“Boundaries of Sexual Safety”: Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) and HIV/AIDS in Addis Ababa

Abstract

There is a growing literature on African sexuality that established the presence of homosexuality in about 50 African societies, although widespread public and religious discourse claims homosexuality does not occur in Africa. This article draws from 24 in-depth interviews and one focus group discussion with men who have sex with men (MSM) in Addis Ababa, within a societal context where homosexuality is illegal. The results revealed that there is some degree of misinformation among the MSM who believe that HIV/AIDS can only be transmitted through heterosexual sex. Thus, MSM seemed to be vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and other STIs because of unprotected anal sex, which they believed to be safe. The findings highlight that current efforts aimed at preventing the spread of HIV are not reaching some high-risk behaviors. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at preventing the spread of HIV could benefit from addressing different types of sexual practices and identities. Otherwise, a significant unacknowledged transmission route of HIV may hamper all other public health campaigns against HIV transmission in Ethiopia and make the cost of such campaigns needlessly wasteful.

KEYWORDS:

• Addis Ababa
• condom use
• HIV/AIDS
• men who have sex with men
• MSM

The author would like to thank the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (SOSA), Addis Ababa University, CMI of Norway, and UNAIDS-Ethiopia for financially supporting the research upon which this article is based. The author would also like to thank informants who took part in the study and Woldekidan Kifle for his comments.

Notes

In 2007, I conducted a consultancy research on sexual abuse against male children (see Tadele, 2009). This research gave me an opportunity to conduct interviews with those involved in promoting child rights and members of the criminal justice system and other key informants working for government and nongovernment organizations and I broached a number of issues related to homosexuality in the context of this research.

In another study, a large number of male street children (45%) believed that anal penetrative sex is free from HIV infection or the likelihood of infection is so minimal when compared to vaginal penetrative sex (see Tadele, 2007).

Although providing information by itself is not sufficient to bring a desired behavioral change, it is worthwhile to teach them so that that they could take an informed decision.

Maximum care, however, should be taken not to position MSM as high ‘risk groups’ which eventually leads to additional stigmatization, discrimination and marginalization.