The spectrum of sexual transaction: representations in young Africans’ HIV-themed creative narratives

Abstract

Sexual transaction, or any exchange of financial or material goods for sex, contributes to the disproportionate HIV burden among young women aged 15-24 years in sub-Saharan Africa. We analysed representations of sexual transactions in a sample of 363 narratives about HIV written by young Africans. The narratives were written at 4 time points (1997, 2005, 2008, 2014) by authors aged 10-24 years in urban and rural areas of Senegal, Burkina Faso, South-east Nigeria, Kenya and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland. We combined three analytical approaches: descriptive statistics of quantifiable characteristics of the narratives, thematic data analysis and a narrative-based approach. Representations reflect sexual transaction as a spectrum, with commercial sex work and sexual transactions that include romance at opposite ends. Narratives represent female characters increasingly motivated by a desire for social status symbols and by romantic love over time. Condemnation and stigmatisation of sexual transactions motivated by materialism remain similar across countries. In order to mitigate young women’s disproportionate risk of HIV there is a need to combine efforts to address the economic marginalisation and gender inequality that drive sexual transactions with activities to promote skills and reflection and influence harmful norms, potentially drawing on companionate ideologies.

Keywords:

• Transactional sex
• sex work
• HIV
• Africa
• youth

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Stephanie Jones for her guidance during the development of early versions of this manuscript. We are also grateful to Siphiwe Nkambule-Vilakati, Benjamin Mbakwem, Georges Tiéndrébéogo, Fatim Dia, Chris Obong’o and Rob Stephenson, and to research assistants Emma Waugh, Manon Billaud, Haley McLeod, Kristina Countryman, Landy Kus, Emily Frost, Kate Scully, Alexandra Piasecki, Mariam Gulaid, Ahoua Koné and Tatenda Mangurenje.

Disclosure statement

Kate Winskell and her spouse Daniel Enger initiated the Scenarios from Africa/Global Dialogues communication process. Daniel Enger serves as executive director and a paid consultant to the Global Dialogues non-profit organisation, which provided the data for this study.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the US National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HD085877 (PI: Winskell). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the US National Institutes of Health. This research was also supported by the Emory Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI050409) and the Mellon Foundation.