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Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu                 1 

 

ABERRATION OF NORM:  

A PSYCHOANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE OF  

HOMOSEXUALITY IN OUOLOGUEM’S BOUND TO VIOLENCE 

 

Prof. Ify Ogbazi  

Department of English Language and Literature  

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka  

Email: ify.starlady@gmail.com 

& 

Dr. Ifeoma Odinye 

Department of English Language and Literature  

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka  

Email: ie.odinye@unizik.edu.ng 

& 

Maryann Raluchukwu Mbonu 

Department of English Language & Literature 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. 

Email: maryann.mbonu@gmail.com 

 

 

Abstract 

This study investigates the Aberration of Norm: A Psychoanalytical Perspective 

of Homosexuality in Ouologuem’s Bound to Violence. This research fills the 

scholarly gap of exposing the possible causes of homosexuality using Freud's 

psychoanalysis in examining the mental health of the homosexual characters in 

the selected work. Hence, it highlights the psychological defects that pushed 

them into becoming homosexuals. Using Freud's theory, it is evident in this 

study that the homosexual character has undergone a psychological trauma of 

some sort from his earlier childhood till his adulthood. Forced by 

circumstances, he chooses to indulge in same-sex relationship. He is possessed 

by the ‘Id’ that he completely silences the ‘ego’ and ‘superego’. He activates 

his survival instincts regardless of what it entails thereby becoming self-

centered ignoring the acceptable norms in the society.  

 

Keywords: Homosexuality, Trauma, Psychoanalysis, Aberration of Norm 

 

Introduction 

Homosexuality is rather a very delicate concept which is handled and spoken 

of with caution in different African countries today. Although this subject is not 

so new nor unheard of, but it has been found to be suppressed or rather 

overlooked by majority of our African writers because this supposed 'trending 

concept' is still given the ‘raised brows' whenever it is mentioned, or written. 

Majority of the people frown with disgust and contempt and regard it as 

immoral. But, does not discussing it or suppressing it really makes it non-



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existent? The answer is a capital NO! For the more people feared or dreaded 

the subject, the more our people get entangled with it not minding the general 

view of Homosexuality being termed "un-African" because they are not well 

informed of this idea. 

 

But does one's choice of sexuality really have something to do with being an 

African or not? Are people born that way or is it a habit formed or an act 

learned?  What do African writers have to say about this subject? How have 

they mirrored it? And what does the life of a homosexual character look like in 

their texts before and after indulging in the act? Is it a behaviour one can easily 

pick and drop at will or is it innate? This study is carried out to reveal the 

possible causes as well as cure of homosexual lifestyle as represented by an 

African writer in his work. This helps to give insight on the perception of this 

concept and its treatment. Saidou in his novel, Chains as reviewed by  

 

Dunton (2007). mentions that: 

He treated Homosexuality as pejoratively in his novel as in most African 

writing: it is singled out as the worst possible course, adopted by Kanaan 

when he has rejected all other forms of human contact…. Homosexuality 

in this text is treated as an aspect of the degenerate transformation wrought 

on African through its contact with the west. (723) 

 

This subject of homosexuality is broad and cuts across different fields of study: 

Psychology, Sociology, Genetics, Bioethics, Scripture, Moral theology, 

History, Anthropology, Human Science, Philosophy, Medical Science, 

Anatomy and the likes (Orji, 2010). But here, it is treated as “a concept" or "a 

theme" be it minor or major in some selected literary works. Since writers are 

regarded as revelators and works of art as the mirror through which one views 

his or her society, therefore, looking at homosexuality from the African writers’ 

point of view will not be a crime. An African writer is a writer who is from 

Africa, and writes in African language about issues bothering Africans and its’ 

society at large with an attempt to resolving such issues. Therefore, can one 

confidently say that homosexuality has been given the attention it truly deserves 

by our writers or is the issue not important or bothering Africans for it has been 

kind of sidelined and neglected? This concept is rarely discussed nor welcomed 

for discussion with open minds with a "twitch" of disgust or abomination ear-

pain subject. Daniel Vignal comments in an Article Published in Peuples Noirs, 

Peuples Africains in 1983, as quoted by Chris Dunton in “Wheyting be dat?”: 

The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature”  Dunton (2007) is of 

the opinion that:  

For the majority of (African writers), hemophilia is exclusively a 

deviation introduced by colonialists or their descendants; by Outsiders 

of all kinds: Arabs, French, English, Metis, and so on. It is difficult for 



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Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu                 3 

 

them to conceive that hemophilia might be the act of a black African. 

