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HOMOSEXUALITY AND TRAUMA: A PSYCHOANALYTICAL 

READING OF CHINELO OKPARANTA’S  

UNDER THE UDALA TREES 

 

Harriet Chinonso Okwara  

Department of English Language and Literature 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

Email: onyewuchim82@gmail.com  

 

 

Abstract 

In the recent times, African writers seem to engage in hot debate on whether 

homosexuality is African, alien or of western import. Scholars who project it 

as unAfrican validate the inhuman treatment meted out on the victims. In 

Nigeria, the law prescribes 14 years imprisonment for the offenders. Some 

religious sects go as far as sanctioning death for the victims. However, the fact 

remains that whether homosexuality is unAfrican or not seems immaterial as 

the practice speedily makes waves and continues to stare us in the face in the 

wake of the 21st century. The need to evaluate, analyze and look for proactive 

measures to cure the malady since the Nigerian law frowns at it becomes 

exigent. This research analyzed the causes of homosexuality, the homophobic 

attitudes of the society and its traumatic effects on the victims using 

Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees. The resercher found out that the 

homosexuals are traumatized in Nigeria as a result they let out negative 

behaviour such as infidelity in marriage and frictional interrelationship with 

negative consequence. This research goes ahead to proffer psychoanalytical 

principles as its theoretical framework as well as lending its measures as 

solutions to the menace since it goes against the societal norms.  

 

Keywords: Homosexuality, Psychoanalysis, Nigerian Literature 

 

 

Introduction  

In the recent times, the concept of homosexuality has witnessed a large 

support, boom, hatred and condemnation in different parts of the world. In 

spite of the earlier purported notion in Africa and particularly Nigeria that 

homosexuality is ignominious and as such too sensitive to delve into the 

reality has continued to stare us in the face in the wake of 21st century. It 

therefore becomes necessary for the writers to explore this reality in their 

works. Some writers have highlighted the causes of this sexuality in their 

works while experiences have also shown that man’s need for companionship 

has led to imbibing this sexuality. Man as a ‘social animal’ desires and is in 

constant need for another human being either to satisfy his sexual needs or to 

socialize. This points to the reason why some individuals who have spent so 

mailto:onyewuchim82@gmail.com


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many years in prison would tend to gratify their sexual urge with their fellow 

inmates since they can only be put in the same prison cells with people of 

their own sex. Ajibade’s Jailed for Life is an example of this prison sexual 

non conformist experience. Ajibade asserts:  

My eye never seen this king thing before. Man dey f-k another man’s 

yansh.  Haba!’ It was case of sodomy. Since the warder did not catch 

them at it, the  alleged offenders were not punished. But the authority 

decided to increase the potash…in the prison food. They believed it 

would kill the sexual urge of theprisoners. But the prison still throbbed 

with pent-up lust. (132) 

 

The above experience arises from the shock experienced by one of the 

characters who is amazed at seeing an abomination committed. It goes to 

show that homosexuality exists in the prison according to Ajibade. Peer group 

pressures and teenagers in the unisex schools also fall prey to this arrangement 

too. Frankie the protagonist in the novel titled Lives of Great Men (2017) by 

Frankie Edoziengets lured in same sex affair by a hostel mate who seemed to 

be bored by the monotonous activity in the unisex school arrangement.  

 

Some homosexuals can on their own, decide to take on the same sex 

orientation as a choice.  In some part of Africa especially in Nigeria, some 

women attribute same sex affair as an avenue for women emancipation and 

liberation from what the women folk tagged ‘patriarchal world’. This was the 

case of Habiba in the novel titled Habiba (2013) by Razinat Mohammed. This 

novel has Maiduguri (Northern Nigeria) and Muslim setting. Habiba is forced 

into marriage with a man old enough to be her grandfather as collateral for 

money her father borrowed from the old man long before the inception of the 

marriage. Consequently, she resolves to punish her father and husband by 

engaging in lesbian affair with her co-wife.    

 

Economic advantage has also been noted to influence the choices people make 

as regards their sexuality. A high and influential person can lure a younger 

and poorer partner into same sex affair with the hope of supporting him/her 

financially. This was the case in “Caught in the Act”, a short story by Ozioma 

Nduka culled from a collection titled Rakes and Dustbinsby Mbanefo Ogene. 

Other people may still decide to indulge in same sex affair after going through 

an excruciating experience in the hand of the opposite sex. In another note, 

early exposure of children to obscene, pornographic images and movies 

involving same sex affair can also cause gender non conformity in Nigeria. 

