E don tey. That’s one thing I can say for sure.
Whether your perception of sex leans towards ‘super conservative’ or ‘extreme open-mindedness,’ it really does not matter much. We all experience things differently and this actually makes for fascinating, compelling stories.
But it usually starts somewhere. That’s why we asked 7 Nigerians about the first time they heard about sex. Here’s what they told us:
We were watching a film and my mum told me to close my eyes when it got to the part where the actors were kissing but my dad just started laughing because he felt my mum was wasting her time. To him, I already knew about sex from school already.
I started being aware of my sexuality when I started reading all these romance erotica novels. You know all them Harlequin and Mills & Boon nonsense. I shouldn’t be caught dead reading them but then they were like the holy grail to me. My parents eventually caught me reading one once just as I was about to start wanking. They beat me anyhow.
Omo. I really can’t place my finger on a particular time o. I think I am one of those people who have always been aware of sex. E don tey sha. That’s one thing I can say for sure.
My earliest memory has to be when my mum started freaking out when I started having breasts at 9. She would go on and on telling me why I should be very careful of boys because they could impregnate me and ruin my life. Sure, she didn’t lie. But she was not educating me or anything. She was just very scared and protective – as a mother should be – but then, her freaking out only made me very curious about a lot of things I didn’t care about prior to that time.
Not who. What. And it was movies. Hollywood movies and all their kisses and sex scenes. That was how I became aware of sex as a thing.
I remember being very curious about my vagina as a little girl – say 6 or 7 – and I’d always fiddle around with myself down there. Not in a sexual way but just out of curiosity like, what is this thing and why is it different from what my brothers have. I’d usually do it when I’m alone and lost in thought but one time, my mom caught me and smacked me before warning me sternly to stop dipping my fingers there. That’s still a pretty vivid memory I have till date.
Movies actually. Books also, but books only solidified what movies already did to an extent. So I grew up in a place where movies were not censored and no one was watching out for you as a kid whether you are supposed to be watching something or. So I watched a lot of stuff I was not supposed to see especially because I had a lot of older siblings. I am the last born.