ABSTRACT
Research into the sexual lives of unmarried youth has been fuelled by the increasingly stronger call over the past two decades to address the sexual and reproductive health needs and rights of young people. The impact of the HIV/Aids epidemic and the consequences of unwanted and early pregnancies warrant insight into how safe sex is negotiated. This, in turn, requires a profound understanding of how people shape their intimate relationships and desires. In this chapter, I report on a study that sought to unravel the way unmarried young girls and boys in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, give meaning to and negotiate their sexuality. 1 With its two million inhabitants living on the Cape Verde peninsula, Dakar is the most urbanised and most densely populated part of Senegal. The ongoing economic crisis since the 1980s has resulted in a scarcity of formal employment, which especially affects young people. The largest part of the Dakarois population finds itself in the crowded quartiers populaires, where they try to make the best out of their always insufficient resources (Werner 1993). Senegal is a predominantly Islamic society, as a result of the Islamic expansion in Senegal that began in the nineteenth century. As a monotheistic religion, Islam has functioned as a unifying force in Senegal, ‘de- ethnicitizing’ the society by making the belief in one single god the most important connection between people (Diouf 1998, 111–123). This has been accompanied by a process of ‘wolofisation’, in which the Wolof, the largest of the more than 20 different ethnic groups in Senegal, have been increasing steadily over time at the expense of the representation of other ethnic groups. Because ‘Islamic and Christian practices have flourished and mingled with traditional practices’ that have a long history in the country’s territory (Sow 2003, 70), Senegal should not be seen as an Arab culture.