Parental neglect of a child in the child’s early stage of life can lead to the child 

to make wrong choices. This was the case of Adrian in Walking with Shadows 

by Jude Dibia who finds love and acceptance from the same sex partner. It 

was the love and acceptance which he had longed for from his parents and 

was denied him.  



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In Nigeria, many have assumed heterosexual because of social inhibitions 

imposed on homosexuality. When this happens the homosexual tendencies are 

according to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory repressed, suppressed or denied 

which many a times cause fixations. Fixation as one of Freud’s repressive 

model entails the inability of the human person to develop from one stage to 

another due to some suppressed characteristics on the course of growing up. 

This could result when a man grows to love another man as a result of certain 

experiences he had with the opposite sex at an early stage in life. The same 

also is applicable to the woman.  A harsh and oppressive mother/son or 

daughter/father relationship can lead to a child seeking love with a same sex 

partner. As they remain fixated as a result of this long lasting experience, it 

becomes very difficult to convert “fully developed homosexual into 

heterosexual” (Freud, 151). 

 

According to Freud, these unresolved and repressed issues which cause these 

fixations usual surge up when triggered by incidents and at severe cases may 

cause negative behaviours that are frowned at by the society. Freud however 

advocates for the treatment of these issues by a good application of the 

psychoanalytical theory. Wiedeman insists that a “purely analytical approach 

consisting only of interpretation, without any other elements of support, 

classification and confrontation with reality, hardly exist in discussions of the 

psychoanalytical therapy of homosexual men” (676). He goes ahead to 

elaborate the necessity of the theorists to help their patients internalize 

acceptable social values which will gradually correct those tendencies that are 

socially unacceptable. 

 

Even though Nigeria has the right to outlaw whatever she deems unacceptable 

but a mother does not cast away a recalcitrant child. It is necessary for a body 

which makes a rule to also provide a remedy for victims who may get trapped 

as a result of circumstances beyond their control and all others in general. A 

good application of the provisions of the psychoanalytical measures especially 

in school, prisons and places where young people are mostly found since they 

seem to fall victim to the practice, can go a long way in checking these social 

anomaly.  

 

Some of the homosexuals have confessed their helplessness at the point of 

acquiring the sexuality and their weakness at ‘curing’ it. In She Called Me 

Woman (2018), a research work carried out by Azeernah Mohammed et al on 

twenty four Nigerian women. The authors found out that some of the women 

were traumatized as a result of their undying sexuality contrasting with the 

homophobic Nigeria society while many were vocal in canvassing for their 

right to exist in Nigeria. It therefore becomes pertinent to evaluate these 

traumas through a psychological means since it pertains to the human psych 

and by so doing device a way of addressing the issue.  



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Background and Concept of Homosexuality and Trauma 

Homosexuality refers to any sexual attraction, romance, intimacy, relationship 

or intercourse between people of the same sex. It was referred to as ‘gay’ in 

the 1920s and 30s which according to Deana F. Morrow and Lori Messinger 

in Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression in Social Work Practice: 

Working with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People “refers to as 

people (male or female) whose principal and intimate attractions and romantic 

relationships are towards other people of the same sex” (7). Bullough posits 

that “Homosexuality," a philologically awkward hybrid of Greek and Latin 

elements came to be the term applied to people who love those of the same 

sex, while "heterosexuality," equally philologically impure, came to be 

applied to those who gained pleasure from the opposite sex” (9). 

 

David McWhirt et al, assert that “Karl Maria … coined the term ‘homosexual’ 

(1869a, 1869b). This word was picked up by Gustav Jager (1884) and by 

Richard Von Krafft-Ebing (1894) who popularized it in the various 

translations of his work” (10). According to the scholars, other terms proposed 

by other scholars example “Sexual inversion” (1936) by Ellis and “inverted 

Sexual instinct” by Westphal and some other similar words for many years 

competed with the term as words meant to represent sexual orientations. 

However “…the use of the term ‘homosexuality’ by Magnus Hirschfeld 

…carried the day” (10).  

