ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Zimbabweans in England make sense of health promotion within the context of their global community relations and their traditions in modern industrialised settings. The inadequacy of individualistic approaches to promotion of their sexual health has led them to attempt to construct programmes grounded in these community relations and traditions within a modern industrialised context. The urban populations in Western Europe and the United States are essentially multicultural. A test of a health promotion strategy in such countries is how far it supports the efforts of the diverse groups of which these countries are composed to contribute solutions which address the problems faced by members of marginalised communities. If the strategy is supportive, global community relations and traditions can be resources for health promotion. Much health promotion treats global community relations and traditions as best left behind on migration. This is discussed in relation to HIV and AIDS, which, among Zimbabweans in England and ‘back home’, is predominantly heterosexually contracted. This is not to silence the gayness of the condition among this population, as there are Zimbabweans who have contracted HIV through sex between men. The key point here is that HIV among Zimbabweans living in England and ‘back home’ is predominantly contracted through heterosexual encounters.
