Nairobi — What does one make of the extraordinary case of the new world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya, who has been asked by the International Association of Athletics Federations to undergo a gender test after she clocked an eye-popping 1 minute 55.45 seconds?

The Athletics Federation first suspected Semenya might be a man -- and asked the 18-year-old South African athlete to undergo a gender test -- after she "came from nowhere" and posted a world leading time of 1 minute 56.72 seconds at the African junior championships in Bambous, Mauritius, at the end of July.

However, because the gender tests take quite a long time to complete, they could not be done in time for the world championships in Berlin.

On a subject like this, you can expect colourful and stout responses from the South Africans.

The ruling party, the ANC, has put out a patriotic cry for "our golden girl" and slammed the IAAF, saying its decision to order a gender test for Semenya "only serve(s) to portray women as being weak... Caster is not the only woman athlete with a masculine build and the International Association of Athletics Federation should know better," it said.

The radical South African unions and political organisation upped the tempo, saying the scrutiny of Semenya, "smacks of racism of the highest order. It represents a mentality of conforming feminine outlook within the white race," said the Young Communist League.

Actually, the IAAF line on Semenya is probably the one issue on which African, European, American and Asian cultures tend to agree -- that women should "not look too much like men."

True, Semenya makes the quite muscular "Maputo Express," Mozambique's now fading athletic star Maria Mutola, look like the gorgeous African-American actress Halle Berry, but that shouldn't matter.

This unease and the deeply conflicted view in almost all societies about masculine women, is equalled on the opposite end of the scale by queasiness about men who are "too feminine."

In Africa at least, there is greater prejudice against feminine men than masculine women. The idea that masculine women are something outside nature, is expressed in Uganda by how much some of their body bits are valued.

WITCHDOCTORS WILL PAY MORE FOR a few strands of beard from a woman's chin than for half an ounce of gold. If the hair is from a woman's chest, its magical powers are believed to be much more potent, so the price could be three times higher.

Men who are too feminine don't fare as well, especially in the rural areas. In years gone by, the family could conspire to lead the female man to the woods and hang him.

From this well of prejudice and fear of ambiguity, comes the hate-filled attitude towards gay men and women, and mixed-race people. Uganda, for example, has many mixed-race citizens, but they are invisible in political life.

In an infamous election years ago, when one of them contested for a city parliamentary seat, his "indigenous" opponent attacked him as "the child of a prostitute."

The IAAF position is part of a wider problem the world is having to come to terms with regarding alternative realities like trans-gender athletes and those whose legs were amputated and are running on intelligent artificial ones. Semenya's case could, finally, force world sport to come into the modern age.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is executive editor of the Nation Media Group's Africa Media Division.