(74-75) 

 

Could the above statement be the major reason why homosexuality is rarely 

mentioned or even gains two pages in African writings? Dunton (2007 qtd. in 

"Wheyting be dat?": The treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature”) 

states that:  “It is true that the treatment of such relationship between African 

women would involve more than the transference of the category "homosexual" 

- which is, as has been seen, highly marked term to an African context…”(733). 

He further states that: 

A non-schematic treatment of the subject in that context moved, after all, 

have no need to acknowledge Western modes of self-representation. 

Nonetheless, the practice of homosexuality within African society remains 

an area of experience that has not been granted a history by African writers, 

but has been greeted; rather with a sustained outburst of silence….An 

'official' history has concealed the reluctance of African writers to admit 

homosexuality into the bonds of a different kind of discussion. (733) 

 

From all indications, it is clear that homosexuality is a concept that may never 

receive full attention because of the stigma it attracts. Writers barely give it a 

line or two in their works and to those that tried discussing it; it is just a 

monothematic discussion which is never extended and details often being left 

out and it serves mostly as a sub theme to help in expanding the main subject 

matter of their works. To Africans, as represented by their writers, 

Homosexuality is a concept frowned at, abhorred and stigmatized like in Ba's 

Scarlet Song, it is clear that being effeminate is a crime. Ba (1986) opines thus: 

In their new neighborhood the couple opposite had a son, a very queer 

youngster! This fifteen-year-old obstinately refused the company and 

games of boys of his own age and sought the company and games of little 

girls! A funny sort of boy this was, who modeled his bearing, drawing 

speech and activities on those of girls! (69) 

 

The mere thought of a boy who is effeminate give the people a chill that they 

regard him as a waste and useless child whose mother should be considered 

childless. He is categorized with drunks, criminals and as a disgrace to the 

mother as well as the society at large, one of the characters Yaye Khady thought 

out loud. (Ba, 70) The writer presents a pitiable character that attracts the 

attention and pity of another character in the novel. “Yaye Khady was sincerely 

sorry for the mother of this specimen” (Ba, 70) More so, in Edia Apolo (1982) 

Lagos Na Waa I Swear, a short story collection, he explores the erotic 

possibilities of a homosexual relationship and stigmatizes it as "grossly 

repulsive, Un-African and most unlikely" (44).  

 



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In a number of different contexts - the colonial situation, the non-colonial state 

ruled through collision with Western advisers; the prison system under 

apartheid; the situation of some of the African students living in the west; - 

homosexual activities are identified with exploitation, being enabled by money 

or power relations, and understood to be all the more disturbing because it is 

alien to African society. Like in J. P Clark's play, Three Plays, for example 

Kengide during his communication with Ibobo comments; “Didn’t you know 

one white man will go to bed with another- even in preference to a woman?.... 

How do you think they keep sane in their great barracks and boarding schools? 

Why, Ado’s and holy fathers do it on their boys” (Clark, 127). In response to 

these assumptions Ibobo is repulsed and feels contempt. Clark further suggests; 

“that’s beastly. Even the goat that does it with its mother will not take another 

He-goat from behind” (Clark, 127). From the above statement, one can clearly 

say that such act is not even considered in Africa that even a goat is well 

behaved than people indulging in such beastly act. Culturally, it is considered 

“animalistic or beastly”. 

 

It is more than evident that Homosexuality is regarded as one of the colonial 

predicament on Africans. This subject is treated as alien and to some extent 

suppressed and sidelined. This study therefore, concentrates on the fictional 

African homosexual character created by Ouologuem in his work Bound to 

Violence elaborating on the psychological, physical and emotional factors that 

exposed the character to homosexuality and with huge consequences. This 

research adopts Freud’s psychoanalysis in interpreting the character’s 

psychological abnormalities leading to unacceptable lifestyle. 

