AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 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- AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 2 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 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). AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 4 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 5 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). AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 6 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 7 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 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). AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 9 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. AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 10 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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 11 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: AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 12 “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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 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. Works Cited Apolo, Edia. Lagos Na Waa I Swear. Lagos: Heritage Books, 1982. Print. Ba, Mariama. Scarlet Song. Translated by Dorothy S. Blair. USA, Longman, (1986): PP. 69-70. Print. Clark-Bekederemo, J.P. Three Plays. Ibadan, University Press, (2001): P.127. Print. Cherry Kendra the conscious and unconscious mind (the structure of the mind according to freud http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousunco n.htm (accessed 20th September, 2019) Dunton, Chris. "Whetying Be Dat? The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature."“African Literatures” The Feud, SarifEasmon (1989). London: Longman. 1981. Print. http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon.htm http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon.htm AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2020 Ogbazi, Odinye & Mbonu 14 ….“Whetying be dat?”: The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature.” African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory.Eds.Tejumola Olaniya and Ato Quayson. USA: Blackwell Publishing, (2007): PP.727–733. Print. Freud, Sigmund. “The Ego and The Id,”in A General Selection From the Works of Sigmund Freud. Edited by John Rickman. Garden City, (1957): 38-45. Freud, Sigmund. An Outline of Psychoanalysis. New York: Norton, 1949. Kronemeyer, Robert. Overcoming Homosexuality. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, (1980): P.7. Odinye, Ifeoma Ezinne. “Violence and the Girl-Child in Selected Novels of Buchi Emecheta, Yvonne Vera, Nuruddin Farah and Ikechukwu Asika.” A Dissertation Presented to the Department of English Language and Literature, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, October, 2019. Orji, Celestine Nestor Chukwukelue OP. “John Paul II’s Theology of the Body: A Framework for Insight and Refutation of Sexual Aberrations in Our Contemporary Society.” An Essay Submitted to the Department of Theology, Dominican Institute, Ibadan, June, 2010. Ouologuem, Yambo. Bound to Violence. Translated by Manheim Ralph. USA: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1986. Print. Stanton L. Joans. and Yarhouse, A. Mark. Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church's Moral Debate, The Rainbow History Project. Time Capsule: Mike Wallace Tells Truth about Homosexuality in 1967 documentary. CBS, (1967): PP.52-92. Vignal, Daniel. "L‘homophilie Dans Le Roman Negro-Africain D‘expression.” Peuples Noirs, Peuples Africains. Eds.In Anglaise and Francaise.vol.33, http://mongobeti.arts.uwa.edu.au/issues/ pnpa33_08.html(1983,May-June). Accessed in May 21, 2019 http://mongobeti.arts.uwa.edu.au/issues/%20pnpa33_08.html