The Reluctant Whore

From looking at the circus and eyepoppingly ludicrous elements that make up the Ted Haggard saga you'd think that American takes the cake when it comes to a crippling political fear of homosexuality due to what boils down to internalised homophobia.

Not necessarily so - thank goodness.

Why, groups of the entirely heterosexual men of Dar es Salaam are currently winning when it comes to ways of indicating latent homosexuality through irrational projection and here's how:

Fearing the demon Popo Bawa, that's right, a DEMON, who is said to be responsible for a series of sexual attacks on men at the moment - cause there's no way it could be a disturbed rapist - it would have to be a bizarre mythic beast - the men of various parts of Dar es Salaam have taken to covering their bodies in pig oil and sleeping in groups outside their homes.

So, in order to avoid the big bad gay sex demon, the men all grease up and sleep in tight groups.

Other information of note: the news report graciously cleared up that there have been no sightings of the aforementioned demon - who, interestingly enough - is statistically talked about the most during election time and who also, according to the myth, gets even more angrily interested in violent sodomy if his existence is denied.

Popo Bawa is clearly the small town, African version of gay marriage.