Renegotiating Masculinity in the South African Lowveld: Narratives of Male-Male Sex in Labour Compounds and in Prisons

Sexual preferences prejudices and stereotypes bedevil the study of male-male sex and the transmission of HIV in Southern Africa. This is particularly so in the context of the growing tide of homophobia sweeping through our sub-continent. Robert Mugabe president of Zimbabwe and Sam Nujoma his Namibian counterpart regularly describe same sex erotic relations as an un-African disease introduced by disreputable European settlers. Both repeatedly threaten to expel gays and lesbians from the body politic. In South Africa visionaries such as Kenneth Meshoe charismatic leader of the African Christian Democratic Party often use the phrase God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. Such bold pronouncements are often contested. But in discourses about HIV/ AIDS in Southern Africa the issue of male-male sex that was so important in the early phases of the AIDS pandemic in the United States and in Europe has been pushed aside. AIDS has come to be seen as a heterosexual pandemic. (excerpt)