Let's Talk About Sex

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I’m going to put off the issue of race for the moment to talk about sex - an equally controversial topic in Uganda. I had a very interesting conversation today with a high ranking prison official. We were waiting to talk to his boss (who was over an hour late, typical, there is definitely not the same sense of urgency here as there is at home). While we were waiting he started to ask me a whole smattering of questions about Canada - what is the prison system like there? Is there corruption? What about parole? Death penalty? Etc, etc. you get the idea. Then he asked me how many people in Canada have HIV/AIDS. I didn’t know the answer off the top of my head but guessed less than 1%! (MISSING)A quick internet search reveals an estimate of .4%!o(MISSING)f the population in 2007. Uganda has an HIV/AID S rate of an estimated 6.4%!a(MISSING)mong adults and 0.7%!a(MISSING)mong children with the numbers being higher in rural areas (as much as 27%!i(MISSING)n some places) and lower in urban areas. Women comprise a disproportionate fraction at 57%! (MISSING)Comparatively, Uganda is a success story in Africa. Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS at 26%! (MISSING)At the same time however, HIV/AIDS remains very much a live issue. I’ve heard a number of interesting radio ads about the issue and today I saw a billboard with a picture of a smiling couple and a tag line reading “Getting tested for HIV brought us closer together.”

Back to the story - I told him less than 1%!a(MISSING)nd he was shocked. He couldn’t believe that Canada had such a lower rate than Africa. He asked me why I thought there was a much higher rate of HIV in Africa to which I replied I was no expert but I thought education and family planning were important. He asked if Canada was a religious (read: Christian) country because, bringing it back to religion once again, being more religious = more morality = less HIV. I thought this was fascinating reasoning and one that I don't really agree with. I explained that I thought it was in fact the opposite - because we have more of a separation of state and religion in Canada we are able to discuss topics such as safe sex (as opposed to promoting abstinence) and conduct much more education on the topic of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases which in turn raises awareness and ideally impacts people’s decisions to have safe sex. Because talking about sex has in the past has been generally taboo, and remains so in many traditional communities, education about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and family planning have been largely overlooked until recently, thus increasing the spread of HIV/ADS. He seemed to buy this reasoning - that or he was just terrified to argue with me. Either way it made for very interesting conversation.

Sex and sexism are hot topics in throughout the country. As it stands, polygamy is legal under Ugandan law. In some parts of the country, the cultural practices dictate that women cannot eat chicken because it should be saved for them men. Bride prices are still very much practiced, even in marriages between urban Ugandans where the price of cows is replaced by the monetary value. The Initiative for Gender Justice has been advocating heavily over the past few years to ensure that women’s voices, especially those at the grass roots level, are incorporated into the peace talks and nation building exercises that Uganda has been involved in since the end of the civil war. From a conversation I was not so subtly eavesdropping in on yesterday, I gleaned a woman asking for a divorce because her husband was abusive was not fully socially acceptable - I believe the sentiment expressed was one can’t jump ship as soon as the waters get rough, you have to try and work it out. Domestic abuse also remains a large problem, especially given that it is viewed as a non-issue by some. I was very happy to hear one of my co-workers say that if a man ever raised a hand to her she would divorce him and her father would 100%!s(MISSING)tand behind her decision.

All in all the sense I have gotten from many people here is that they are looking to the future and continually searching for ways to improve and make the most of their country. People are very interested in how things are done in Canada and a number of people have told me that once I finish my degree I should come back to Uganda and share my knowledge with them. While the situation is definitely not perfect and there are many aspects of gender equality, family planning and general sexual knowledge that leave much to be desired, it is comforting to know that people in Uganda willing to open their minds to other opinions and ideas.

So, in the words of Salt-n-Pepa, "let's talk about sex, baby... let's talk about all the good and bad things that may be."

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Comments

[anonymous]

your mother ( the sex therapist) is very proud of you.

[Elana Sigal]

Your mother is a sex therapist? Sounds like you are doing some interesting things over there, meeting interesting people and seeing things through their eyes. Miss you! Elana