Background: economic circumstances, sexual relationships and survey data
Some basic information about material living conditions and sexual relationships should help contextualise the main findings. Most village houses had earthen walls and thatched roofs, and young people generally slept with same sex siblings on a crude mattress on the earth floor. They had two to three sets of clothes: for work, public places and school. Many could only wash them once a fortnight, due to lack of soap or water. Old cloth was used for sanitary towels. Most wore plastic sandals although some primary schools insisted on shoes. Few households owned a bicycle, though many could borrow one, and only around one in ten young men owned a radio.
Most girls and women walked from one to four kilometres for their household's water, depending on the season, and at least two kilometres for firewood. Typically two meals were eaten each day, usually consisting of ugali (maize porridge) and vegetables, and sometimes either beans, fish or (rarely) meat. However, in the cultivation season many families only had an evening meal.
Findings from the ASCQ survey across the whole of Mwanza region suggest that young men had more economic opportunities than young women. More young men reported that they sometimes/often earned money from work (62% v. 38%), that they owned livestock (31% v. 22%) and that they had their own farm plot (65% v. 59%) [
30]. Both sexes could sell their labour to cultivate, both earning about 500 Tanzanian shillings (Tsh) (USD 0.83) for a full day (from about 7.00 a.m. until 6.00 p.m.), but this was seasonal work, and girls and young women usually had less time to pursue it as they had far more domestic responsibilities. Non-farming economic activities were largely patterned by the traditional gendered division of labour (cf. [
43]). Charcoal burning, making bricks, transporting water and, for a few, running bicycle taxis or house building, were restricted to young men, while some young women had small businesses selling peanuts or cooking and selling food (e.g.
maandazi (doughnuts),
vitumbua (rice cakes),
chapatti, uji (millet porridge) and
tangawizi (ginger drink)). A few, generally older women (above 20), could earn as much as Tsh 1000 (1.67 USD) to Tsh 2000 (3.33 USD) a day running a food kiosk or more brewing local beer (
pombe). Most of these activities dwindled in the cultivation season. On marriage young women generally gave up external economic activities for domestic work and subsistence farming. There were many more non-farming economic opportunities in lake-side or road-side villages than in remote areas (cf. [
43]).
There was little evidence of romantic love (in Giddens sense [
52]) in pre-marital sexual relationships: young people very rarely expressed the wish to get to know someone of the opposite sex, other than to negotiate having sex, and sexual intercourse did not symbolise emotional intimacy. Pre-marital sexual relationships were often short lived and pragmatic, many involving only one act of sex, and few lasted more than a few months.
However, there was evidence of possessiveness and jealousy in relationships and infidelity was one of the main reasons why they ended. There were also exceptions to the general pattern outlined above. One young man disclosed how he had had a long relationship with a young woman, involving only talking, playing and caressing, until his male friends goaded him into having sex with her. In another village young women were observed testing their love for their sexual partners through the flutter of their heart beats when they looked at them. Furthermore, some sexual relationships led to marriage.
While there was sexual mixing between villages or villages and towns (see below), there was little mixing between ethnic groups or generations. Older male partners were generally not more than 10 years older, unless in abusive relationships such as school teachers. Amongst the Sukuma, same clan relationships were taboo and very rare.
Young people expected to get married before or in their early twenties. The main criteria for choosing marriage partners were: personal and physical attraction (particularly for wives); productive potential, in terms of readiness to work hard, health and strength; respectability (particularly sexual respectability for wives); and family wealth or personal achievement (particularly for husbands). Compatibility of personalities was valued but not considered much before marriage; in general the woman was expected to accommodate to her spouse's personality.
The survey data on sexual behaviour must be treated very cautiously. Nevertheless, 52% of 14 year old boys reported that they had had sexual intercourse and 16% of girls did so. For males, but not females, reported experience of sexual intercourse was associated with earning money, even after adjustment for age. Of those who reported having had sex, 75% of females reported receiving a gift or money at first intercourse while only 43% of males reported giving something [
30]. The figures relating to last sexual intercourse were 70% and 42% respectively. This may reflect a tendency for girls to have had slightly older sexual partners who could afford gifts, while some school boys were perhaps unable to do so. Only approximately one-quarter of both sexes believed that a girl was not obliged to have sex if she had received a gift from a boy. Of those who reported having had sex, 80% of boys and 71% of girls reported that their first sexual partner was either another pupil in their school or a 'youth my age but not in my school'.
