The Hungry Soul Vol. 1, Fall, 1997 -- Essays: Homosexuality: The Gatekeepers, by Sobonfu E. Somé

Homosexuality: The Gatekeepers
by Sobonfu E. Somé

This west African author and teacher, whose work has influenced numerous western luminaries, offers us a fascinating look at her culture's view of lesbian and gay men as spiritual gatekeepers for the community. This essay is excerpted from her book The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient Teachings in the Ways of Relationships.

The words "gay" and "lesbian" do not exist in the village, but there is the word "gatekeeper." Gatekeepers are people who live a life at the edge between two worlds– the world of the village and the world of spirit. What they do, they don't like to communicate to anyone. It is their right to keep what they do to themselves. Everybody in the village respects that because without gatekeepers, there is no access to other worlds.

The gatekeepers stand on the threshold of the gender line. They are mediators between the two genders. They make sure that there is peace and balance between women and men. If the two genders are in conflict and the whole village is caught in it, the gatekeepers are the ones to bring peace. Gatekeepers do not take sides. They simply play the role of "the sword of truth and integrity."

There are many gates that link a village to other worlds. The only people who have access to all these gates are the gatekeepers. I should mention here that there are two different kinds of gatekeeper.

The first group has the ability to guard a limited number of gates to the other world, specifically, those which correspond to the Dagara cosmology– water, earth, fire, mineral and nature, because they vibrate the energies of those gates.

The second group of gatekeepers, which is our focus here, has the responsibility of overseeing all the gates. They are not only in contact with the elemental gates, but also with many others. They have one foot in all the other worlds and the other foot here. This is why the vibration of their body is totally different from others. They also have access to other-dimensional beings such as the kontombile, small beings who are very magical and knowledgeable.

Now what would happen if you're dealing with a culture that doesn't care about these gateways? What happens is that a gay person cannot do his or her job. Gatekeepers are left unable to accomplish their purpose. This is one of the most distinguishing factors about gays in the village. Now as to their sexual orientation, nobody cares about this question, they care only about their performance as gatekeepers. I figure if they want people in the village to know about their sexuality they will share it with them.

The life of gay people in the West is in many ways a reaction to pressure from a society that rejects them. This is partly because a culture that has forgotten so much about itself will displace certain groups of people, such as the gay community, from their true roles.

In the village they are not seen as the other. They are not forced to create a separate community in order to survive. People do not put a negative label on them. Instead, gatekeepers are encouraged to fulfill the role they're born to, to use their gifts in the interests of the community.

In the village, gatekeepers have an eye on both genders. They can help the genders to understand each other better than usual in their daily life. That's why a group of women, for example, might gather and bring a male gatekeeper to help them understand certain village issues. The same thing happens on the other side, with a female gatekeeper coming into the middle of the men's circle.

Homosexuality is seen in the village very differently than it is seen in the West, in part because all sexuality is spiritually-based. Taken away from its spiritual context, it becomes a source of controversy and can be exploited by people. In the village, you would never see gatekeepers, or anybody for that matter, displaying their sexuality or commenting on the sexuality of others.

Gatekeepers are the keepers of the keys to other dimensions. They maintain a certain alignment between the spirit world and the world of the village. Without them, the gates to the other world would be shut.

On the other side of these gates lies the spirit world or other dimensions. Gatekeepers are in constant communication with beings that live there, that have the ability to teach us how to deal with ritual. And gatekeepers have the capacity to take other people to those places.

A gatekeeper's knowledge is different from the knowledge of mentors and elders. This is because elders do not necessarily have access to all the gateways. The gatekeepers, on the other hand, have access to all the dimensions. They can open any gate. Although their knowledge is very broad, elders will call upon gatekeepers to help them open a particular gate or help them better understand what the spirit world is about. I have seen people in the West who have lost their identity try to usurp the role of gatekeeper once they learn about the power it involves. They do this for their own benefit, without really knowing what it means to be a true gatekeeper. Being a false gatekeeper is not helpful to anyone. It can only be harmful to the usurper.

They need to understand that in the village, a person doesn't become a gatekeeper because they desire power, or even because of a sense of sexual orientation. No. Gatekeeping is part of one's life purpose, announced before birth and developed through rigorous training to ensure that its power is not misused. A gatekeeper is responsible for a whole village, a whole tribe. It is no game.

Even though, in the village, homosexual relationships are not commonly the subject of ritual, here in the West they have become so, simply because of the circumstances of life. The ash rituals, and almost any other rituals I have described, may be used to strengthen gay relationships.

What we have looked at regarding intimacy, sexuality, ritual, conflict, and loss applies also to homosexual relationships in the West. Because any kind of relationship, unless it's false or empty or superficial, any kind of relationship comes with problems. And there is a need to carefully maintain, and sometimes repair it. Maybe the only difference for gays and lesbians would be to have other gatekeepers, in addition to non-gay family members and friends, involved in their rituals.