati wa ngono, haukuwa katika utamaduni wa Kiafrika na ulilazimishwa na imani ya kidini ya kikoloni." Katika utamaduni wa Kiafrika wanawake walikuwa na uwezekano mkubwa wa kuingiliwa kutoka nyuma <unk> kuwapa udhibiti zaidi na uhuru wa kutoroka. Alipoulizwa maoni yake kuhusu jinsi UKIMWI ulivyokuja Afrika na jinsi ulivyoweza kutibiwa, Mutwa aliwashangaza baadhi ya wajumbe kwa kusema kwamba UKIMWI ni ugonjwa uliotengenezwa na binadamu na wa jamii maalum uliofanywa kwa agizo la Henry Kissinger na Richard Nixon na unaweza kutibiwa kwa njia za jadi za Kiafrika ambazo zinaweza kutibu magonjwa ya virusi kwa kutumia sauti ya juu. Mkutano huo haukuwafanya wajumbe kuwa karibu na mipango halisi ya jinsi ya kuingiza maadili ya jadi katika elimu ya ngono, lakini wengi walihisi kuwa ni muhimu na inapaswa kuingizwa kwa namna fulani.