Motivations for seeking material exchange
Central importance of material exchange
According to most informants of both sexes, material gain was women's main motive to engage in sex. Most men thought that women had become too focussed on money in relationships, and to tell a woman '
nakupenda' (I love/like you) had little impact unless one demonstrated this love by offering gifts or money. The majority of young women were prepared to stay in sexual relationships so long as they continued to benefit materially. It was however difficult to establish the role of sexual desire for women from the interviews since most were inhibited in discussing it, but the group discussions specifically on this topic found that young women's main motives for sexual relationships were to obtain money or gifts either out of necessity or desire [
51]. Participants identified other motivations such as peer pressure, sexual desire and wishing to conceive or convince a man to marry, but these were considered relatively minor and infrequent motives compared with material exchange. Young men's main motives were to satisfy their physical desires and to gain masculine esteem, for which they were ready to exchange goods or money.
Poverty
In some cases transactional sex was clearly motivated by extreme poverty, to procure food, essential clothing, hygiene requirements or school necessities. During the planting season most families did not usually have breakfast; children went to school at 7 a.m. and were not expected to eat until 3 or 5 p.m. Most girls over about 14 considered that they needed a sexual partner who could give them money for peanuts or sugarcane to calm their hunger.
Parents rarely provide underwear, soap or body lotion for their children, apart from occasionally after harvest.
"My parents don't buy underwear and body oil for me, and I have to take care of this on my own". (16 yr old Sukuma woman, at school Std 6: PO-00-C-3-2f)
Consequently earning money to buy underwear was a common motive for sex:
Interviewer: How did you use that money? [received for sex]
Respondent (17 yr old Sukuma woman, at school Std 5): I used it to buy things like underpants...underskirts....
Interviewer: Mm
Respondent: And clothes to wear at home. (II-99-I-68-2f)
Many schoolgirls reported that they spent the money they received for sex on school requirements, such as books, pens, shoes, uniforms and food at school. This respondent, who was dressed in a tattered blouse during the interview, reported:
Respondent (17 yr old Sukuma woman, at school Std 5) [My boyfriend] gives me money. I buy body lotion, exercise books and pencils... A teacher may perhaps find you without shoes.
Interviewer: Mm.
Respondent: You are beaten.
Interviewer: Mm.
Respondent: Perhaps your [uniform's] blouse is torn so you have put on a dress [not uniform]: you are beaten, just like that. Perhaps you don't have exercise books: you are also beaten. Therefore I decided to do it [have sex].
Interviewer: He gave you money?
Respondent: Mm. He gives it to me. (II-99-I-68-2f)
Most young people, particularly those at school, concealed their sexual relationships from their parents for fear of serious punishment. They therefore had to disguise gifts from sexual partners, for instance by suggesting they had another source: 'W1 [a 23 yr old Sukuma woman] said she was recently bought a brand new manufactured dress for Christmas, but was not asked where it came from by her parents because she has a small business selling local beer. When they see her with new things... they assume she bought them with the profit from her beer business.' (PO-99-I-1-2f)
However, some parents tolerated their daughters' discreet relationships, and a few actually encouraged them if this helped support the household. One female informant reported of a peer:
"Sometimes when they don't have money, her mother even allows her to bring men home to make love with them to get money for expenses". (Young Sukuma woman, out of school: PO-00-I-4-4f)
There were also a few reports of grandmothers directly or indirectly encouraging their grandchildren to have sex. A young man reported of a young woman from the same village:
"If her grandmother is given a bar of soap, she allows her to go out with that man/boy". (PO-00-I-4-1 m) and two married women in their thirties described how an old woman responded when the grandchildren she supported requested soap:
"When will you ever grow up and start having men to give you money and soap?" (PO-99-I-1-2f)
Most husbands provided for their wives in the early stages of their marriage, but it was observed and reported that later most wives had to buy their own clothes, shoes and body lotion. This was despite wives rarely having the time or opportunity to earn money because of farming, household and childcare duties. Although our research focused on unmarried youth, we learnt of a few married women who had extra-marital sexual partners who discreetly provided them with material requirements. Three married women reported that they helped their friends hide gifts from extra-marital affairs so that the husbands would not find out and beat them.
Desire (tamaa) and peer expectations to consume
Although many young women had sexual relationships to meet immediate subsistence needs, often sex was exchanged in order to gain beauty products or clothes not essential for survival. However, the distinction between essential and non-essential items, based on supposed biological necessity, is not clear-cut (see below). Rather, it seems more appropriate to envisage a continuum from subsistence needs to consumer demands, with a large area of overlap [
18].
The majority of young men said they believed that girls had sex due to
tamaa for money (cf. [
39]). '
Tamaa', which literally means 'longing', 'greed' or 'lust', was used in this context in two ways: to mean predominantly female desire for nice things and male desire/lust for sex [
25]. Both sexes said that most men had
tamaa for women, which was why they had multiple partners.
