ABSTRACT
All heterosexual Xhosa men had or claimed to have a stable female partner to whom they sometimes referred to as ufasti, derived from the English adjective "fast" in the sense of firm. Many men perceived the need to have casual sexual partners in addition to their main girlfriends. Romantic love contrasted with the ideal of sexual gratification. The practice of polygamous marriage that the young men seemed to re-actualize through their roll-on relationships had vanished long before they came of age. The idea of the ideally invulnerable male body was not only fostered through institutions like the ulwaluko initiation ritual, but also through epidemiological knowledge. In 2010, the South African government started to roll out a countrywide Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision program. The fact that there is a dominant discourse about mens ideal bodily resilience did not completely foreclose HIV testing. The young men often depended on women who consumed alcohol, frequented shebeens, and were open to sexual encounters.
