ABSTRACT
This chapter derives from a qualitative study that explored dominant cultural values in southeastern Nigeria related to men, sexuality, and access to women’s sexuality and the contributions of modernity to new laws, religion, and masculinity. It examines the relationships that develop between sex workers and clients, the criminalization of sex work in southeastern Nigeria, and its impact on sex worker–client behavior. Traditionally, the culture typically endorses reproductive sex and procreation as the acceptable sexual practices just like in most African and Asian cultures. Thus, before the advent of modernity, culture and religion were the two dominant factors that determined sexuality and sexual behaviors, influencing sexual ideologies and instilling a sense of what is sexually normal behavior and what is not. Modernity also introduced Christianity to the people of Enugu, with a different outlook on sexuality, which conflicts with their traditional religious and cultural beliefs.