 

Psychoanalysis (Freud’s personality theory) as Theoretical Anchor 

There are many theories which may be applied to this study, but this research 

uses Psychoanalytical Literary Theory of Sigmund Freud. It is one of the 

theories from which gay, lesbian and queer theory is derived. In line with this, 

American Psychoanalytic Association believed that psychoanalysis is based on 

the concept that individuals are unaware of the many factors that cause their 

behaviour and emotions. These unconscious factors have the potential to 

produce unhappiness, which in turn is expressed through a score of 

distinguishable symptoms, including disturbing personality traits, difficulty in 

relating to others, or disturbances in self-esteem or general disposition.  

 

Psychological criticism explores the work of literature basically as 

“manifestation of the fictional world or indirectly, the state of mind and the 

structure of personality of the individual author” (Abrams and Harphan qtd. in 

Odinye, 2018). Therefore, psychoanalytical literary theory examines mental 

processes and is especially suitable for conducting studies of this nature as it 

can be used in exploring the minds of the characters in order to ascertain the 

reasons they behave the way they do. This is to say that psychoanalysis is a 



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method of understanding mental functioning and the stages of growth and 

development. It is a general theory of individual human behaviour and 

experience, and it has both contributed to and been enriched by many other 

disciplines. 

 

In An Outline of Psychoanalysis, Freud (1949) explains the principal tenets on 

which psychoanalytic theory is based. He begins with an explanation of the 

three forces of the psychical apparatus the id, the ego, and the superego (14-

19). “The id has the quality of being unconscious and contains everything that 

is inherited, everything that is present at birth, and the instincts" (Freud, 14). 

The ego has the quality of being conscious and is responsible for controlling 

the demands of the id and of the instincts, becoming aware of stimuli, and 

serving as a link between the id and the external world. In addition, "the ego 

responds to stimulation by either adaptation or flight, regulates activity, and 

strives to achieve pleasure and avoid unpleasure" (Freud, 14-15). Finally, the 

superego, whose demands are managed by the id, "is responsible for the 

limitation of satisfactions and represents the influence of others, such as parents, 

teachers, and role models, as well as the impact of racial, societal, and cultural 

traditions" (Freud, 15). Freud states that the instincts are the ultimate cause of 

all behaviour. The two basic instincts are Eros (love/desire for life) and 

Thanatos (the destructive or death instinct). The purpose of Eros is "to establish 

and preserve unity through relationships. On the other hand, the purpose of the 

death instinct is to undo connections and unity via destruction" (Freud, 18). The 

two instincts can either "operate against each other through repulsion or 

combine with each other through attraction" (Freud, 19). Freud relied heavily 

on observations and case studies of his patients when he formed his theory of 

personality development. Kendra Cherry in The Conscious and the Structure of 

the Mind observes that “Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that behaviour 

and personality derive from the constant and unique interaction of conflicting 

psychological forces that operate at three different levels of  awareness: the 

preconscious, the conscious, and the unconscious” (9). 

 

Freud (1949) in An Outline of Psychoanalysis further contends that sexual life 

begins with manifestations that present themselves soon after birth (23). The 

four main phases in sexual development are the oral phase, the sadistic-anal 

phase, the phallic phase, and the genital phase, and each phase is characterized 

by specific occurrences. In the genital phase which is the final stage, the sexual 

function is completely organized and the coordination of sexual urge towards 

pleasure is completed. Errors occurring in the development of the sexual 

function result in homosexuality and sexual perversions, according to (Freud, 

27). 

 



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On the other hand, some studies indicate that environmental factors can be 

involved in persons becoming homosexuals. Stanton L. Jones and, Mark A. 

