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Amos Lassen wrote on 01/09/2009:

“Dakan”

Gay Love in Africa

Amos Lassen

Beautiful cinematography, beautiful west African music and a beautifully romantic story are what characterize “Dakan”. This is the first (and probably the only) gay themed film to come out of Africa. Set in Guinea, “Dakan” is a tender story of forbidden love between two young men, Sori and Manga. After a night of intense romantic kissing, Manga attempts to understand his feelings and even goes so far as to ask his mother whether it is ok to kiss a boy. His mother tells him that in the history of the world, this has never happened and that “boys don’t do that”. Sori has it no easier; his father has his and the other children in the family’s whole life planned out for them. The parents, in fact, are so distressed that they request that the boys be separated. It goes so far that Sori is forced to marry and Manga is sent to a witch doctor. However, the boys have other ideas and feel that they are meant to be together. The film is a look at the conflict between tradition and love.
“Dakan” is a realistic view of love and how painful it can be. It looks at the way a different culture negotiates sexual orientation, identity and alliance and challenges the conservative notion that there is no homosexuality in Africa and that it is a sexual aberration brought there by the white man. Imparting a sense of place, the film shows real beauty and issues that affect African cultures. The love of Manga and Sori violates the African concept of the importance of the family and the determination of identity based upon family. We see the conflicts between modernity and tradition and the search for identity. There is no concept of the individual in Africa, it seems, and life is seen very differently than in western culture.
I understand that in Guinea, homosexuality is borderline illegal. The movie is actually a coming-out film for a country that is generations behind modern times. Homosexuality is seen as a transgression which in Africa seems to equal economic transgression since Sori chooses not to enter his father’s business. The boys opt to go to an agrarian village where they are away from “modern” prejudice and can live as exiles. Manga’s mother finally and grudgingly accepts her failure to change her son and allows him to reunite with Sori. The two come together and share “dakan” (destiny).