> Last Updated: Wednesday, 5 November, 2003, 10:22 GMT
>
> South Africa is one of the world's most liberal countries in terms of gay
> rights
> A South African documentary has given a glimpse into the lives of five
> African men who have homosexual sex - for traditional, cultural and economic
> reasons.
> The film, entitled Four Rent Boys And A Sangoma, looks at the many different
> reasons behind some South African men's decision to have sex with other men.
>
> Produced and directed by film-maker Catherine Muller, it is an investigation
> into black male sexuality beyond the label of "gay or homosexual."
>
> "These guys will have sex for mobile phones, food, cars and just to have a
> better way of life," Ms Muller told the BBC's Focus On Africa magazine.
>
> "The phenomenon of the black township rent boys having sex for money is very
> new."
>
> Destiny
>
> She said this is a sign that poverty has become the leading reason why these
> men would sleep with other men.
>
> Of the four rent boys one, Keke, dresses like a woman and takes on the
> personality of an effeminate woman.
>
> The film was made in Johannesburg
> But the film also looks at the life of Fihlo, a Sangoma - a traditional
> healer - from Orange Farm, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
>
> Filho says in the film that he receives sex from men as a spiritual exchange
> of energy.
>
> "A man's semen gives me power," he reveals.
>
> "If I am meant to sleep with men then that is my destiny."
>
> Fihlo believes it is his duty as a traditional healer to have sex with men,
> and says the ancestors prefer him to be submissive like a woman by being
> penetrated.
>
> Ms Muller said that the Sangoma points to the fact that there are deep
> precedents for the practice of men having sex with other men that have real
> and rich complex meanings in African culture.
>
> She added that her work shows that the term "gay" does not cover the
> complexities of same-sex practices which have "always existed."
>
> "That label is a westernised concept but a same-sex practice is across the
> board," she said.
>
> The documentary was released as part of the fifth Encounters South African
> International Documentary Festival that will be shown in some parts of
> Europe.
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