The Politics of the human sexuality: An account of Mr. Selorm's sexual complexities.
Written by Paulinus Chukwuebuka Ikeorah.
One thing I know for sure is that I don't want to write this article, but I find myself writing it, I don't know if it's because of my hypergraphic tendencies or because I just have an opinion I am too nauseous about to vomit.
The story begins as follows:-
A few months after graduating from University, I decided to apply for masters in a British University. While waiting for admission I was advised to get some working experience, so I decided to travel down to Abuja where I had lived all my life. Getting a suitable job was quite difficult and the ones I got were nothing to write home about. Apart from the low pay they even demanded I cut my precious beard off which had sentimental value to me then.
Finally I applied for a job in Ghana, a reputable company in West Africa and at the same time a house hold name to most West Africans. You obviously should have heard of Adom Group of Companies, a multi national company that includes Adom Ventures, Adom Real Estate company, Adom Salons Co Ltd and Adom Laundry Services.
Working for Adom was a dream come true. I was offered the job, a mouth watering remuneration and an accommodation in the Central Region of Ghana. Not long into my employment I quickly climbed up the ladder to become the Operation's Manger for all Adom businesses in the Central Region of Ghana, that included the chain salons, real estate business and laundry service chains. It was a very deep call, because I was the youngest in her offices and most challenging of all, a foreigner.
On Sunday 14th August 2016 a new 'Super' branch of the Adom salons was launched, it was what I have never seen before, state of the art equipments, the best Thai massage machines, amazing manicure and pedicure machines etc and as usual I was tasked with getting the business booming, using whatever skill and material at my disposal to beat all existing Competition and getting everybody coming in.
Recruitment started, and I got the best barbers in town. I wanted to get a Nigerian barber but I knew Ghanaian barbers were somewhat better than their Nigeria counterpart so I went for a Ghanaian and likewise I got a good female hair stylist I could lay my hands on. I hired a Togolese in addition to the Nigerian and the Ghanaian.
One faithful morning, as I was in my office, planning a budget for the salon and preparing the account statement for the other businesses I managed, I heard a male voice murmur out from the main activity room 'is your anago boss around' ? 'Anago' has been a twi word I grew accustomed to which loosely translates into 'Nigerian' or better still 'foreigner'. My attention was immediately bought not because of the question but because of the answer. The male barber replied 'No, he hasn't been around' I knew they were talking about me but what I wasn't sure about was why would he tell the visitor I wasn't around.
Out of curiosity I stepped out of my office, the visitor a tall slim guy with the looks of a woman, wore an open 'V' shaped soft top and a very short jeans knicker that reached almost half his thigh. He wore cowries round his neck and ear rings and also had a piercing on his nose.
He breathed a great sigh of relief and came straight, across the room to where I was standing and said 'Good day sir, I am very happy to finally see you.' I stretched out my hand, shook his hand and said are you looking for me ? Yes, he replied, have a seat I said and we both sat down outside my office at the central business arena where all the hairs are done, and money for goods and services paid for.
One thing I noticed was that it seemed everybody was familiar with his visits but for me. With the body language of every employee present i sensed they've shielded the visitor from seeing me for so long a time.
Now curiosity took over every cell in me. I engaged him. We spoke first on how beautiful the salon is and how smart it has been a choice to use a single color combination and design for all our chain outlets around the country, we spoke of my recent interview at windyBay FM, the official radio station of The University of Education, Winneba, in the Central Region of Ghana. We spoke about a great deal of things especially marketing, how to promote the business etc, soon enough I noticed I was enjoying the conversation especially for his remarkable intelligence and observant spirit. I noticed I had spent over 45 minutes and counting with him when I told my boss 2 hours earlier I would be sending him the financial records of that branch in 15 minutes.
