THE MUGAWE AND ASHTIME CULTURE OF AFRICA

Mugawe Culture:
 Mugawe (Mugwe or Muga; plural Agwe)
- not a tribe but rather a type of queer religious leader equivalent to a priest among
the Meru and Kikiyu people of Kenya.
(Meru and Kikiyu were two tribes in particular that were historically noted for their
queer inclusiveness back in pre-colonial Kenya)
- served as both prophets and spiritual leaders, either for their own clan or for the
entire Meru nation.
- they dressed and wore their hair like women and even publicly acted as females.
- frequently, homosexual and sometimes married to a man.
 Role and Power
- their power stemmed from the Meru myth of the escape from the “Red People”.
 Myth of the Red People: The Meru people lived in a state of slavery
from the Red people and children of the Meru’s were killed but one
child was hidden by his mother and grew to a prophet who helped
the Meru people to escape the wrath of the Red people.
 In some versions of which a prophet named Mugwe led the human
sacrifice which brought the answer to their plight: that to escape
over the 'Red Sea', the waters had to be struck with a magic spear.
- their role and power was hereditary, passing from father to son, but not necessarily
to the first born.
- training for the role started at an early age and was carefully supervised by the
reigning Mugwe.
- the candidate should be: sober, kind to all people, and have a happily married
life, with great moral virtues, as well an element of innate skill. Ideally, he would
also be free from all blemishes, whether physical or moral, and was to follow
correctly the ancient customs of the Meru. As such, he was the custodian of
traditional values, a function which he exercised in tandem with the Njuri-Ncheke
(supreme governing council of elders), acting as a judge, and cursing those who
deserved it.
- primary role was to lead his people in dealings with God, either by offering
propitiatory sacrifices (such as praying for rains and consequent good harvests
and grazing) or expiatory sacrifices, whenever a serious fault was committed by a
group or an individual of the tribe and needed the appeasement of God or the
spirits. It was believed that the Mugwe was in direct contact with God.
- was also what is popularly known as a witch doctor. His ability in this domain was
called urogi (witchcraft), and combined knowledge of medicine, incantations
and rituals with his ability to divine.
 - as a diviner, the Mugwe's primary concern was to predict natural events, such as
the coming of the rains. But some divinations were more mysterious and less
explicable. One case in point is a famous prediction made by the Mugwe of the
Igembe section of the Meru ten years before the arrival of the first Europeans, who
foretold the arrival in the region of "men dressed in white long robes".
 Current State

The tradition of the Mugwe (Mogwe, Mugawe or Muga; plural Agwe) - or religious
leader - has now sadly disappeared. In 1974, there was only one remaining Mugwe -
that of Tharaka -and I have no idea whether his position was passed on when he died,
or whether the lineage simply extinguished itself as it did for the other Agwe.

Ashtime Culture:

 Ashtime
- translated as transgender or transvestite
- a small minority of men crossing over to feminine roles in the Maale tribe from 19th
century Ethiopia.
(crossdressing was not uncommon and to see men embracing feminine roles)
- they dressed like women, performed female tasks and function’s in the king’s
court, cared for their own houses, and apparently had sexual relations with men.
- ranked lowest or even outside this system entirely, as a separate third gender role.
- as with other studies of male-male sexuality, academic interpretations of ashtime
vary:
 Marc Epprecht describes the ashtime as male-born.
 Donald Donham quotes an ashtime who describes this gender as
something acquired at birth: “The Divinity created me wobo,
crooked. If I had been a man, I could have taken a wife and
begotten children. If I had been a woman, I could have married and
borne children. But I am wobo; I can do neither.
 Role and Power
- forbade the king and men of his court from contact (sex) with women before
important religious ceremonies because female energy was believed to weaken
male virility. As he represented the entire society, it was important that the king be
protected from contamination by exposure both directly, i.e., through interactions
with women, as well as indirectly, i.e., through interactions with men who had
touched women.
- for men to sleep with ashtime at those times was thus a means for them to help
preserve the symbolic, heterosexually virility of the head of the nation.
 - physical contact with ashtime was not viewed as similarly polluting nor as
unmanly, homosexual or bisexual. As a third gender role, ashtime thereby
allowed for virile masculinity to be upheld.

Homosexuality in Africa
- African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviors and acts.
- Examples:
 Yoruba- the word for homosexual is “adofuro”, a colloquialism for someone
who has anal sex. It might sound insulting and derogatory, however, the
point is there is a word for the behaviour. Moreover, this is not a new word;
it is as old as the Yoruba culture itself.
 In the northern part of Nigeria- “yan daudu” is a Hausa term to described
effeminate men who are considered to be wives to men. While the Yoruba
word might be more about behaviour than identity, this Hausa term is more
about identity. You have to look and act like a yan daudu to be called
one. It is not an identity you can just carry. These words are neutral; they are
not infused with hate or disgust.
 In the Buganda Kingdom, part of modern-day Uganda, King Mwanga
II was openly gay and faced no hate from his subjects until white men
brought the Christian church and its condemnation. Though King Mwanga
is the most prominent African recorded as being openly gay, he was not
alone.
 In Boy-Wives and Female Husbands, a book examining homosexuality and
feminism in Africa, the researchers found ‘‘explicit” Bushman artwork that
depicts men engaging in same-sex sexual activity. There have been other
indicators that the transition from boyhood to adulthood within many
African ethnic groups involved same-sex sexual activities.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/09/being-gay-african-history-homosexuality-
christianity

Finke, J. (2007). Traditional Music and Culture of Kenya. Retrieved from kenya@bluegecko.org:
http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/meru/beliefs.htm

Heerden, G. v. (2018, July 10). Dispelling The Myth That Homosexuality Is Un-African - HuffPost. Retrieved
from https://irr.org.za/media/dispelling-the-myth-that-homosexuality-is-un-african-huffpost

Mehra, B., III, P. A., & Stophel, K. (2019). An Exploratory Journey of Cultural Visual Literacy of "Non-
Conforming" Gender Representation from Pre-Colonial Sub-Sahara Africa.

Queer folks existed in pre-colonial Africa and y’all can stay mad. (2019, November 25). Retrieved from
http://blackyouthproject.com/queer-folks-existed-in-pre-colonial-africa-and-yall-can-stay-mad/