ONE of the current issues on which most black African states diametrically differ with many European governments is whether or not homosexuals should be legally allowed to "marry" or even to "fall in love" with each other.

The African view is based on natural law that marriage is a union between two people, one being male and the other female. This is, to the traditional Bantu, the way God or whatever one's deity is called, made it, and has no alternative.

This acceptable social behaviour of boys and girls as they are brought up in any Bantu community is based on this clearly natural relationship, that is to say, the boy is groomed for fatherhood and the girl for motherhood. They are certainly free to choose their respective matrimonial partners within, first and foremost, that natural parameter, and, of course, taking into consideration other cultural factors such as blood relationship.

The individual's freedom in such matters is not allowed by society should it attempt to disregard or breach this natural practice.

When a boy is growing up, his parents pray and hope that he will sooner or later marry and bring home a bride, have children and thus increase the clan, the tribe, the nation and the human race at large. This cannot be achieved if he brought home a bridegroom.

The Bantu attach a great deal of importance to the ability to have children. A childless marriage is looked upon as a well nigh curse. It does not make any sense therefore for people of the same sex to say they are "getting married". That, to a Bantu socio-cultural product, is like buying two bulls or two rams and putting them in the same pen and then go about telling all and sundry that you have a cow and a bull or an ewe and a ram.

The black people are very much communal in their social outlook, unlike most west Europeans who are very defensively individualistic. This radical socio-cultural difference appears to be one of the reasons why there is a wide divergence in the respective attitudes of the two communities towards homosexuality and lesbianism.

The Bantu look at this controversial matter through communal-cultural eyes; the west Europeans look at it through individualistic political eyes. The Bantu revere the role played by nature in their lives and protect and promote traditional social and cultural norms which, if violated, can bring about untold calamity to the family, the clan, the community and the entire nation.

The black people of the sub-Saharan region, by and large, believe in witchcraft (sorcery). This word should be understood in its wider context, which means any activity or deed that cuts across socio-cultural norms, beliefs and practices of the community. The indigenous people of this African region regard homosexuality, lesbianism and incest as witchcraft.

Before the area fell under the colonial forces of Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Holland (in the case of the Cape in 1652), anyone convicted of an offence under one of those three types of "witchcraft" was sentenced to death.

We still have a great deal of respect for those socio-cultural values as compared to the Bill of Rights and freedoms of the individual as promulgated by the now defunct League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations. The refusal by Uganda, Kenya and Malawi to sanction homosexual "marriages" must be understood in this context.

Meanwhile, it is ironic that while virtually all western European nations proudly claim to be products and upholders of Christian civilisation, they should find homosexuality and lesbianism acceptable. This is an obvious violation of one of the Mosaic laws as stated in Leviticus Chapter 18 vs 22: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination." (Authorised King James Version of the Holy Bible).

Nowhere in the Bible do we come across an instruction to condone, let alone practise, homosexuality, lesbianism or incest. It is not only an interesting but also a curious fact that the position of the black people of sub-Saharan Africa on this matter is in full agreement with that of the Hebrews, as quoted above.

One would have thought that western European governments would be more inclined to be closer to the Bible on this issue than black African states in view of the strong element of Jews, especially the Sephardim who, unlike the Ashkenazim, have almost uninterruptedly practised their religion for many centuries in those countries.

There are millions of Jews in the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Spain, and Portugal and throughout South America (as well as central Europe and, of course, in Poland and the former Soviet Union) and the Nordic countries, Sweden, Norway and Demark.

Practising Jews should see eye-to-eye with the black African people on this matter, which touches on the basic social values of the human race. T he position of the vast majority of the black African people will help acquit the African continent when history eventually calls the world to judgment on this controversy.

Meanwhile, South Africa's position on the issue appears to have been influenced either by its cosmopolitan culture-demographic nature or by inadequate consultation of the masses. We cannot also easily rule out the possible influence, if not pressure, of international finance and capital as a factor to make South Africa toe the pro-homosexual line.

For Zimbabwe, it is most important for the current constitution-creating campaign not to accommodate any of these two satanic practices, directly or indirectly because they are a degrading and inhuman distortion of human rights and natural social behaviour.

Good constitutions create and retrench enlightenment and humanness (ubuntu, bunhu, unhu). None of these is found in homosexuality or lesbianism.

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a veteran Zimbabwean journalist and author. This article was originally published in the Bulawayo Chronicle