Yarhouse state in Homosexuality: USRCMD, 

The origins of homosexuality are not clearly understood by scientists, 

and the topic is a subject of hot debate. Theories and empirical studies, 

which often contrast sharply, abound. The theories about the etiology of 

homosexuality fall into two very large categories: theories that point to 

nature that is, biological variables and theories that point to nurture that 

is, the influence of experience, of psychological variables. (52) 

 

Despite many psychological studies which indicate that the parent-child 

relationship, early childhood development, early homosexual experiences, and 

childhood abuse foster homosexuality, liberals tend to reject the environmental 

aspect, and favour a biological influence. This is then used to render 

homosexuals to be slaves to genes, and justified in acting it out. That 

homosexuality is affected by environment and nurture has been the historical 

secular position. In 1980 work, Overcoming Homosexuality, Robert 

Kronemeyer stressed that with rare exceptions, homosexuality is neither 

inherited nor the result of some glandular disturbance or the scrambling of 

genes or chromosomes. Homosexuals are made, not born that way. He firmly 

believes that homosexuality is a learned response to early painful experiences 

and that it can be unlearned. For those homosexuals who are unhappy with their 

life and find effective therapy, it is curable. 

 

Psychoanalytical Perspective of the Homosexual Character in 

Ouologuem’s Bound to Violence 

 

This novel resembles a historical account of a fictional African empire Nakem. 

This is the account of the sufferings of the Negros before and during 

colonization. This African Empire, Nakem suffers in the hands of its Noble 

Chiefs that are supposed to protect their interests; then in the hands of Arab 

slavers before the European/French colonists. The writer establishes the opinion 

that the empire suffers simply because its’ supposed protectors, the Noble chiefs 

are greedy and self-centered that they only look out for themselves and their 

families to the detriment of the empire they are to protect. If the chiefs do not 

give away their people, then the Arab slavers as well as the colonists will fail 

in their mission to enslave the Negros.  

 

The children of these lowly servants are to be used to please the French masters 

instead of sending the children of the nobles to French schools, they send the 

children of the servants in place of their children; “after that Saif decided that 

only the sons of the servant class would be constrained to undergo French 

education, the masses of the missionaries, and the baptism of the White Fathers, 

to adopt French dress and shave their heads, while their parents would be 



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obliged to make amends and swear secrecy” (Bound to Violence, 46).  This is 

the community Raymond Spartacus Kassoumi is born in. Tambira gives birth 

to quintuplets and they are baptized christianly: Raymond Spartacus Kassoumi 

the eldest of the quintuplets, Jean Sans-Terre Kassoumi, Anna-Kadidia 

Kassoumi, Rene-Descartes Kassoumi, and Rene-Caille Kassoumi-at Saif’s 

instigation. Lots of violence goes on in this community and these children grow 

in the midst of violence, deaths and danger just like Spartacus who is 

traumatized with the experience of an explosion (Bound to Violence, 71). 

 

Torture, sex, and killing are as raw as they could be and such community is not 

suitable for bringing up children. Spartacus is the only one that succeeds 

academically amongst his siblings. His childhood is rough and sad (Bound to 

Violence, 125). He often feels alone, unloved and rejected because other 

servants spare nothing in teasing him and making mockery of his slow nature 

and academic success but in reality, they were envious of him and the possible 

greater future that awaits him (Bound to Violence, 132-134). 

 

Tambira in an attempt to secure her children’s future went to Dougouli to 

perform prayers and meets her tragic end. After her death, her children even 

face more hard time from the co-servants as well as schoolmates. Spartacus is 

mocked by his classmates as motherless. He is the most affected of this 

misfortune.  Raymond’s life is not so easy because of mockery but then his 

academic success impresses the Saif so much that he considers him his property. 

He orders for him to be engaged to Tata the only girl that comes close to him 

when everyone is against him just to ensure he will return from Paris after 

studies (Bound to Violence, 135-136).While in France, Raymond Spartacus 

Kassoumi is fascinated and he fails to perform well in his last year in school. 

This makes him feel humiliated.  