 

Trauma on the other hand refers to a severe encounter or experience that leads 

to intense sadness, pain or sorrow. People’s traumatic experiences are varied 

and their responses too are in different forms and degrees. The traumatic 

experiences of rape, chronic illness or natural disaster couldresult to severe 

effects while some others are latent and seem not painful that we see them as 

part of everyday life. In this instance we have the structural violence. This 

arises as a result of laws and structures by an organization or a state which 

deprive individuals of their basic needs. This particular trauma seems painless 

and many a times lasts longer than necessary that the individual fails to see its 

effects. In this study therefore, trauma refers to the negative effects of the 

discrimination, intolerance and outlaw on the homosexuals emanating from 

Nigeria’s religious and cultural orientations. Homosexual trauma in Nigeria 

arises out of the homophobic attacks on the victims by individuals and the law 

which proscribes fatal measures to them. These lead them to practice their 

sexuality in the closet with many assuming bisexual to fit into the society.   

 

Homosexuality in African’s Conception 

The belief that homosexuality is alien to Africa in the prehistoric times can be 

traced to Edward Gibbons’s assertion in his History of the Decline and Fall of 

the Roman Empire (1781). He says that “I believe, and hope, that the Negroes, 

in their own country, were exempt from this moral pestilence [i.e., 



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homosexual ‘vice’]” (506). This could however be erroneous as further 

studies by Stephen Murray suggest that “hardly any Europeans had traveled 

more than a few miles into the African interior than Gibbon made this 

assertion” (x1). According to Murray, Sir Richard Burton was later to validate 

Gibbon’s view in his statement that “the Negro race is mostly untainted by 

sodomy and triba[l]ism” (246). Burton made this assertion after observing 

homosexuality indiscriminately practiced Near East and South Asia as against 

what he witnessed in Africa. In 1987 however, Daniel Hrdy supports 

Gibbon’s position by stating that “homosexuality is not part of traditional 

societies in Africa” (11-13).  

 

On the other hand some people believe that homosexuality existed in Africa 

but was introduced by the Europeans. The first in this regard is Daniel 

Vignal’s essay in 1983 in which he analyzed twenty three African novels and 

concluded that homosexuality was introduced into Africa by the Europeans. 

Few years later Chris Dunton reaffirms Vignal’s investigation with his text, 

Wheyting Be Dat: The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature after 

analyzing many African texts elaborately. Against the above assumptions 

Steven Murray and Roscoe carried out a more elaborate research in Boy-Wives 

and Female Husbands and found out many instances of homosexual practices 

in Africa. For instance in Lesotho same sex affair was practiced. Cicero 

opines that: 

In Lesotho, females engage in what is commonly considered intimate 

behavior to  the Western world: they kiss, sleep together, rub 

genitals, participate in cunnilingus, and maintain their relationships 

with other females vigilantly. Since  the people of Lesotho believe sex 

requires a penis, however, they do not consider their behavior sexual, 

nor label themselves lesbians. (Lesbianism in Africa, 1) 

 

Scholars have also traced same sex attraction in Nigeria. Bisi Alimi in her 

seminal article titled “If You Say Being Gay is not African, You Don’t Know 

Your History” maintains that “in digging up facts, I found that while many 

Africans say that homosexuality is un-African, African culture is no stranger 

to homosexual behavours and acts” she goes further to state that “in my local 

language (Yoruba) the word for ‘homosexual is adufuro…in the Northern part 

of Nigeria, yan dauda is a Hausa term to describe effeminate men who are 

considered to be wives to men” (1). The above denial and acceptance 

dichotomy have remained unresolved and as such homosexuals are 

intimidated and their existence threatened leading to the trauma witnessed 

among them in Nigeria. More attention is given to this impasse against the 

expedient psychological measures needed to re-orientate the victims on the 

need to embrace the societal acceptable sexuality in Nigeria as a basis for 

societal reintegrate. 

 



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Homosexuality in Nigerian Literature 

Previously, the concept of homosexuality was seen as too dishonouring and of 

western origin. Some of the African writers in general and Nigeria in 

particular were a bit reserved in delving into the concept as a result of 

detachment to what they call ‘alien’ to their culture. Some of the writers who 

ventured into it portrayed it negatively and seem to ‘throw’ it back to its 

originators by creating only white gay men in their works. The character of 

Joe Golder in Soyinka’s The Interpreters is an American homosexual. In 

Dilibe Onyeama’s Sex is a Niggar’s Game the western racists fabricate tales 

of high sexual prowess in the Africans. However Brian (a white) is gay and 

comments that homosexuality was brought into Africa by the western 

colonists.  

