Decolonization, freemasonry and the rise of ‘homosexuality’ as a public issue in Cameroon: The return of Dr Aujoulat1

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogers Orock ◽  
Peter Geschiere
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Initiation Rites ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
State Governance

Abstract Relating to academic debates on the emergence of moral panics over homosexuality in several parts of Africa, this article examines rumours on homosexuality as a political issue that connects colonial pasts and postcolonial struggles in Cameroon. We link current struggles over homosexuality to broader debates about the question of Cameroon’s decolonization from France. The article focuses on the figure of Dr Louis Paul Aujoulat, a French colonial official in Cameroon who played a crucial role in the country’s decolonization in the 1950s. Aujoulat died in 1972, but recently, he made a ‘return’ in rumours and public debates in a new role: he is now accused of having ‘sodomized’ the emergent new elite of Cameroon, thus introducing homosexuality; moreover, he is linked to Freemasonry and occult initiation rites. Our aim was to show how a particular decolonization trajectory—very rocky in the case of Cameroon—is related to the present-day moral panic about a supposed proliferation of homosexuality. Freemasonry and its special history on the African continent—notably its role in maintaining the coherence of Françafrique between France and its former colonies—is a severely understudied topic. Its linkages to same-sex practices and illicit enrichment give the Cameroonian case a wider relevance. We argue that the new rumours on Dr Aujoulat define him as a key figure in linking Freemasonry, homosexuality and illicit enrichment to present-day issues of state governance, citizenship and elite misrule in Cameroon.

The Future of Work and the Changing Workplace

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahesh K. Joshi ◽  
J.R. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Machine Intelligence ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Digital Innovation ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Future ◽  
Market Opportunities

The world of work has been impacted by technology. Work is different than it was in the past due to digital innovation. Labor market opportunities are becoming polarized between high-end and low-end skilled jobs. Migration and its effects on employment have become a sensitive political issue. From Buffalo to Beijing public debates are raging about the future of work. Developments like artificial intelligence and machine intelligence are contributing to productivity, efficiency, safety, and convenience but are also having an impact on jobs, skills, wages, and the nature of work. The “undiscovered country” of the workplace today is the combination of the changing landscape of work itself and the availability of ill-fitting tools, platforms, and knowledge to train for the requirements, skills, and structure of this new age.

scholarly journals LAW, RELIGION, AND SAME-SEX RELATIONS IN AFRICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-71
Author(s):  
M. Christian Green
Keyword(s):  
Moral Issue ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
International Conference ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Political Act ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

Some years back, around 2013, I was asked to write an article on the uses of the Bible in African law. Researching references to the Bible and biblical law across the African continent, I soon learned that, besides support for arguments by a few states in favor of declaring themselves “Christian nations,” the main use was in emerging debates over homosexuality and same-sex relationships—almost exclusively to condemn those relationships. In January 2013, the newly formed African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS) held its first international conference at the University of Ghana Legon. There, African sexuality debates emerged forcefully in consideration of a paper by Sylvia Tamale, then dean of the Makarere University School of Law in Uganda, who argued pointedly, “[P]olitical Christianity and Islam, especially, have constructed a discourse that suggests that sexuality is the key moral issue on the continent today, diverting attention from the real critical moral issues for the majority of Africans . . . . Employing religion, culture and the law to flag sexuality as the biggest moral issue of our times and dislocating the real issue is a political act and must be recognised as such.”

A Catholic Inclusive Approach to Homosexuality in Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 396-408
Author(s):  
Daniel Ude Asue
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Inclusive Approach ◽  
Inclusive Society ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

This essay discusses Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill in Nigeria, with a focus on the contribution of the Nigerian Catholic Church to the law. Though the Catholic Church in Nigeria did not actively contribute towards the public debates about homosexuality that resulted into the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill it nevertheless welcomed the bill. However, the official teachings of the Catholic Church and elucidations from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria could potentially contribute to creating an inclusive society. In what way can we potentially utilize the principles of Catholic Social Teaching to make room for an inclusion of homosexual persons in the life of the church and in society?

scholarly journals US Moral Panics, Mexican Politics, and the Borderlands Origins of the War on Drugs, 1950–62

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 364-387
Author(s):  
Benjamin T. Smith ◽  
Wil G. Pansters
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Temporary Closure ◽  
Mexican Politics

During the 1950s Californian civil society advocates and politicians developed a moral panic over youth narcotic use. One of the key elements of this moral panic was the assertion that most drugs came over the border and that the only solution to this problem was blackmailing Mexico through temporary closure of the border. The idea not only became a tenet of later drug policy, but also, in conjunction with pressure from Mexico’s own moral reformers, forced regional politicians in Mexico to enact periodic clean up campaigns.

African Clergy, Bishop Lucas and the Christianizing of Local Initiation Rites: Revisiting 'The Masasi Case'

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-208
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Stoner-Eby
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Christian Initiation ◽  
Initiation Rites ◽  
The Creation

AbstractOne of the most famous instances of missionary 'adaptation' was the Christianizing of initiation rites in the Anglican Diocese of Masasi in what is now southeastern Tanzania. This was long assumed to be the work of Bishop Vincent Lucas, who from the 1920s became widely known in mission, colonial and anthropological circles for his advocacy of missions that sought 'not to destroy, but to fulfill' African culture. Terence Ranger in his groundbreaking 1972 article on Lucas and Masasi was the first to point out the crucial role of the African clergy. In reexamining the creation of Christian initiation in Masasi, this article reveals that Lucas's promotion of Christianized initiation was actually based on the vision and efforts of the African clergy, an indication that mission Christianity in the colonial period cannot be assumed to reflect European initiative and African compliance.