 

He finally succeeds after retaking his exam for the third time; drunk with 

success, he arranges with a few classmates to go out somewhere for a good time 

after dinner that same evening. His attempt to celebrate his victory with his 

friends ruined his life forever. Kassoumi and his friends went to a place dripping 

with the smell of women’s flesh. All six of them went for an all-out orgy 

swallowing their four months savings. Raymond after much sex and drink gets 

to talk with one of the girls who inquired if he knows Raymond Spartacus 

Kassoumi. Only for him to discover the lady he has been having sex with is his 

own blood sister one of the quintuplets Kadidia. She tells him about the death 

of his fiancée, who is accused by the Saif of knowing too much, his father has 

been sold to slavery and is shipped South to Dalbard where the workers are 

constantly drugged with Dabali and women so they work without pay but his 

father is constantly flogged for refusing women but goes missing probably 

killed or resold, his two brothers Jean and René are drugged by the Saif for 

disobeying the Notables and they run mad later. All these happen in three 



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Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu                 8 

 

months of his departure; Kadidia is impregnated but lost the child to hunger and 

whoring. The writer tells us:  

She was sitting there beside him, he had possessed her, he had been 

drunk with her body as she with his, brother and sister. And very softly, 

for fear one of his friends should overhear him, Kassoumi moaned: “Oh 

God! Oh God! Oh God! . . .” For a moment her eyes were clouded with 

remorse, and she stammered: “It’s my fault, isn’t it?”… But Kassoumi 

said brusquely: “So she’s dead, they’ve been drugged, and he’s been 

sold!” “Yes.” “My fiancée, our brothers, our father!” All four in three 

months; During the rainy season….Then suddenly he stiffened, jumped 

to his feet, and started to bellow and to knock his head against the wall, 

smashing the mirror to bits. Then he took two steps and collapsed with 

his face to the floor. He writhed and cursed, pounded the floor with his 

body, his head, his teeth, and whimpered so pitifully that he seemed to 

be dying…. (Bound to Violence, 145, 146-147) 

 

Raymond’s life changes forever but that is not the worst. After a week, he 

returns and discovers that his only sister has been killed! He feels more alone 

and loses interest in his studies; this makes him lose his scholarship but he 

minds not as he feels no need to be successful. All has been lost and his 

inspirations to be successful are all gone now. The writer tells us: 

A week later Raymond, taking advantage of Sunday to visit his sister, 

was told that a sadistic customer had concealed a razor blade in the soap 

on Kadidia’s bidet and that in washing herself she had cut herself so 

deeply that the hemorrhage had drained her blood and killed her before 

help could come. Kadidia’s brother lived alone, all alone. He had little 

heart for study and barely scraped through his second baccalaureate 

examination…. After several setbacks he had lost his scholarship, but 

he was so fascinated by his new life that he didn’t worry very much. 

(Bound to Violence, 147) 

 

Sparctacus Raymond Kassoumi has lost it all. His life has drastically taken a 

new turn in so little time that he returns to his old Tillaberi Bentia habits, rising 

early, taking long walks, eating when he feels if and trying his hands at odd jobs 

to sustained his life. These incidents of the past rainy season completely altered 

his life. He develops new habits. Having refused to be repatriated, he lives by 

odd jobs, addressing hundreds of envelopes, trying his hand at bookkeeping, or 

working at night in the central Food Market. But at the thought of his failure, 

of the dead or enslaved members of his family, or of Henry, who is still in 

Nakem, his heart begins to pound. When his pipe dream has evaporated, he 

arises from his wicker chair, sits down on his bed, and spends hours and days 

thinking about his misery. It is not so much anxiety as a nervous, physical need 

to nibble at him-self; to kneel down to his narcissism, to glut and intoxicate 

himself with his despair (Bound to Violence, 147-148). 



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But still being a well-trained child, Freud’s superego comes in play judging his 

actions and decisions; he is in awe of doing anything that is morally unjust. He 

fears immoral earnings and trusts hard work but his situation soon becomes 

more miserable; “the idea of immoral earnings frightened him, he didn’t dwell 

on it. To work in a factory as a day laborer was equally impossible. And in less 

than a month now his situation would be desperate” (Bound to Violence, 150). 