A strong factor shaping young women's tamaa for commodities, and their readiness to have sex to acquire them, were shared expectations amongst peers. By 'peers' we mean other young people of the same sex, age group and social status, that is school pupils or out-of-school youth, who were not necessarily friends. Some girls learnt from observing their older sisters and/or friends that desirable things such as clothes, shoes, scented body lotion and soap could be obtained as gifts from sexual partners. Young women said that most of them aspired to dress as smartly as any others in their village, and transactional sex was one of the easiest ways to achieve this:
"Girls entirely depend on their parents, and if a girl has desire (tamaa) then it becomes a problem for her, because she will desire things that her parents cannot afford, or that are not useful... This will leave her with the option of looking for men, who can give her as little as Tsh 200 [for sex]." (19 yr old unmarried Sukuma woman, out of school, food kiosk owner: PO-99-C-5-2f)
Conventional consumption was particularly focused on self-presentation. Young women in rural areas had a strong desire for nicely scented body lotion and soap, which were more expensive than non-scented products. One of the most popular brands of soap was the strongly scented GIV, costing Tsh 200 per bar, four times the cheapest soap, and it came in several different colours:
"I'm usually given money and sometimes gifts, like body lotion called Bodyline, soap called GIV, or washing soap ...". (18 yr old Sukuma woman, out of school: PO-00-C-3-2f)
Young women showed off such gifts to their friends.
Many informants noted the transformation that could be seen in girls when they started to have sex, becoming cleaner and dressing smarter. Some young women described their need to look attractive and their partner's responsibility to provide soap and body lotion, though some men had to be reminded:
"These men pretend that they are not aware that you bathe or apply [body lotion]: you have to tell them". (23 yr old Sukuma woman, out of school: PO-99-C-5-2f)
Girls and women particularly valued washing thoroughly and applying body lotion before going out in public.
"At times I am bought expensive body oil that has a nice scent, and when I apply it while going to school most pupils comment on it and admire it". (17 yr old Sukuma woman, at school Std 4: PO-99-I-1-2f)
Young women experienced considerable pressure from their peers to earn as much as possible in exchange for sex. Many reported that they discussed what they received from their partners with their close female friends. For instance, one respondent listed to a friend: "He gives me body lotion...laundry soap...and bath soap...he brought me a dress a long time ago...". Those who received little or nothing were regarded as fools for being conned. Young women judged what their peers had received from sexual partners by the type of clothes they wore and, for those still in school, by their ability to afford food. Someone who left school due to pregnancy explained:
"Before, or after, any girl has sex, she is given money by her boyfriend. If the girl is not given money, other girls laugh at her at school. Girls knew those who were not given money by their boyfriends, by seeing that they never had money and were unable to afford rice cake and other food during break time." (PO-01-I-1-2f)
School-going informants and respondents of both sexes reported peer pressure in school for transactional sex.
Respondent (16 yr old school boy, Std 7): At ten o'clock, during break, they [girls] go to buy peanuts or buns and eat. The girl [without money] will begin thinking, 'How?' By then the other girls will already know how, because in the village or centre they may have boyfriends, and they will tell the other girl: 'How long are you going to remain like this?.... We get money, we eat buns or peanuts, but you just sit there.' And therefore they advise her to do so too [have a sexual partner]. And definitely a boy will then approach her.
Interviewer: Mmh?
Respondent: Because the girl wants to be like the other girls, she therefore has to do so [have sex]. (II-99-I-42-1 m)
There was no evidence that ridiculing those who received very little from their sexual partners was a collective attempt to maintain a higher price for sex.
Some girls started off by borrowing clothes and lotion from their friends and then, once they had attracted sexual partners, they were given their own and could maintain their supplies. However, peers were rarely prepared to continue sharing their possessions for long with someone who did not start earning them herself by attracting a sexual partner.
Due to their tamaa, girls and women were said to agree readily to have sex with those perceived to have money. A 23 year old woman was heard telling another woman 'that she would rather have sex with a man who has two wives, but who could give her a piece of soap when she needs it, rather than having sex with young men who do not have wives but would give her nothing.' (PO-99-C-5-2f)
The motivation to be given money or gifts for subsistence, and to get them for non-essential consumption, were very difficult to distinguish. Neither women nor men made this distinction themselves. Rather, women tended to present their motivation in terms of subsistence needs (cf. [
18], and men attributed women's motivation to consumer desire (
tamaa), the two perspectives clearly reinforcing respective bargaining positions. In practice the two motivations were sometimes inseparable since for a young woman to attract a sexual partner to meet her subsistence needs, she might have needed the clothing and beauty products to look attractive.
This was illustrated by the importance of scented soaps and lotions, which had several inter-related uses: to avoid diseases associated with poor hygiene, clean oneself, look smart, impress female peers, remain attractive to one's sexual partner, attract new sexual partners or wash after having had sex.
