Young People's Lives and Sexual Relationships in Rural Africa

Findings from a Large Qualitative Study in Tanzania

Inbunden, Engelska, 2011

AvMary Louisa Plummer,Daniel Wight

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New infections with HIV remain an urgent problem among young people in Africa, but many young Africans pursue sexual relationships with little thought about the epidemic. This book examines young people's sexual relationships in a region typical of rural sub-Saharan Africa and investigates why the risk of HIV infection generally was not a salient concern for them. It is based on an extraordinarily large and representative qualitative study that was affiliated with an adolescent sexual health intervention trial and included three person-years of participant observation conducted by young East Africans in nine Tanzanian villages.The book describes typical patterns of sexual relationship formation in adolescence and early adult life, the variety of young people's relationships and practices, and the contradictory social ideals and expectations that led premarital and extramarital relationships to be concealed. Young men's main motivations for sex were pleasure and masculine identity, while young women's was to receive money or materials to meet their basic needs, such as soap or a daytime meal. By their late teens most young people had experienced one-time sexual encounters, open-ended opportunistic relationships, and "main" sometimes semi-public partnerships. Relationships could involve desire, possessiveness, and affection, but romantic idealization of a partner was rare. Many young people expected their partners to be monogamous, but themselves had had concurrent relationships by age 20. The practice of hiding premarital sexual relationships from adults often also concealed them from other sexual partners, which helped maintain concurrency and inhibited realistic risk perception. Understanding of the biology of HIV/AIDS was very limited. Condoms were rarely used because they were associated with reduced pleasure, infection and promiscuity. Sexually transmitted infections were common, but several factors hindered young people from seeking biomedical treatment for them. Many instead relied on tradit

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2011-07-27
Mått168 x 241 x 33 mm
Vikt880 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor464
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9780739135785

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Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Research MethodsChapter 3: Village LifeChapter 4: Children's Relationships with Parents, Peers and TeachersChapter 5: Contradictory Sexual Norms and ExpectationsCase Study Series 1: "We'll Have Sex Again When the Opportunity Arises": Typical Young People’s Lives and Premarital Sexual RelationshipsChapter 6: Unmarried Young People's Sexual RelationshipsChapter 7: Sexual Negotiation, Exchange, and CoercionChapter 8: Sexual PracticesCase Study Series 2: "He told me, 'Just come and live at my home'": Typical Young People's Experience of Marriage and DivorceChapter 9: Married Young People's Sexual RelationshipsChapter 10: Contraception, Abortion, and FertilityChapter 11: HIV/AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted InfectionsCase Study Series 3: "The Fever Went Away But Always Returned": HIV-Positive Young People's Lives and Sexual RelationshipsChapter 12: Barriers and Facilitators of Sexual Risk Reduction

This study conducted during 1999-2002 is concentrated on the young people in rural Mwanza Region, northern Tanzania, on the southern shore of Lake Victoria. The area is occupied mostly by Sukuma and smaller ethnic groups, all of whom speak Swahili. Only 7 percent of Tanzania's school-age population was enrolled in secondary education... The vast majority of young women was sexually active and in relations--fleeting as they may have been--with men who supplied gifts or direct payment for sex. Only 12 percent of 15-19-year-old women reported ever having used contraceptive methods, mostly condoms. Plummer and Wight (both, UK Medical Research Council) suggest that (illegal) abortion was practiced widely. Counseling and behavior modification were most active in the realm of sexually transmitted infections. Many villagers in this study believed "real" AIDS was sexually transmitted, but also believed that a separate AIDS-mimicking illness was caused by witchcraft. Restrictive norms, rather than the threat of HIV infection, constrained sexual activity. The inclusion of detailed case studies makes this study personal and supplies depth. There is a Swahili and Sukuma glossary. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, professionals.