His new habit exposes him to a lifestyle he never imagined he will start living 

in order to survive. Raymond meets Lambert, a white man at the bar glaring at 

him; Raymond is frightened. Again, Freud’s personality theory of the presence 

of ‘Ego’ in every individual manifests. The ego being the center person always 

in check of the ‘id’ to bring balance; it checkmates his desires (Eros) and what 

is just (superego). He does not want scandal and being an African he fears being 

associated with homosexuality. He abhors what is to come, the superego 

constantly judging his conscience as a reminder of societal acceptability and the 

“reality principle” of the egocombats with his Eros. He perceives his current 

reality as a horrible abomination and unethical. The writer tells us: 

He didn’t take the man’s behaviour amiss, but was afraid of the waitress 

(who hadn’t noticed the man’s maneuvers) and dreaded the possible 

consequences. A moment’s misunderstanding could bring disaster: 

vicious shrieks about homosexuality, insults flying between them like 

bullets and ricocheting through the room, cruel words that would make 

their hearts pound, parch their tongues and leave them as weak as 

water…. The man had touched him, looked at him with such intensity, 

such assurance, such unabashed emotion that he could have no doubt, 

but persisted in doubting his own perspicacity, obstinately searching for 

those five seconds of complicity between them, trying, his memory 

sharpened by fear, to recapture each and every gesture. And each new 

discovery pierced his heart like the sting of a wasp. Something strange 

and terrible was going on inside him, a cold pang, the memory of his 

misery, of his dead mother amidst the serfs’ feces, a shudder in his limbs 

and his whole body, as though his bones had suddenly turned to 

ice….his thoughts wandered as he were going mad…. (Bound to 

Violence, 151-152) 

 

Like Freud observed a possible conflict between the three persons in his 

personality theory, his observation in visible in this character. There is an 

obvious conflict of choice between his ‘id’, ‘ego’, and ‘superego’. This 

activates his repression defense mechanism as Freud emphasized that the ego 

has several defense mechanisms that can be activated at the slighted feeling of 

conflict.  He represses his ego (reality principle) and superego (morality and 

societal acceptance) allowing his ‘Eros’ (desire to survive) to take charge. His 

pleasure principle takes over and his desire to live propels and pushes him into 

making a life changing decision to embrace the only visible means of surviving. 



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His human survival instinct is triggered making his resistance to this new 

dreaded life calling unto him weak therefore he fails to resist. His instinctual 

desire overtakes him making him to succumb without much resistance-will as 

the man draws closer. He makes the ultimate choice of living. The writer says:  

Kassoumi withheld his prayers. He had no choice. The man desired him. 

He had to live…. The student stood up: he had consented to sell himself. 

His head was bursting, a desperate seed of virginal hope, a shattering of 

the world order. Leaning humbly on his shadow, victorious after many 

deaths, Kassoumi recognized in this tired portrait not so much a secret 

resemblance to himself as a silent meaning, an ineffable brotherhood of 

his being with the world’s unhappiness in the face of its gigantic hunger 

for self-destruction. (Bound to Violence, 152)  

 

The white man continues to pressure Raymond Kassoumi to completely give 

into his desire by saying sweet words to him and all. He poses as a bridge 

between Raymond Kassoumi and his desires. He represents at that moment, the 

hope and future Raymond Kassoumi wishes to have. Despite knowing the life 

he is about to embrace, he appears defenseless for his need to survive is greater 

than his need to be righteous. To him, it is only but a survival instinct. The 

writer says:  

“Come,” murmured the white man. “Don’t be afraid. I know what it is 

to be without a woman, what it is to believe in a woman, to belong to a 

woman and not possess her, to suffer long silences, not to be a man with 

a woman, and then, instead of love, to know the silent cry of a thirst 

together….They were under the hypnotic spell of a happiness which 

savors itself and discovers its uniqueness. (Bound to Violence, 152-153) 

 

Raymond Kassoumi has his first test of loving another man (as a 

lover/homosexual) he cannot comprehend it nor explain it. At this point, he is 

living only his erroneous desires. He is made a new man from that moment on; 

a rebirth by fire of poverty, loneliness, hunger, lack and need to feel again. He 

is completely possessed by his desire to survive and keep living. The writer tells 

us: 

And soon they went to bed…. In his intoxication he smelled the warm 

vapors rising from Kassoumi’s neck, his body, his loins. …Timidly he 

kissed his partner, whose mouth came to life and returned the kiss. They 

move closer together…. Kassoumi moved, and little by little found 

himself pressed against the whole length of the smooth body. Trembling 

with impatience, their bodies joined in a mute embrace; languid, feeble, 

and somehow cool, their hearts hovered in a dream as the minutes died 

away…. Soft moans, sighs of endearment rose to their throats; drunk 

with the scent mossy softness of their hair, they forgot their sense…. 

