Situating Condoms in Sexual Lives: Experiences of Same-sex-Attracted men in Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This article examines ways in which same-sex-attracted men in Dar es Salaam perceive, seek, and enact sexual pleasure, and the roles that use and nonuse of condoms play in the lived sexual lives in which such pleasure is sought and created. It also identifies several HIV risk-minimizing strategies that same-sex practicing men are employing in their sexual relations, including but not limited to condom use. The article draws on conversations and interviews conducted during 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork with and among a diverse group of same-sex-attracted men in 2008 and 2009.

KEYWORDS:

• Homosexuality
• HIV/AIDS
• HIV prevention
• qualitative studies
• ethnographic studies
• Africa
• Tanzania

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank everyone in Dar es Salaam who participated in and contributed to this study in a range of invaluable ways. The study was financially supported by the Research Council of Norway (Programme for Global Health and Vaccination Research).

¹ Terms used to refer to same-sex attracted men. Shoga denotes a man expected to take the receptive position in penile–anal sex. Gei is sometimes used almost as “gay” in English but is often used synonymously with shoga (Moen, Aggleton, Leshabari, & Middelthon, in press-b). Kuchu is a term coined in Uganda (Tamale, 2007) that is increasingly finding its way into use in Dar es Salaam.

² Denotes same-sex sexual conduct; connotes penile–anal sex.

Notes

Although we agree with this, we recognize Stillwaggon's (2009) criticism of HIV prevention that exclusively focuses on proximate causes of transmission. Sexual behavior differences cannot explain the disproportionately high HIV prevalence rates in SSA. On the contrary, “rich countries have higher rates of most risky [sexual] behaviours” (p. 2) and Stillwaggon argues that the higher HIV prevalence in SSA is likely to be the result of co-conditions, including tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, malaria, malnutrition, and helminthiasis. Notably, to prevent and treat such conditions “is relatively inexpensive, highly effective, and essential for improving immune status in HIV-negative persons and decreasing viral load in HIV-infected persons” (p. 7).

But lower than the proportion that had used a condom the last time they had sex with a “non-marital, non-cohabiting partner” (51.1%).

We use this term to mean penetrative sex during which a penetrating penis is not condom-covered (but may or may not be covered with a lubricating substance).

Literally “man,” here used to mean the penetrating partner in penile–anal sex.