 

Recently, some Nigerians have imbibed the practice of same sex affair though 

some writers too still project it negatively. In Razinat’s Habiba, the 

protagonist Habiba engages in lesbian affair with her co-wife to punish her 

husband and father for forcing her into early marriage with a man old enough 

to be her grandfather; an act deemed abominable among the Muslim 

adherents.  The above texts give an unsympathetic portrayal of the theme of 

homosexuality as against recent works which witness an upsurge of 

homosexual themes in a positive light. Texts like Edozien’s Lives of Great 

Men tells the story of the selfasserting homosexual character Frankie in 

America, Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees also tells the story of Ijeoma, a 

closeted homosexual in Nigeria. There are so many others like Ikpo’s Fimi 

Sile Forever, Dibia’s Walking with Shadows, Iweala’s Speak No Evil and a lot 

of short stories.  

 

A Psychoanalytical Reading of Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees 

Different societies have different views about homosexuality and this shapes 

their attitudes towards them. These attitudes emanate from one’s cultural, 

religious, legal and sometimes ideological orientations. The homosexuals have 

been loved, appreciated, tolerated, despised, hated, banned or outrightly killed 

depending on the societies they belonged. Attitudes to same sex relationship 

give birth to the notion of homophobia and homophilia. Homophobia is total 

rejection, discrimination and intolerance to same sex orientation while 

homophilia is the acceptance, appreciation and love for homosexuality.  

 

These attitudes however lead to different responses among the homosexuals.  

They are either ‘proud’ or in the ‘closet’. A proud homosexual is one who 

asserts his/her sexuality without fear of intolerance, rejection or death while a 

homosexual in the closet is afraid of negative attitude. He hides behind closed 

doors to express his/her sexuality. Homophobic attitudeshave been classified 

into societal, cultural, legal and religious categories. However, societal and 

religious homophobic attitudes give rise to the depressing and traumatic 



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experience witnessed by the protagonist Ijeoma in the text Under the Udala 

Trees by Chinelo Okparanta. 

 

Okparanta’s text pictures vividly the daily inner struggles experienced by the 

same sex persons in the homophobic Nigerian society. As the plot begins the 

writer explores a strife and hostile environment made possible by the Nigerian 

civil war. The protagonist, Ijeoma at the tender age of eleven had to witness 

the gory sight of blood, massacres, decapitation and gruesome death which 

characterizes a war torn environment.  

 

The war injects features like hate, irritability, hostility, strife, lack of food and 

safety eroding the peaceful, loving and tranquil atmosphere which 

characterized Ijeoma’s home. Ijeoma’s father was shelled. All these resulted 

to her mother’s near insanity. In the guise of giving her a ‘safer’ environment, 

Ijeoma is practically thrown away to Nnewi at the house of a family friend 

(the Grammar school teacher) where she assumes the position of a house help. 

These experiences form the initial trauma as Ijeoma had to readjust to another 

home where the Grammar school teacher and his wife were to be her 

guardian. In Nnewi, she indulges in lesbian affair with Amina, a displaced 

Hausa girl. It was a shock to the two girls as the grammar school teacher (their 

guardian) opens the door and found the two girls copulating. The first words 

that bring them to consciousness are “…an abomination” he goes ahead to 

elucidate the gravity of the offence “…that is what it is, if a name is to be 

given to it! …the Koran condemns it as well. I don’t know much of Islam but 

I know enough to know that the Koran and the bible see eye to eye on this 

matter!” (UUT, 125). 

 

Ijeoma leaves Nnewi to be with her mother in Aba on account of the 

‘abomination’. The tag of taboo and the religious background of Ijeoma’s 

mother make the house too contemptuous for the two of them to live in. Her 

mother perceives the act as despicable, abominable and as such Ijeoma needed 

God’s forgiveness and divine cleansing. Her mother begins a bible cancelling 

sessions with the hope of casting away the demon of homosexuality.  

 

Against what her mother believes in, Ijeoma wishes to assert her sexuality. 

Consequently two contrasting worlds are created; one of her mother who pulls 

from a different standpoint and Ijeoma who sees the issue differently. Her 

mother desires that her daughter repents from the evil of same sex desire 

perceived with a religious lens as sinful and contravening the design of “a 

man and a woman” by God. She continues to preach to her daughter on the 

evil inherent in her actions “…man must not lie with man, and if man does, 

man will be destroyed. Which is why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah” 

(UUT, 74). Borrowing from Leviticus 18, she made it categorically clear the 

bible’s take on the issue “…thou shall not lie with mankind, as with 



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womankind: it is an abomination” (UUT, 75). Ijeoma on the other hand tries 

without success to educate her mother on the contrary. She says “woman was 

created for man, yes. But why did that mean that woman could not also have 

been created for another woman? Or man for another man? Infinite 

possibilities, each one of them perfectly viable” (UUT, 83). 