They were no longer man and man, lover and partner, but a creature 

apart, issued from some strange power of life, apogee of the natural 



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order of love, … At this moment a diffident tenderness aroused a surge 

of gratitude in both of them….they took each other’s hands and kissed 

each other at length. In slow sips Kassoumi, with the wretched look of 

a beaten dog, drank their fitfully whispered confessions of love, drank 

them with a gentle pressure of his tongue against his palate as he might 

have eaten flowers, airy fingered roses. He loved this taste of rose petals 

when he kissed the man, relishing even the insipid taste of the air in his 

nostrils…. Kassoumi, the son of a slave, the cornered, alienated nigger 

engaged in being reborn well-born. At the height of his effervescence 

he rose up to inhabit the long silence of this birth. (Bound to Violence, 

154-155) 

 

Sparctacus Raymond cannot stop himself from coming back over and over 

again. It becomes his new life and way of living. He even begins to miss his 

lover when he feels cold and forgets all his anxiety.He no longer cares about 

his ego; he has completely silenced his superego of differentiating right from 

wrong as Freud’s theory suggests. The writer tells us:  

. . . He came back the next evening and the next; he came a week, three 

weeks, six months. And each time after their pairing he knew that once 

alone in his bath he would sit for long minutes immobile and bolt 

upright, horror-stricken, his eyes rigid under his half-closed lids…. The 

next day his feet led him back to his own identity: …Finally, on another 

afternoon of his despair, as he lay motionless, having closed his inner 

shutters to foil his consuming desire to see too much, he was invaded by 

a soft, buzzing dizziness and in that moment he knew how much he 

needed this white man, his warmth, his loneliness, how necessary it was 

for him to lose himself in his lover. (Bound to Violence, 157) 

 

Lambert becomes his support and strength. This man who has only but desired 

a woman he never had. Lambert, who supports him from then on, is a man of 

ample independent means, the natural son of a Strasbourg, the only woman, he 

had ever desired is troubled, fascinated, attracted, frightened, yet she arouses 

him but to him she is a one-time courtesan and virgin (Bound to Violence, 157). 

With lambert’s support, Kossoumi restarts his life again. Now he has a house 

to live in and go back to studying and his success gives him back his scholarship 

(Bound to Violence, 157-158). Kassoumi becomes comfortable in his new life 

which is short lived for about eighteen months. Their affair lasted eighteen 

months only before Lambert wishes to fulfill his dying mother’s last wish of 

getting married. This shattered Kassoumi; he feels abandoned again and he is 

unable to contain his fear of being homeless and lonely again. This fear 

activates his displacement defense mechanism forcing him to takeout his anger 

and frustration on Lambert in a socially unacceptable way. He tries to escape 

his current reality by running out to an unknown destination. The writer tells 

us: 



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 “My boy, I’ve decided to get married. My mother’s arranged the whole 

thing. Even the announcements. Here they are.” They were sitting face 

to face, hanging on each other’s eyes. For few seconds Kassoumi 

remained motionless, as though reluctant to penetrate the meaning of 

the other’s words. Then a tremor ran through his whole body. His face 

contracted from his chin to his forehead, his ears went purple, and he 

roared: “You hypocrite!”… He dashed down the stairs to the desk, in 

his hurry paid more than he owed, ran out into the street with the 

desperate haste of a man drowning himself in a river, and under the 

bewildered eyes of Lambert, vanished into a cab. (Bound to Violence, 

158-159) 

 

This traumatic experience of being abandoned again, the feeling of betrayal 

brings Raymond Sparctacus Kassoumi back to reality principle. His ego and 

superego become fully functional and in control propelling him to achieve 

greatness by doing things right.After three years of hard work and dedication, 

he becomes a very successful architecture and brings honour to his people. This 

new development conforms to the earlier theory of Kronemeyer (1980) stating 

that homosexuality is learned and can be unlearned with the right therapy. 