scholarly journals ‘Do We Look like Boy Racers?’ The Role of the Folk Devil in Contemporary Moral Panics

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Moral Panic ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Young Drivers ◽  
The Media ◽  
Collective Process ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Societal Reaction

This article addresses the failure of studies concerning moral panics to take into account the reaction of those individuals who are the subject of social anxiety. It responds to the suggestion by McRobbie and Thornton (1995) that studies of moral panic need to account for the role played by the ‘folk devils’ themselves, for a moral panic is a collective process (Young, 2007). The paper presents findings from ethnographic fieldwork with the ‘boy racer’ culture in Aberdeen, qualitative interviews with members of outside groups, and content analysis of media articles. The societal reaction to the ‘boy racer’ subculture in Aberdeen is evidence of a contemporary moral panic. The media's representation of the subculture contributed to the stigmatization of young drivers and the labelling of the subculture's activities as deviant and antisocial. The drivers were aware of their negative portrayal in the media; however their attempts to change the myth of the ‘boy racer’ were unsuccessful. Although subcultural media can provide an outlet of self-expression for youths, these forms of media can also become caught-up in the moral panic. Ironically the youths’ own niche and micro media reified the (ir)rationality for the moral panic.

scholarly journals Anusocratie? Freemasonry, sexual transgression and illicit enrichment in postcolonial Africa

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 831-851
Author(s):  
Peter Geschiere ◽  
Rogers Orock
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Sexual Diversity ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Sexual Transgression ◽  
Postcolonial Africa ◽  
Anal Penetration ◽  
Sex Practices

AbstractCameroonians recently invented a new word to characterize the state of their country: anusocratie (the rule of the anus). This became central in the moral panic from 2000 onwards over a supposed proliferation of homosexuality. Anusocratie links such same-sex practices to illicit enrichment by the national elites and their involvement with secret associations of Western provenance, such as Freemasonry, Rosicrucians and the Illuminati. This article tries to unravel this conceptual knot of homosexuality, the occult (Freemasonry) and illicit enrichment: first, by historicizing it. Of interest in the Cameroonian case is the fact that a similar link is mentioned in one of the first ethnographies, Günther Tessmann's Die Pangwe. Freemasonry is clearly a colonial imposition on the country, but the link between same-sex practices and enrichment has a longer history. Second, a comparison with similar ideas elsewhere on the continent can also open up wider perspectives. The link with illicit enrichment does not figure in classical conceptions of ‘homosexuality’ as developed in Europe, yet it strongly emerges from examples from all over Africa. Both Achille Mbembe and Joseph Tonda show that this image of the anus – anal penetration – articulates popular concerns about staggering inequalities. Yet, this aspect is ignored in debates about growing ‘homophobia’ in Africa. A confrontation with classical texts from Western queer theory (Bersani, Mieli) can help us discover other layers in African discourses, notably an emphasis on sexual diversity as an answer to homophobia. It can also serve to relativize the linking of sexual practices to sexual identities, which is still seen as self-evident in much queer theory of Western provenance.

scholarly journals Cannabis, Moral Entrepreneurship, and Stigma: Conflicting Narratives on the 26 May 2016 Toronto Police Raid on Cannabis Shops

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-171
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Müller
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social World ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The Media ◽  
Police Raid ◽  
Do So

On May 26, 2016, the police raided 43 cannabis dispensaries in Toronto, Canada, making 90 arrests. This article aims to describe the narrative of the responsible state agencies concerning the police raid and compare it to the narrative of those who opposed it, such as activists, as well as consumers and sellers of cannabis. While such concepts as moral entrepreneur, moral panic, and moral crusade have traditionally been used to study those in power, I will employ them to explore both the state narrative and ways in which counterclaims-makers resisted it. In order to do so, I will further develop the concept of moral entrepreneurship and its characteristics by relating it to studies of moral panics and social problems. This article will be guided by the following question: How did each party socially construct its cannabis narrative, and in what way can we use the concept of moral entrepreneurship to describe and analyze these narratives as social constructions? I have investigated the media coverage of the raid and ethnographically studied shops in Toronto in order to study the narratives. My findings show that both parties used a factual neutral style, as well as a dramatizing style. The later includes such typical crusading strategies as constructing victims and villains and presenting the image of a dystopian social world. In order to explain the use of these strategies, we will relate them to the shifting wider social and historical context and to the symbolic connotation of cannabis shops in Toronto in particular and in Canada as a whole.

Sex and the Devil: Homosexuality, Satanism, and Moral Panic in Late Apartheid South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky Falkof
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Sanitation And Hygiene ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Male Homosexuals

This article discusses the discursive and narrative intersections between two moral panics that appeared in the white South African press in the last years of apartheid: the first around the claimed danger posed by white male homosexuals, the second around the alleged incursion of a criminal cult of white Satanists. This connection was sometimes implicit, when the rhetoric attached to one was repeated with reference to the other, and sometimes explicit, when journalists and moral entrepreneurs conflated the two in public dialogue. Both Satanists and gay white men were characterized as indulging in abnormal practices that were dangerous to the health of the nation, using a long-standing colonial metaphor of sanitation and hygiene. I argue that fears of homosexuality and beliefs in Satanism operated as social control measures for disciplining potentially unruly groups whose sexual or personal practices were not admissible within apartheid’s injunctions on homogenous conformity among whites. The connection between homosexuality and Satanism, like the connection between homosexuality and communism, served to pathologize whites whose disobedient bodies and beliefs were considered treacherous.

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