 

Even though she tries, Ijeoma gets subdued by the increasing religious 

indoctrinating power of her mother which condemns her sexuality. It has 

become an ever increasing shouts of “…you must ask God for forgiveness of 

all your sins especially for that one particular sin in you…no child of mine 

will carry those sick, sick desires. The mere existence of them is a terrible 

disrespect to God and to me!”(UUT, 86) in the house. In the protagonist, 

Okparanta portrays an individual who is inwardly tormented by increasing 

religious tenets, environmental tag of taboo and abomination projected by her 

society (Aba).  

 

As the plot progresses, the reader is made to see that Ijeoma is battling to lie 

afloat against the teeming homophobic environment of her mother who 

represents her society that frowns at her sexuality and would go to the extent 

of burning the victim. One such case was the case of Adanna who gets burnt 

upon discovery. The mob who led the burning raid believed that the act “was 

aided by God, that an example needed to be set in order to cleanse Aba of 

such sinful way” (UUT, 210). 

 

At the height of her mother and societal rebuff to her sexuality, Ijeoma resorts 

to self pity and depression. She goes to church often to plead for God’s 

forgiveness and cleansing as she had been labeled sinful and her acts 

despicable. “In the moment I began to believe myself a witch under the 

influence of the devil, and if Mama’s exorcism did not work, then it seems 

that I owed it to myself to find something that would. Self purification was the 

goal.” (UUT, 196). She really engages in a soul torturing dilemma. On a 

particular day, the dejection in her heart seems to envelope her. She goes to 

the church to seek answers from God as she states:    

Just reaching the pulpit, I knelt down, pulled out my bible…I 

opened my bible, placed my palms firmly on its pages. Closed 

my eyes and prayed: Dear God, what is the meaning of 

this?...Dear God I am a sinner, and I come before you to beg 

you to please show me the path to righteousness. But what if I 

am not, in fact,  sinning? What if I am subjecting myself 

to this guilt for no reason at all? Lord, I am confused. Please 

give me a sign. If there is any evil in my heart, please give me 

a sign so that I might recognize it and in doing so, avoid it. 

(UUT, 197)  



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She also finds herself weak to battle two opposing forces of homophobic 

attitudes and the ever undying lesbian desire. She tries to wobble between the 

two phenomena but happiness eludes her as the two are polar opposites. She 

however realizes that it is difficult to repress the homosexual pleasure she 

feels especially when triggered by euphoric and lustful thoughts of Ndidi. 

Okparanta writes: 

I was full of thoughts of Ndidi. As I changed into my 

nightgown and climbed into bed, there she was, taking up all 

the spaces, right down to the cracks and crevices  of my 

mind. I could not help myself … I have myself having a 

physical reaction to her in my thoughts. I become so engrossed, 

so swollen with desire… memories of the bible study with 

Mama rushed back to me yet again, no matter how hard I tried 

to put them away from my mind. Condemning words falling 

upon my consciousness like a rainstorm, drenching me and 

threatening to drown me out. Iwas the happiest I had been in a 

long time, but suddenly here was  this panicked dream, as if 

to mocking ask how I could even presume to think  happiness 

was a thing within my reach.(UUT, 194-195)                     

 

Ijeoma continues to groan under the heavy burden of undying sexuality and 

internal fear of homophobic attacks. She despises men and heterosexual 

marriage in preference to her same sex partner Ndidi. This points to the reason 

why her marriage to Chibundu (a male) fails.  

 

Conclusion 

Homosexuality and trauma have continued to be enduring issues in a 

homophobic society. As homosexual traits remain undying and continue to 

manifest in the individual’s life, he/she perpetually stands at loggerhead with 

his/her society that kicks at such orientation. At the height of it, the individual 

degenerates into trauma, frustration and depression.While analyzing the text, 

one observes the protagonist, Ijeoma who gets choked by two worlds of 

enduring same sex orientation and her immediate homophobic society. This 

however leads to depression, frustration, intra family fracas and many a times 

a failed heterosexual marriage as in the case of Ijeoma who had to quit her 

marriage with Chibundu to be with her homosexual partner, Ndidi.  

 

Works Cited 

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 Publishers, 2003. 

Azeernah, Mohammed., Chitra, Nagarajan & Aliyu Rafeeat. She Called Me  

 Woman: Nigerian  Queer Women Speak. London: Cassava 

 Republic Press. 2018. 

 



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http://www.thegaurdian.com/
http://www.nairaland.com/509115/lesbianism

