Dismantling reified African culture through localised homosexualities in Uganda.

Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 aimed at protecting the cherished culture of the people against emergent threats to the traditional heterosexual family. The Bill's justification, however, lay in myopic imaginings of a homogenous African-ness and pedestrian oblivion to pluralities within African sexualities. This paper revisits the debate that homosexuality is 'un-African'. Rhetoric analysis of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill exposes how dominant discourses of law, medicine, religion, geography and culture reinforce the view that homosexuality is foreign to Africa. Based on ethnography in contemporary Uganda, I explore how self-identified same-sex-loving individuals simultaneously claim their African-ness and their homosexuality. Their strategies include ethnic belonging, membership to kinship structures, making connections with pre-colonial histories of homosexuality, civic participation in democratic processes, national identity, organising of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning support groups, language and nomenclature, visibility and voice in local communal activities, solidarity and adherence to cultural rituals. In present-day Uganda, same-sex-loving men, women and transgender people variously assert their African-ness.

'I never thought that this baby would survive; I thought that it would die any time': perceptions and care for preterm babies in eastern Uganda.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: To explore the current care for and perceptions about preterm babies among community members in eastern Uganda. METHODS: A neonatal midwife observed care of preterm babies in one general hospital and 15 health centres using a checklist and a field diary. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 community health workers (CHWs) and also with 10 mothers, six fathers and three grandmothers of preterm babies. Three focus group discussions were conducted with midwives and women and men in the community. Content analysis of data was performed. RESULTS: Community members mentioned many features which may correctly be used to identify preterm babies. Care practices for preterm babies at health facilities and community level were inadequate and potentially harmful. Health facilities lacked capacity for care of preterm babies in terms of protocols, health workers' skills, basic equipment, drugs and other supplies. However, community members and CHWs stated that they accepted the introduction of preterm care practices such as skin-to-skin and kangaroo mother care. CONCLUSION: In this setting, care for preterm babies is inadequate at both health facility and community level. However, acceptance of the recommended newborn care practices indicated by the community is a window of opportunity for introducing programmes for preterm babies. In doing so, consideration needs to be given to the care provided at health facilities as well as to the gaps in community care that are largely influenced by beliefs, perceptions and lack of awareness.

Traditional birth attendants in rural Gambia: beyond health to social cohesion.

Studies of traditional birth attendants over-emphasise the health dimension. Based on ethnographic fieldwork (utilising participant observation, individual interviews, group discussions, participatory rapid appraisal, and literature review) in The Gambia, this paper discusses the multiplicity of the role(s) of TBAs in their communities. As general healthcare providers, 'mothers of the village', gurus of religious and socio-cultural rites, repositories of society's secrets, economic survivors, village leaders and elders, TBAs contribute to the 'gum that holds society together'. They actively engage in the political, economic, cultural, religious, gender, health and wellbeing of their societies. TBAs are important for social cohesion and welfare; not mere health practitioners. Reflections about TBAs open a window into understanding the wider rural Gambian society.

"Abortion? That's for women!" Narratives and experiences of commercial motorbike riders in south-western Uganda.

Although constitutionally illegal, induced abortion is a vital reproductive health option in Uganda. This paper analyses men's narratives about meanings of, and experiences with, abortion. Men play significant roles in abortion as instigators, facilitators, collaborators, transporters, advisors, informers, supporters or punishment givers. Many participants were knowledgeable about abortion. Attitudes were ambivalent, with initial reactions of denial and relegation of abortion to women's private domains. Further exploration, however, revealed active support and involvement of men. Interpretations of abortion ranged from 'dependable saviour' to 'deceptive sin'. Though a private action, abortion is socially scripted and often collectively determined by wider social networks of kinsmen, the community, peers, law and religion. A disjuncture exists between dominant public health discourse and the reality of local men who interact with women and girls as wives, lovers, sex sellers, mothers, daughters and sisters. Interventions targeting men about abortion should include safe sex education, provide safe abortion services and create stronger social support mechanisms. Policy and law should incorporate local knowledge and practice.

Money, men and markets: economic and sexual empowerment of market women in southwestern Uganda.

Market trading requires access to cash, independent decision-making, mobility and social interaction. This study sought to explore whether market work empowers women with respect to spending decisions and negotiation over sex and condom-use. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 212 market women; and 12 focus group discussions and 52 in-depths interviews were conducted among market women in southwestern Uganda. Market women reported high levels of independence, mobility, assertiveness and social interaction. Access to cash was not synonymous with control over it, however. Spending decisions were limited by men's ability to selectively withdraw finances for expenditures central to women's concerns including household and children's needs. Trading in markets earns women masculine labels such as kiwagi, characterized variously as independent, rebellious and insubordinate. Earning money does not change expectations of correct behaviour for wives, making it difficult for women to initiate, deny sex or ask for condoms. Independence and income from market work may make it easier for women to enter and exit new sexual relationships. However, unable to protect themselves within partnerships, HIV risk may increase as a result.

Bumsters, big black organs and old white gold: Embodied racial myths in sexual relationships of Gambian beach boys.

Sexuality is a platform upon which ideologies are enacted. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in The Gambia, this paper discusses the embodiment of racial myths about male Black bodies and Western affluence. Methods utilized included participant observation, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Beach-boys, locally called bumsters, are a common feature of the country's tourism. Societal attitudes to bumsters are ambivalent. Bumsters variously indulge in a complex web of sexual activity ranging from commercial to non-commercial, voluntary to socially-imposed, individual to peer-driven, heterosexual to homosexual, casual to regular, particularly with foreign tourists. Narratives about their sexuality reveal an enactment of myths about the male Black body and superior sexual performance on one hand, and images of plundered wealth sitting in 'the West'--a dream destination flowing with milk and honey, and physically represented by the toubab--a local label for White foreigners-on the other. This highly fantasized wealth forms the core of youth aspirations to travel abroad. Sexual activity with a toubab is the ticket out of Africa's inherent scarcity. Metaphors and idioms of unlimited virility and dynamic manhood are reinforced through sex tourism and form part of the identity of Gambian bumsters. These self-images reinstate and reinforce racial stereotypes.

Mobility, sexual networks and exchange among bodabodamen in southwest Uganda.

In order to examine the sexual behaviour of a highly mobile social group, qualitative data and quantitative data were elicited from 212 private motorbike taxi-men, locally called bodabodamen, from two study sites in Masaka, Uganda. Selection criteria were availability and willingness to participate in the study. Research techniques employed were a questionnaire, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and case studies. Findings indicate that bodabodamen are a highly mobile group who engage in frequent seasonal rural-urban migration. Consequent to this, bodabodamen have a wide network of both occasional and regular sexual partnerships. Both serial and concurrent multiple partnerships are with adults, youths, widows, students, sugar-mummies, barmaids, commercial sex workers, tailors. Exchange plays a significant role in sexual negotiations but the act of giving to a sexual partner is ambivalent in its social interpretation. Since bodabodamen have regular access to cash, they have higher bargaining power for sex. Implications for HIV/AIDS prevention are discussed.