ABSTRACT
Scientists working on AIDS in Africa have assumed that HIV transmission is a public health issue that may easily be solved by teaching people to change their behaviour, coupled with the promotion of condoms. The key to the transmission and control of HIV, however, is embedded in the traditional practices that need to be exposed. Researchers have re-read monographs in order to construct the traditional sexual practices of African groups. Some reports even predicted that certain groups would readily adopt or resist the adoption of condoms because of their sexual practices. Evidence has not supported these predictions (Obbo 1993a). Exotic practices, such as ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ sex, widow inheritance and funeral ritual intercourse were reported in newspaper headlines as being conducive to HIV transmission. Researchers continue to probe people to find out what they do during the sexual act and what they talk about.1 This paper suggests that class, gender, religion, and age are not only important cultural definitions that have been overlooked by researchers, but also may be crucial to the transmission as well as prevention of HIV Attention needs to be paid to the syncretic cultural practices resulting from the interaction between traditional Islamic and Christian ideologies. These, together with Western education (or lack of it), have created and exacerbated differences in perception that will be referred to here as voices of class, gender, and age. Thus, within societies or cultural groups or communities, the above divisions need to be taken into consideration when dealing with sexuality and HIV transmission.
