This LGBTQ thing is alien to our Ghanaian culture - Sam George

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George has argued that issues relating to LGBTQ are foreign to Ghanaian culture and should not be given the right to go on in Ghana.

He raised this argument to support the passage of the anti-LGBTQ bill in parliament on June 5, 2023.

While addressing the house, Sam George who is a key member in the drafting of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, indicated that the concept of homosexuals and the LGBTQ are new to the indigenous culture of the Ghanaian culture and people.

He went on to say that LGBTQ is only descriptive and not an actual concepts.

“Things that are alien they don’t have words for them, they have descriptions for them, So when people say, the white man brought us Christianity for example, it is incorrect because when you take our local language, we have names for the supreme being and names for lesser deities. In Akan, we have the ‘Odumankuma Nyankopong’ which is the supreme being who the Hebrews call Yahweh and the Ga call ‘Ataa Naa Nyumor’. So God is not a new construct to our language.

“But when you take things like the computer, which are alien to our language, we call it ‘abaafu nfidie’ to wit [modern day technology] in Twi, its description. When you take the telephone it's ‘ahooma trufo’, it a description. But when you take a homosexual, we call it ‘Kojo besia that is Kojo a )ye ne niama se besia’ to wit [a guy Kojo who behaves like a girl], it is a description, it is simply because it is alien to our language. And so when it comes to tradition and our culture, this is alien to our culture,” he stressed.

The MP expanded his argument by discussing the reason why polygamy in the Western world is prohibited and LGBTQ is accepted.

He claimed that the West's opposition to polygamy is primarily driven by financial considerations rather than cultural beliefs.

“In the West, their culture seems to prohibit polygamy and supports this, people think it’s a cultural thing. It's actually not a cultural thing for the West. It is a financial decision and let's put it to the West that because of their tax system is why they frown on polygamy, not because of culture.

“Because when you are a single man in the West, you pay a higher tax. Once you get married to your spouse, your household tax reduces your tax liabilities. So imagine if they allow one man to have four wives, he will pay less tax to their exchequer. It's about money for the West that is why they have criminalised polygamy, it's not about culture. So they should not follow the money and ask us to accept something that is culturally reprehensible,” he added.

The MP's remarks come amid ongoing debates in parliament surrounding the Anti-LGBTQ bill in Ghana, which seeks to criminalize same-sex relationships and activities.

NW/WA

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