Trauma becomes Raymond’s therapy helping him to unlearn the unhealthy 

habit picked up in desperate desire to survive. His success story spreads like 

wildfire amongst his people. The son of kassoumi, Raymond restarts a new life; 

at the same time, in defiance of all Saif’s calculations married a French woman. 

Then suddenly, in 1933, the news that the thesis submitted by the “black pearl 

of French culture” has been accepted burst like a bombshell., For six years 

Kassoumi lives in Strasbourg, working in various architects’ offices, keeping 

up his payment on a house he has built for his mother-in-law and supporting his 

wife and three children, for Suzanne his wife does not work. He experiences 

war but later returns to his country where he is received and honoured but he 

never stops living in fear of the tyrant Saif. The writer tells us: 

For three years Kassoumi worked. Completing a competitive project 

each month, obtaining ten marks of distinction in each subject for a total 

of fifty “credits” (not to mention his outside work for architects), he 

became an “honor” student, a distinction never before attained by an 

African. …His compatriots came to revere him as a genius of science, 

culture, and intelligence. At the end of this period he presented his 

thesis. (Bound to Violence, 159) 

 

Conclusion  

From the psycho-analytical reading done, it is evident that Raymond has a 

difficult upbringing witnessing lots of tragic incidents; an experience which 

inwardly affects him and stripes him off the desire to fight off everything. He 

is not born homosexual but his erroneous desire to survive in a wicked world 

turned him into a homosexual for a period of eighteen months. In spite of his 



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Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu                 13 

 

superego perception of homosexuality as an abomination and disgusting; his 

detest for the dreaded lifestyle being un-African, still, his human survival 

instinct overpowers him and pushes him to making a life sustaining decision; 

he knows he has to survive somehow and Lambert represents survival and gives 

him sense of belonging again. One may say that his ‘Id’ overpowers his 

‘superego’, but it is important to recognize that every human has “survival 

instinct’’ which becomes overpowering at the face of danger or possibility of 

dying. He fears the society and their criticism but he cannot help but keeps 

surviving and he lives with his man lover till he is forced into living on his own 

again. Raymond Kasoumi once lost to homosexuality is found as he stops being 

homosexual the moment he feels unwanted and alone because of Lambert’s 

decision to get married in order to honour his dying mother’s last wish. Feeling 

hurt and betrayed he walks out, taking the chance to rebuild his life again and 

achieves carrier success and later marries a French woman 

 

This analysis summarizes the earlier findings of this research which reveals that 

homosexuality is not a condition that people are born with; rather 

homosexuality is only a sexual orientation or a habit learned (by some persons) 

as an instinctive ‘Eros’ desire of pleasure principle to combat a traumatic or 

difficult situation and can be unlearned with therapy. Therefore, it is time to 

stop silencing the subject; instead it should be given the full attention it deserves 

to curb the waste of lives through homophobia practices. It is time for writers 

to tell the public the truth about homosexuality not being a disease of some sort 

or keep dwelling on its’ un-Africanism but, a deviation from the norm which 

some people are forced into. Significantly, is we should understand that with 

lots of love, care, and attention, homosexuals can still be saved and converted 

to heterosexual lifestyle as they were not born homosexuals but exposed to it at 

some point knowingly as a desperate measure to resolve desperate situation. 

Homosexuality is a sexual orientation and not a death sentence; therefore should 

not be treated as such. 

 

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Clark-Bekederemo, J.P. Three Plays. Ibadan, University Press, (2001):  P.127.  

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Cherry Kendra the conscious and unconscious mind (the structure of the mind 

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n.htm (accessed 20th September, 2019) 

Dunton, Chris. "Whetying Be Dat? The Treatment of Homosexuality in 

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http://mongobeti.arts.uwa.edu.au/issues/%20pnpa33_08.html