I told him I needed to leave and just then I knew I never got his name and even the purpose why he wanted to see me so bad. He told me his name was Selorm and he really needs a job as a 'female' hair stylist. Frankly I wasn't really shocked but I was surprise why he would want to work with the women instead of men. To be sure, I asked him 'are you sure you don't want to barb rather than braid hair and lock wigs and Rasta'? He smiled and replied 'yes' I wanna braid hair, retouch, style hair, fix wigs, polish nails and do manicure and pedicure. I asked him if he is good at what he does and he said yes and that he had worked even in Togo and Port Harcourt Nigeria before coming back home, Ghana.
I breathed deep and said 'come back this time tomorrow so we discuss further', He replied 'okay sir', asked for my number, which I declined and then he left.
To cut the long story short, I was in my office when one of the employees came in and asked what our discussion was all about. I was very sure she heard all our discussion and even laughter, but what surprised me was why she would want to know what my discussion was about. I told her there is nothing to discuss with her, she was older probably about 15 years older than me and was married with 2 kids, so I needed to keep my African manners intact, despite being the boss.
Immediately after she left, the male employee (Barber) came into my office while leaving my entrance door open and said ' Paul, are you really considering hiring a Gay man?' I looked at him with surprise and asked him how he knew the applicant was gay and why he looked so bothered about another man's sexuality.
He sighed and left. Now that was unusual and left me more confused than ever. I leaned back in my chair, drank some coke and thought deep about what was really wrong with every one in the office and their resentment toward the poor applicant.
Now fast forward to the following day:
Selorm came in very early the following day and waited for me outside the salon because all the employees asked him to wait outside for me, instead of allowing him into the salon because of his presumed sexuality. After my rounds at other business outlets I came in at about 2PM and found him sitting and sweating just at the step to the salon, luckily for him the step had tiles and looked half the color of comfortable. I asked him why he was outside and he said he wasn't allowed in. I came in, greeted everyone as usual and I was told the young lady sitting beside the big red hair dryer close to the entrance to my office was waiting for me.
At this juncture I became angry why a PRESUMED gay man would be met with such cold treatment and why the so called heterosexual woman would be offered a red carpet welcome. I interviewed both applicants one more time and found Selorm highly skilled after I made the both of them try their skills on some young willing customers who would allow that for half the price of the service.
Every one gave a positive feedback about Selorm, the presumed gay man and then I asked the both of them to leave their numbers and that I will call them if I should need their service(s). I went into my office, took my personal cell phone and called my boss and informed him on how I wanted to hire more hands to meet the growing demand. To my greatest surprise my boss knew already my plans of hiring a so called gay man and even before I could tell him about my other rounds and my success incorporating one other new business of his, he told me not to hire any gay man and that I should go for the woman and even if she had changed her mind about working with us, I should leave everything the way it was and allow demand to suppress supply of service than to employ Selorm.
I paused for some seconds on the phone and then told him the true sexuality of Selorm is not even certain and that it will be cruel both to the business and to Selorm by not employing him. I knew he may ask me to call Selorm and ask for his true sexuality so I told him before hand i would employ the policy of 'Don't ask Don't tell' and that afterall when I applied for this job I wasn't asked if I liked fat or skinny girls.
I went over my boss, a strong shareholder, and contacted other shareholders and told them the whole situation. I also told the mother of my boss who had taken a special liking to me, she was supportive of my point but other shareholders clearly told me in one instance, on a conference call, not to hire Selorm, even though I told them Selorm was also good in marketing and graphic design which will be very instrumental to us. They insisted on their stance giving reasons of a possible wrath of God on the business and a possible collapse of the building for such an abomination.
After a few weeks of negotiating whether or not to employ Selorm despite at this time no one knew his real sexuality and no one cared to ask because they all believe he would lie about it, I was asked to either employ the less qualified lady or resign. I was very sad because of the bad cooperate governance practice at my work place and that did make me feel deep pity for a poor man who could barley eat, and even buy drug for himself. At one instance he came to me cycling half dead on a bicycle begging for Ghc5 to buy Koko and drugs.
In Africa, people grow increasingly interested in people's sexuality more than we fight corruption, dumping of refuse and open defecation. We force our opinions down other peoples throat while their sexuality is one without harm to either society or future generation.
Tolerance is more than a word. It is something we should wear whenever and wherever we find ourselves.
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