There are many arguments Ghanaians love to make when certain ‘contentious’ issue comes up, like homos*xuality or evolution, arguments which knowledgeable people know are wrong but because Ghanaians are Ghanaians, we still haven’t discovered they are wrong or even if we have, we completely disregard them.
One great example is the argument that even animals do not practice homos*xuality, so why should us as humans practice it? That argument is factually, practically, empirically, scientifically and any other way you look at it wrong, but people state it down here all the time as if they’ve discovered quite a profound argument.
It’s not, it has been documented that over 1,500 species of animals engage in homos*xual behaviour including species you wouldn’t consider as exactly effeminate, such as lions.
Another one is the silly question of ‘if humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?’ Once again this is an argument people state with so much confidence, as if they have floored the evolutionist on the other side of the debate. Yet a little reading on how evolution works would tell you that humans did not evolve from monkeys, therefore the question is not only incorrect it’s also moot.
For the record, humans shared a common ancestor with monkeys from which both species diverged, but there was never a monkey who woke up one day and became a human being.
These kind of arguments abound all the time, arguments that two knowledgeable people would never have if they’ve both taken the time to educate themselves, but in Ghana we make arguments from ignorance with so much conviction.
Another similar argument you hear all the time, this one also in relation to homos*xuality, is the claim that the white people have outlawed ‘our’ polygamy therefore we have also outlawed ‘their’ homos*xuality. You hear it said all the time, and every homophobe in Ghana has used it at one point or another in arguing their case.
Latest to do so is Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko. Agyarko has angrily fired the UK Prime Minister Theresa May for her call for former British colonies to decriminalize homos*xuality.
Speaking on Joy News about the issue, he brought up this age old, wrong argument, noting that: “The right of a man to sleep with another man is no different from that of a man to marry four wives but they won’t allow it. If you go and do it, they will tell you bigamy and they will put you in prison,”
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Which is true; bigamy is a crime under U.K law and legally no man can marry two wives. But the reason it’s not really a profound but shallow argument against legalizing homos*xuality in Ghana is that we also have bigamy laws, which makes it quite tenuous to claim that they have outlawed ‘our’ polygamy but want us to accept ‘their’ homos*xuality.
It’s like saying Ghanaians love chocolate but it is banned in Togo, whilst Togolese love ice cream which is also banned in Ghana, so if Togo wants us to legalize ice cream they should also legalize chocolate. Yet when we check chocolate is actually banned in Ghana and not every Ghanaian can eat it when they want.
Perhaps Mr Agyarko should look at repealing our bigamy laws then he can boldly stand up and tell the U.K to decriminalize polygamy but until then, both Ghana and U.K completely agree that bigamy is a crime and it’s a dumb stick to use to make an argument against homos*xuality.