Gatekeepers are people who live a life at the edge between two worlds - the world of the village and the world of spirit. Though they do not marry in this world, they say they have partners in other dimensions.
Everybody in the village respects [them] because without gatekeepers, there is no access to other worlds. Most people in the West define themselves and others by sexual orientation. This way of looking at gatekeepers will kill the spirit of the gatekeeper. Gatekeepers in the village are able to do their job simply because of strong spiritual connection, and also their ability to direct their sexual energy not to other people but to spirit.
The gatekeepers stand on the threshold of the gender line. They are mediators between the two genders. They make sure that there is peace and balance between women and men. If the two genders are in conflict and the whole village is caught in it, the gatekeepers are the ones to bring peace. Gatekeepers do not take sides. They simply act as "the sword of truth and integrity."
[One] group of gatekeepers has the responsibility of overseeing all the gates. . . . They have one foot in all the other worlds and the other foot here. This is why the vibration of their body is totally different from others. They also have access to other-dimensional entities such as the kontombile, small beings who are very magical and knowledgeable. They are known as leprechauns in the Irish tradition.
I once heard that one of the reasons why gatekeepers are able to open gates to other dimensions is in the way they use their sexual energy. Their ability to focus their sexual energy in a particular way allows them to open and close different gates.
In the village they are not seen as the other [like gays in the West]. They are not forced to create a separate community in order to survive. People do not put a negative label on them; they are regarded no differently than any other child of the village. They are born gatekeepers, with specific purposes, and are encouraged to fulfill the role they're born to in the interests of the community.
- excerpts from The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient African Teachings in the Ways of Relationships by Sobonfu Some (1997).