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CULTURE-AFRICA: Cultural Stereotypes Remain Major Hurdles in AIDS Battle
By Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI, Sep 29 (IPS) - In a remote village in South Nyanza District,
western Kenya, Lawrence Orawa is known as "jater", (loosely translated as
widow cleanser). His work is to perform a sexual act with women whose
husbands have passed away, a ritual meant to "cleanse" the home and chase
away "evil spirits".
One of his victims is a bitter Florence Awino (not her real name), who is
convinced her HIV-positive status is a result of this act. "My husband died
five years ago from a road accident. The elders forced me to undergo this
ritual," she said in an interview with IPS.
"First, I refused but they told me that if I did not comply, a bad omen
would befall me and my children. They also threatened to chase me out of the
home. I did not have much choice since I was depending on the family land
for my income. Now my health is all withered. I wish I knew," she regrets.
In the case of Vivianne Kanyore, a 45-year-old woman from Northern
Uganda, she became infected with HIV/AIDS by her promiscuous husband who
could not stand using a condom.
"I knew he was not straight since he had many girlfriends out there. I
feared for my life, and I started asking him to use a condom," Kanyore (not
her real name), a participant at the just concluded 13th ICASA conference,
told IPS in an exclusive interview.
"The first time I talked of a condom, I got the experience of my life. He
hit me until I got a black eye. He even accused me of being promiscuous. The
second time I mentioned it, he told me he was the man of the house and if I
was not ready to have sex with him, he would chase me and our three children
out of the house," she further said.
These two scenarios bring to the fore the role tradition and cultural
norms play in increasing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. They fall under
gender injustices, which have been said to work against women in the midst
of an AIDS epidemic.
Current statistics reveal that an estimated 29 million people in
sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV/AIDS. About 58 percent of those
infected are women.
Gender experts have often maintained that traditions and cultural
stereotypes are a major stumbling block in the fight against the pandemic.
At a satellite conference during the ICASA meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya
last week, Dr Musa Dube, a consulting theologian with the World Council of
Churches Ecumenical HIV/AIDS Initiative in Africa, noted that however hard
women tried to protect themselves from the disease, it proved difficult
because they did not have an upper hand in sexual matters.
"Traditions and customs do not provide for women to abstain. Things to
do with abstinence by women have not worked because traditional and societal
stereotypes dictate that men have an upper hand in matters to do with sex,"
she observes.
Gender reports have often asserted that society has created stereotypes
implying that it is a sign of manhood to be able to control intimate
relationships. Females are on the other hand brought up to believe that men
are the bosses in all aspects of life, including during sexual encounters.
There are concerns also, that the low level of education among girls in
Africa impedes the battle against the disease.
"Low level of schooling and education among girls and women means that
they cannot get their hands on information concerning HIV/AIDS, and this
means vulnerability to infection," stresses Carol Sande, chairperson of the
Nairobi-based Campaigners for an AIDS Free Society (CAFS).
Traditional portrayal of men as strong and women as the weaker sex has
also contributed immensely to the vulnerability of women to the disease.
"Men can use their physical power; violence to prevent women from accessing
information on the pandemic," she adds.
A study carried out in Uganda by Human Rights Watch indicates that fear
of violence from their spouses prevents many women from accessing HIV/AIDS
information, from being tested for HIV infection and from receiving HIV/AIDS
treatment and counselling.
"Women attended HIV/AIDS clinic in secret, and were afraid to discuss
HIV/AIDS with their husbands, even when they suspected that the men were
positive and were the source of their own infection," says the report
titled, Just Die Quietly: Domestic Violence and Women's Vulnerability to HIV
in Uganda.
Experts have often warned that without addressing gender biases, the
fight against HIV/AIDS will not bear much fruit.
A commitment to tackle gender imbalances in order to reduce women's
vulnerability to HIV/AIDS was displayed on September 22 when Africa's First
Ladies vowed to campaign against stigma and gender discrimination created
through traditional and societal stereotypes.
The wives of Africa's presidents met under the Organisation of African
First Ladies Against AIDS (OAFLA), aside the 13th ICASA.
(ENDS/IPS/AF/EA/CR/JM/SM/03)
= 09291204 ORP002
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(END/2003)
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