My first day in secondary school, I didn’t cry. I had heard horror stories of how the seniors and sixth formers would punish us severely just for being Form 1 students and just because they could. I don’t know why I didn’t shed unsightly tears when I was asked to kneel down either during the first day or the first week of boarding school. Don’t get me wrong, I did cry at some point but only because I disliked the conditions of the school and wanted out. My Dad ignored me on that point. Glad he did though.
The other horror stories I hadn’t heard of maybe because no-one told me about them later on filtered to me through the gossip grapevine. I say horror because to me it was. Man, was I green! I would come to my dorm from lunch or after prep and see the down part of a bunk bed enshrouded with a cloth hiding whatever lay within it. I would shrug it off and think someone wanted their privacy. Later kwraaaaa (Ghanaian slang for ‘a while passed’) someone told me why the tents had been raised. I was shocked! That was my first hearing of the word ‘Supi’, a Ghanaian word for lesbianism. So there were two girls in there doing ‘it’? How? Using what? Later I got to hear that items such, as candles and banana were used as the penetrating organ!! WHAT??!? Over time I put my ear closer to the ground and heard of how a girl got initiated into the act. It starts with a letter.
A letter. When a senior calls you and tells you to write them a letter you know ITS GOING DOWN! What are you going to write in a letter to a girl you don’t know from Eve? ‘Hi, my name is Awuradwoa and I am 16 please don’t take my virginity….?’
I heard of how some got into the act because their so-called ‘school mother’ (a senior who takes care of you) used the opportunity to abuse their ‘motherly’ authority.
I always thought the Supi act would be over during the sixth form reign. Why? Because it was rumoured that it started with them. I didn’t say oh! How wrong I was. So just last week, a colleague told me that it had gotten much worse during her school days there (my alma mater). I was shocked. Apparently, what goes on now is that the male Supi (lesbian acting as a male) wore hoodies to signify their status whilst the female wore just the usual uniform. There were reported cases of girls fighting because one girl had been turned away by the other ‘male’ who preferred fresher meat. According to the story, one girl became hysterical because her ‘boyfriend’ had turned her away for having excessively long fingernails. ‘How can I hurt her with these nails?’ she screamed in frustration so the story went. So what happens when the ‘boyfriend’ completes school? She hands over her hoodie to her girlfriend to take over. So the act is now a never-ending cycle. Its more like a generational curse if you ask me. I was even more shocked when I heard that the girls involved in these acts never attended church or church related programs. I guess for fear of being picked out by a prophet. Strangely or should I say by an Act of God, these Supi girls contracted a strange greenish rash around their neck and chest regions. By their wicked acts they shall be known. What was school authorities doing about this? Students caught wearing hoodies were punished. But would that stop the act I asked myself?
But Supi wasn’t just in girls boarding schools. Whilst in school we often heard how some of our former JSS classmates were being ‘chopped’ by the seniors in the boys’ schools. I heard of one guy undergoing this treatment and it made me sad. That guy is fine! Recently, a friend told me how he chanced upon his dorm prefect being sexually attacked! As to whether the prefect was gay he didn’t know but that scene he would never get out of his head. Traumatic experience I would say. One guy in one of the Cape Coast schools was daily molested by one of his seniors and due to his inability to report, he was sacked and the senior suspended. The molested guy ends up in another boys school where he apparently had become a sort of ‘gay’ star amongst students who had heard of his previous escapades and had become a legend. Students fought to have this guy as their ‘girlfriend’. He was blessed with fine skin and a slender body which was almost feminine. This dude never lacked anything he wanted whilst in that school, people literally gave him everything!
How far back can we trace this ungodly act of ‘supism’? I decided to ask my mom if she had heard of such acts during her time in school. Oh yes! She replied. I was shocked! She further went to describe how two girls would stay over in school during weekends and getting caught in the act by some watchman or teacher.
Do parents think about these things before letting their wards go off into boarding school? Or do they only worry about other vices such as smoking and drinking? Do they talk to their daughters about such acts and to desist from them or tell their sons the dangers of such acts? Or the parents are too shy to bring such subjects up?
Sometimes I hear stories of how some women who started the Supi act are unable to quit even after marriage to a man. Either they find new lovers or maintain the old ones they had. For the guys, some are unable to get married and leave the country to countries where being gay is more acceptable. Some guys I hear get married to a woman as a front and continue the dastardly act behind their wives back. A question I ponder about is how a wife would respond if her husband confesses to her that he is gay and doesn’t think their marriage is going to work? How does she compete with a rival who is a man?
A lot of talk has gone on in the country for the past 2 weeks concerning
being made legal. Some strongly oppose, others are nonchalant and say there are more important things to talk about whilst some strongly support in quiet. I believe that the root cause of the build up of homosexuality in this country starts in our secondary/high schools and if corrective actions aren’t put into place immediately it will get to a point where nothing can be done but to surrender. O_0
What was your experience during your time in Secondary school? Did you ever hear of any such acts during your time or were you ever a victim?
