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Cultural Background

In this lesson, you’ll be reading more excerpts from my interview with “Hasaan” about Popobawa (Primary Source 1). I chose this interview because of the interesting issues it raises about gender, sexuality, and taboos in Swahili culture. Note that, while Hassan offers several different theories about why Zanzibaris like to talk about Popobawa, other people I spoke to had very different ideas, so his should not be taken as definitive. If you’re interested in learning more about the various reasons Tanzanians talk about Popobawa, you should read my book Popobawa: Tanzanian Talk, Global Misreadings.

In order to understand the interview you need to know a bit about Hasaan and about the terms Zanzibaris use for “queer” people. By “queer” I mean anyone whose behavior falls outside of (or is assumed to fall outside of) Zanzibari norms for gender and sexuality. Although this term is not used by Zanzibaris themselves, I use it to suggest that such behavior is seen as different from the norm but to avoid using local (Swahili and borrowed English) terms that are ambiguous in meaning and may be used differently by normative individuals (i.e., those presumed to be heterosexual and/or who visibly conform to gender norms) than they are by queer individuals; in other words, many Swahili words for queer people are pejorative ones and so I try to avoid them.

I met Hassan in Zanzibar in 2009 while I was doing research on Popobawa. Mutual friends (Americans) who introduced me to Hasaan told me that he was gay, but, although he and I became friends, he never verbally identified himself to me that way. Other (normative) Zanzibaris I knew referred to him as a shoga or hanithi. Shoga literally means ‘girlfriend’; it is used both by women to refer to their female friends and by anyone to refer to a man perceived as queerly feminine. Hanithi comes from the Omani Arabic word khanith, which refers to men with an effeminate nature, including men who wear women’s clothing; it is used similarly in Zanzibar and in other parts of the Swahili coast. Both shoga and hanithi are used to mean ‘men who are anally penetrated’ (‘bottoms’ in American slang); men who anally penetrate other men (‘tops’) are called basha (literally ‘the king in a set of playing cards’). “Feminine” men like shoga and hanithi (but not basha) are often allowed to spend time with women in situations that are otherwise gender-segregated for Muslims, such as wedding celebrations.

Note that in my interview with Hasaan, he never uses these Swahili terms for sexual identity categories (except briefly when I ask him about the word hanithi) but instead uses the word gay in English, sometimes adding a Swahili plural marker to form magays or Swahili-izing it in the plural form as magei. The term wasagaji ‘lesbians’ (from the verb -saga ‘grind’) comes up in our interview as well, though we don’t learn anything about if or how the term is used by lesbians. My research suggests that while queer men may openly display behaviors associated with shoga and hanithi identities, such as wearing some women’s clothing, walking in a “feminine” way or using “feminine” gestures, they rarely verbally identify themselves in public. Sex between men and between women is illegal in Zanzibar, and thus this silence may serve a protective purpose.

Suggested Further Reading

Amory, Deborah P. “Mashoga, Mabasha, and Magai: ‘Homosexuality’ on the East African Coast.” In Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities, edited by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, 67–87. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Porter, Mary A. “Talking at the Margins: Kenyan Discourses on Homosexuality.” In Beyond the Lavender Lexicon: Authenticity, Imagination, and Appropriation in Lesbian and Gay Languages, edited by W. Leap, 133–53. New York: Gordon & Breach, 1995.

Shepherd, Gill. “Rank, Gender, and Homosexuality: Mombasa as a Key to Understanding Sexual Options.” In The Cultural Construction of Sexuality, edited by Pat Caplan, 240–70. London: Routledge, 1987.

Thompson, Katrina Daly. “Discreet Talk about Supernatural Sodomy, Transgressive Gender Performance, and Male Same-Sex Desire in Zanzibar Town.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 21, no. 4 (2015): 521–60.

Exercise 1

1. Read Excerpt 2 of my interview with Hasaan (Primary Source 1). You might want to open it in a new window so you can jump back and forth between the reading and this exercise.
2. Answer the following comprehension questions to check your understanding of the excerpt.

3. Take note of the verb lawiti in line 2 and its definitions in the margin. If you have access to additional dictionaries, look it up there, too, and write down any additional definitions you find in your vocabulary notebook.
4. How do these definitions subtly differ? What does a dictionary definition tell you about the dictionary author’s attitude toward this word and/or its cultural connotations? If you are a classroom learner, bring your observations to class to discuss with your teacher and/or classmates. If you are an independent learner, ask several Swahili speakers how they would explain, define, or translate this word and compare the different responses you receive.

Exercise 2

1. Read Excerpt 3 of my interview with Hasaan (Primary Source 1). You might want to open it in a new window so you can jump back and forth between the reading and this exercise.
2. Answer the following comprehension questions to check your understanding of the excerpt.

3. Answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss them orally with your classmates and/or other Swahili speakers.

Exercise 3

1. Read Excerpt 4 of my interview with Hasaan (Primary Source 1). You might want to open it in a new window so you can jump back and forth between the reading and this exercise.
2. Answer the following comprehension questions to check your understanding of the excerpt.
3. Answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss them orally with your classmates and/or other Swahili speakers.

Exercise 4

1. Read Excerpt 5 of my interview with Hasaan (Primary Source 1). You might want to open it in a new window so you can jump back and forth between the reading and this exercise.
2. Answer the following comprehension questions to check your understanding of the excerpt.

   
   

3. Answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss them orally with your classmates and/or other Swahili speakers.

Exercise 5

1. Read Excerpt 6 of my interview with Hasaan (Primary Source 1). You might want to open it in a new window so you can jump back and forth between the reading and this exercise.
2. Answer the following comprehension questions to check your understanding of the excerpt.

   
   

3. Answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss them orally with your classmates and/or other Swahili speakers.

Exercise 6

In this exercise, you’ll need to review and use all six excerpts from my interview with Hasaan to answer questions.

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