In this same tribe lesbianism was practised in polygamous households. When the boy grew up, he too became a warrior and took a boy-wife. Similar to the pederasty of ancient Greece, Sudan's Zande tribe had a tradition of warriors marrying boys and paying a bride price, as they would for girl brides, to their parents. The Nzima of Ghana had a tradition of adult men marrying each other, usually with an age difference of about 10 years. It was believed to be a way to transmit wealth. Among the Pangwe people of present-day Cameroon and Gabon, homosexual intercourse was practised between males of all ages. Transvestism occurred in many different places, including Madagascar and Ethiopia. Andrew Battell, an English traveller in the 1590s, wrote this of the Imbangala of Angola: 'They are beastly in their living, for they have men in women's apparel, whom they keep among their wives.' They noted the range of gender relations in African societies and referred to the 'unnatural damnation' of male-to-male sex in Congo. The Portuguese were among the first Europeans to explore the continent. From the 16th century onwards, homosexuality has been recorded in Africa by European missionaries, adventurers and officials who used it to reinforce ideas of African societies in need of Christian cleansing.

Two trailblazing studies in the field – Boy Wives and Female Husbands edited by Stephen O Murray and Will Roscoe, and Heterosexual Africa? by Marc Epprecht – demolish the revisionist arguments about Africa's sexual history. While much has been written about this dangerous turn of events, little has been written about its origins.

Latter-day evangelicals from the US are partly to blame for this continuing persecution, but so are Africa's political leaders such as presidents Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, who use rabble-rousing anti-gay rhetoric to increase their power base and popularity. In Uganda, the Anti-Homosexuality Act can impose life imprisonment. In my father's country, Nigeria, a new law passed in January carries a 14-year prison sentence for same-sex marriage and up to 10 years for membership or promotion of gay groups. Yet today the myth of a pre-colonial sexual innocence, or more fittingly, ignorance, is used to endorse anti-gay legislation and stir up homophobia and persecution in Africa. The desire to do so has never been confined to particular geographical locations.

Throughout history people everywhere have explored and experimented with their sexuality. Robert Mugabe is one such propagator, calling homosexuality 'un-African' and a 'white disease'. One of the most ridiculous myths about it is that homosexuality did not exist in the continent until white men imported it. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people.

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