determining role in the development of homosexuality in Africa. This is borne out by the much greater frequency of the practice along coastal areas, above all at Senegal, which stands as one of the oldest points of colonization. It is no-one's secret that homosexuality is present, even among the Africans, and notes of scandals periodically fire the local publications to new zeal, protesting vehemently this "danger."

But little by little homosexuality has

For all of the reasons I have given, it may be asserted that homosexualism is rather frequent-a good many persons have related to me happenings which could scarcely allow for doubt on the subject. But these manifestations are for the most part shortlived, and under no circumstances are they ever laden with the feelings of guilt which plague the Europeans and the West in general.

It is therefore, in the vast majority of instances, that homosexuality is no

been extending into the interior; the Africans are themselves its propagandists, by the contacts they have with the coast: I have had occasion of "confessing" a young Sudanese who told me of having been initiated by a Sengalese, and to have taken a liking to it.

The religions-Islam or the fetishists-appear to constitute no obstacle; they are bound in highly systematized ritual, their acts executed with keen scrupulousness; but all of this appears to have hardly any effect upon the intellectual and moral behavior of the individual himself: it is a facade, a sort of nod to society. For the fetishists it appears as a heap of superstitions which ban much, but interestingly do not preclude homosexuality.

one

more than occasionally typical. Far more delicate is the consideration of the incidence of active homosexuality, exclusively.

To attempt a treatment of this last problem, it is fitting to recollect that the African has the opportunity of living each day for itself and taking things as they come, without weakening his position in the world as a consequence. This is to say that he poses hardly a question to himself and never finds refuge in introspection as we know it; he does not engage in self-reflections, and undertake to judge himself when remiss. Then to be recalled are the practices of the culture itself, which constitute for the African a veritable matrix, a sort of tunnel-the outside of which