Health discourse, sexual slang and ideological contradictions among Mozambican youth: implications for method

Abstract

Despite the urgency of improving an understanding of sexual cultures in the face of a globally devastating HIV epidemic, methodological reflection and innovation has been conspicuously absent from qualitative research in recent years. Findings from fieldwork on condom use among young people in Mozambique confirm the need to remain alert to the ideological and linguistic bias of applied methods. Interviewing young people about their sexuality using a conventional health discourse resulted in incorrect or socially acceptable answers rather than accurate information about their sexual behaviour. Young people's resistance to enquiry, the paper argues, is due to ideological contradictions between their sexual culture and slang, on the one hand, and Western health discourses associated with colonial and post-colonial opposition to traditional culture and languages, on the other. Mixing colloquial Portuguese and changana sexual slang is constructed around ideas of safedeza and pleasure, while dominant health discourses address sexuality as both ‘risky’ and ‘dangerous’. In order to gain a deeper understanding of sexual cultures and to make HIV prevention efforts relevant to young people, it is suggested that researchers and policy makers approach respondents with a language that is sensitive to the local ideological and linguistic context.

Malgré l'urgence qu'il y a à approfondir compréhension des cultures sexuelles face à une épidémie de sida dévastatrice, la réflexion méthodologique et l'innovation ont été ostensiblement absentes des recherches qualitatives ces derniéres années. Les résultats d'un travail de terrain autour de l'usage du préservatif parmi les jeunes au Mozambique confirment la nécessité du maintien d'une vigilance vis-à-vis des biais idéologiques et linguistiques des méthodes appliquées. Basés sur le discours conventionnel sur la santé, des entretiens menés avec des jeunes à propos de leur sexualité, ont eu pour résultats des réponses incorrectes ou socialement acceptables, plutôt que des informations précises sur leurs comportements sexuels. Selon cet article, la résistance des jeunes à la demande d'informations résulte des contradictions idéologiques entre leur culture et leur jargon sexuels d'une part, et, d'autre part, les discours occidentaux sur la santé, associés à l'opposition coloniale et post coloniale à la culture et aux langages traditionnels. Le mélange du portugais familier et du jargon sexuel changana est construit sur des notions de safedeza et de plaisir, alors que les discours dominants sur la santé évoquent la sexualité comme étant à la fois « risquée » et « dangereuse ». En vue d'une compréhension plus approfondie des cultures sexuelles et de la mise en place d'activités de prévention du VIH qui soient pertinents pour les jeunes, il est suggéré que les chercheurs et les responsables des programmes approchent les répondants avec un langage sensible au contexte local idéologique et linguistique.

Pese a la necesidad urgente de entender mejor las culturas sexuales ante una epidemia del sida global y devastadora, la reflexión y la innovación metodológicas han brillado por su ausencia en los estudios cualitativos de los últimos años. Los resultados del trabajo de campo sobre el uso de preservativos entre jóvenes de Mozambique confirman que es necesario estar atentos a la parcialidad ideológica y lingüística de los métodos que se aplican. Al entrevistar a jóvenes sobre su sexualidad mediante discursos convencionales sobre la salud, se obtuvieron respuestas incorrectas o socialmente aceptables en vez de recabar información precisa sobre su conducta sexual. En el artículo sostenemos que la resistencia de los jóvenes a ser cuestionados se debe a contradicciones ideológicas entre su cultura y argot sexuales y los discursos sobre la salud occidentales asociados a la oposición colonial y poscolonial a la cultura y los lenguajes tradicionales. El argot coloquial portugués mezclado con la changana sexual se construyen en torno a ideas de safedeza y placer mientras que los discursos dominantes sobre la salud abordan la sexualidad como algo ‘arriesgado’ y ‘peligroso’. A fin de comprender mejor las culturas sexuales y asegurar que los esfuerzos para la prevención del contagio del sida sean importantes para los jóvenes, sugerimos que los investigadores y los responsables políticos se dirijan a los entrevistados con un lenguaje que sea susceptible al contexto ideológico y lingüístico local.

Keywords:

• young people
• sexuality
• slang
• Mozambique
• reliability
• validity

Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Richard Parker, Margrethe Silberschmidt and the anonymous reviewers for comments on drafts of this article. It was written while at the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA. The author would like to thank everybody at the department for their hospitability and kind assistance during his stay. Also, the author would like to express his thankfulness towards his field assistants during research in Maputo and Nampula, Mozambique: Benilde Cumbane, Dercisio Tembe, Alex Muianga, Sanjito Dembele and Cústodio Pedro.

Notes

^1. In this paper, the middle-class or urban youth refer to young people attending schools and living in urban parts of the city called Maputo cimento (concrete Maputo) characterised by a great number of concrete houses, a modern infrastructure, asphalt roads, electricity networks, water supplies and a number of hospitals and health clinics. Most families in concrete Maputo have a high and steady income and usually one or both parents have completed a higher education. Poor or suburban youth refer to young people living in and attending schools on the outskirts of the city in what is called Maputo caniço (reed Maputo) where a majority of houses are made of reed and other cheap materials and where electricity and water supplies are scarce and where there are few health services. Families in this area suffer from unemployment, an unsteady income, malnutrition and rarely have family members completed any formal education.

^2. The most famous Mozambican musicians making these pop songs blending Portuguese and changana are Ziqo, Liza James, MC Roger, Da do Bling, Denny OG and Maya Cool.

^3. FRELIMO stands for Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) and was originally a liberation army founded in Tanzania in 1962 and later winning the armed struggle against the Portuguese in 1975. The official ideology of FRELIMO was Marxist-Leninist guided by ideals of scientific socialism with its emphasis on progress, education and transformation of the population away from ignorance and regional ethnic disputes and linguistic diversity in favour of a common Mozambican identity and language. However, FRELIMO has gradually aborted the Marxist-Leninist doctrines in favour of a formally democratic political system.