THE GATEKEEPERS

In "Guardians of the Gates” by Malidoma Somé, a member of the Dagara tribesman of Burkina Faso; east of Nigeria and north of Ghana: says“...at least among the Dagara people, gender has very little to do with anatomy. It is purely energetic. The whole notion of “gay and lesbian” does not exist in the indigenous world. That does not mean that there are not people who feel this way that certain people feel in this culture, that has led to them being referred to as “gay”...The [same-gender-loving (SGL)] person is looked at primarily as a “gatekeeper”...Any person who is at this link between this world and the other world experiences a state of vibrational consciousness which is far higher and far different from the one that a normal person would experience. This is what makes a [homosexual] person [same-gender-loving]...You decide that you will be a gatekeeper before you are born. So when you arrive here, you begin to vibrate in a way that Elders can detect as meaning that you are connected with a gateway somewhere... Now, [same-gender-loving] people have children, because they are normal people. So to then limit [same-gender-loving] people to simple sexual orientation is really the worst harm that can be done to a person....I think this is again victimization by a Christian establishment that is looking at a [same-gender-loving] person as a disempowered person, a person who has lost his job from birth onward, and now society just wants to fire him out of life. This is not justice... What keeps a village together is a handful of “gays and lesbians”, as they call them in the [white dominated western] world. In my village, [same-gender-loving women] are called witches and [same-gender-loving men] are known as gatekeepers. These are the only two secret societies. These are the only groups that will get together as a separate group and go out into the woods secretly to do whatever they do.

They come from the Otherworld, and they keep the gates to the Otherworld. Because, if the gates are shut, this is when earth, Mother earth, will shake. Because it has no more reason to be alive. It will shake itself and we will be in deep trouble. Unless they go out on their yearly symposium, the village cannot be granted another year of life...This constantly reiterated discomfort and hatred for the [same-gender-loving] person [in white dominated societies] is again another indication that every year we might as well be prepared for the apocalyptic moment when the stars start to fall to earth... The great astrologers of the Dogon are same-gender-loving...Why is it that everywhere else in the world, same-gender-loving people are a blessing and in the white dominated world they are a curse? It is self-evident. The "modern" world was built by Christianity. They have taken the gods out of the earth and sent them to heaven, wherever that is....”

“In the book "The Spirit of Intimacy " author Sobanfu Somé says, "Sexuality, including woman-to-woman sexuality, is so integrated into the spiritual life of the Dagarat that her people have no word to specify “lesbian” or even “sex”....Like many other Africans, the women of Dagara do not sleep with their men. “Women need to sleep together, to be together to empower each other...then if they meet with men, there is no imbalance.” Tribal women not only sleep and live together, they join together for group rituals. “We go to a cave or bush and do rituals to build male energy. We have a female father who gives us male energy. She looks like a male. Anything we feel or experience that we haven't dealt with is expressed.” This women's group ritual balances their male/female energy. “It is so we are not completely male or female.” Dagarat women believe that once you've made love with your life partner in this circle, it is extremely dangerous for her to be intimate with another woman. If you break the circle, you bring in alien energy. Your partner will die. The diviner in our village comes in and says “You murdered her”...Sobanfu also says women must look at sex as a journey. “You are traveling to a place not known by you or your partner. Only your ancestors know. When two people merge, your genealogy becomes a participant in what's going on.”

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