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Opinions of Monday, 16 November 2015

Columnist: Prof Felix Konotey-Ahulu

Re: Oral sex is good

Opinion Opinion

Is this man not a doctor? Has he not heard of gonorrhoea of the throat? Has he never read my peer-reviewed article entitled “Extensive palatal echymosis from felatio – a note of caution with AIDS at large”? If not, let him get it and read it. Published in the British Journal of Sexual Medicine Volume 14 in 1987, pages 286-287 I mentioned, Tafracher, Gonorrhoea of the throat from oral sex, plus other things that I usually discuss only in Consulting Rooms.

I am the only person known to have interviewed 128 international prostitutes on duty on the African Continent, and published the findings. When I described in detail what they told me, mentioning those things in my book “What Is AIDS?” (Foreword by Dr Justice Thomas Mensah, ex-OAA UK Chairman) I prefaced the book with a chapter on the Ghanaian word “Tafracher” (in Yoruba Forijimi) and I went on to say this: “Some of the practices described in this book as being intimately related to AIDS are so ‘frank’ that not even tafracher or forijimi, can sufficiently remove the unpleasantness“

I went on: “But the question ‘What Is AIDS?’ cannot be answered anywhere near adequately without being frank. For this reason the book cannot be recommended for all and sundry. Those who do not need to read these things are advised not to read them. I emphasize that not every literate adult needs to read this book”.

And now, here comes a doctor trained in the prestigious University of Ghana Medical School telling giggling girls and women (and I quote) “Oral sex is a good thing”. No Tafracher, no Forijimi, nothing prefixed that statement!

Let me tell the doctor something the prostitutes I sat down to have dinner with in Mombasa and in the Hotel du Nil in Burundi told me that will teach him some small lesson. Asking around the table as I frequently did: “How much do you charge?” I got the ready answer “It depends, doctor”. On what? They laughed, and one aggressive girl said this: “For oral sex, I charge double”

Of course I knew why. But, tongue in cheek, I asked “Whatever for? Why do you charge double?”

They expressed surprise that I, a doctor, was asking such a question, and they said “It is dangerous!” They included oral sex in what they called “Abnormal Sex”. One 19-year old French speaking African prostitute in Burundi told me she always allowed oral sex “Mais je leur demande une grande somme d’argent” (page 36 of my book) because the thing is dangerous paa! And now here comes our doctor-cum-preacher videoed saying “Oral sex is a good thing”?

And our doctor-cum-preacher produced laughter when he said …. I dare not reproduce what he said. No number of Tafrachers can de-vulgarize his assertions. But Mina, for the sake of those who were there and who heard him, and for those on your Forum who hang onto every word of this doctor-cum-preacher, please direct them to the words of the world experts on sex, those who charge double for oral sex in the sex trade.

Another True Story: When I asked a patient to say “Aah” while I looked at her throat, and I said to her “You had oral sex last night!” her response was “Are you a magician or something?” When she then told me her husband was a womaniser and I calmly said “Then I will take a swab and check you for gonorrhoea of the throat” she almost passed out. I had to support her lest she tumbled down, whispering over and over again to herself “Gonorrhoea of the throat! Gonorrhoea of the throat! Gonorrhoea of the throat!”.

Final advice to this doctor-cum-preacher: How many communicants are in his church? Does he use the same Communion cup for everybody? Does he know how many of them use his recommendation of oral sex? Very sad!

Akora Felix Konotey-Ahulu is Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor in Sickle Cell & Other Haemoglobinopathies, Phoenix Hospital Group