"Now an msimbe like me, a man cannot cheat me. Does it mean I don't wash or apply lotion? He must give me money for soap and body lotion, so that when I come from there [having sex with him] I can wash." (19 yr old Sukuma woman, out of school: PO-99-C-5-2f)
Gaining capital for small businesses
A few enterprising young women engaged in transactional sex to accumulate capital to start a business, such as trading food products, preparing and selling snacks, or operating food kiosks. They considered this a wiser use of money received from sex than buying commodities. A 19 year old msimbe described how: '...When a man gave her Tsh 2,000, she added it to what she had got from others [sexual partners] and started her food kiosk business. She said a woman has to be clever in spending the money given to her by men. Otherwise you will always spend everything they give you and end up borrowing every day.' (PO-99-C-5-2f)
However, while transactional sex sometimes enabled young women to start a business, such businesses may have also provided opportunities for transactional sex. In fact, for some young women the businesses were valued as an excuse to get home late, allowing them to meet sexual partners. They also provided an easy way to explain to strict parents how new clothes or money were acquired.
Farm labour
One village was untypical in being within walking distance of large, company-owned cotton plantations. A few female informants described walking long distances to work there in mixed sex labouring groups, paid by piece work. The young men frequently completed their allocated work before the women, and then offered to help them in exchange for sex and/or money. The women, often exhausted by the long hours and heavy work, and risking being paid nothing for an uncompleted row, usually accepted. At the end of the day they either paid their assistant or had sex with him in the bush.
"Males and females cultivate together on a large cotton plantation at B. Usually boys complete their portion before girls and some offer to help them. Some women agree ... and immediately after cultivation, they enter the bushes and have sex there before going home." (19 yr old woman, out of school: PO-01-I-1-2f)
Those women who returned to work on the plantations realised that they were likely to need such male assistance.
Symbolic dimensions and eligibility for marriage
Material exchange for sex sometimes had symbolic as well as direct economic significance. Men sometimes demonstrated their affection for a sexual partner through the generosity and consistency of the gifts and money they offered, and a man who loved a woman was expected to provide gifts or money without prompting. Material exchange was also assumed to buy exclusivity, unless the woman/girl was renowned as having multiple partners, in which case a lower price was probably paid (see below). If the man/boy discovered his partner had been having sex with others he was likely to end the relationship.
Transactional sex was as important in relationships that (at least) one party hoped would lead to marriage, as it was in short term relationships. In fact, the more gifts or money men provided the more desirable they were as potential marriage partners. The size and frequency of gifts could be deemed to reflect a man's long-term ability to support a woman, and the fieldworkers learnt of marriages entered into on this basis. However, they observed that, once married, many men shared less money with their partners.
Negotiation
The gifts reported to be commonly given in sexual encounters were sugarcane, peanuts, soap, body lotion, underwear and underskirts. If money was exchanged it was generally between Tsh 200 to Tsh 1,500, though occasionally the range extended from Tsh 100 to Tsh 5,000. Several informants reported that the amount acceptable had recently fallen due to general economic circumstances:
"For many, now that money has become scarce, even Tsh 200 is enough [laugh]." (Young woman: PO-99-C-8-2f)
The type of gift or amount of money exchanged varied from one encounter to another according to negotiation. We will first describe the process of negotiation and then the factors affecting the actors' bargaining power.
Process of negotiation
Explicit sexual negotiation was almost always initiated by men, although females may have actively encouraged it. The statement 'nakupenda' ('I love/like you') was often accompanied with some reference to material exchange, since men believed this to be a good way to persuade a girl/woman to have sex:
Interviewer: What are the first words you use when making arrangements for making love?
Respondent (16 yr old school boy, Std 7): The main words which are used to induce a girl is simply to give her money.
Interviewer: Mmh?
Respondent: I tell her: 'If you agree, I shall give you a certain amount of money'. And this is due to her lust for money, in order to buy some necessities so that she can look like her friends. (II-99-I-42-1 m)
According to many women, men sometimes asked a girl/woman to specify how much money she wanted for sex immediately after they approached her.
If the man did not mention gifts in his seduction some girls/women raised it themselves. For example, women frequently asked for a soda, not meaning literally a soft drink (which would cost Tsh 200), but indirectly asking for money without feeling embarrassed or acting like wahuni.
"Women have become money-minded so when a man tells them, 'Nakupenda', the woman responds, 'Then leave me with something for a soda'." (Young Sukuma man, married: PO-01-I-1-2f)
Most women said that the onus was on them to remind their sexual partners of what they wanted before they agreed to sex, as illustrated by this same male informant who said that when he visited his girlfriend at night:
"Immediately after I entered she asked me, 'Where is my soda?"' (PO-01-I-1-2f)
He told her that he had not brought any soda but instead gave her Tsh 1,000: they had sex that evening. Some women asked for money indirectly, for instance by hinting at the need for a loan. Others did not refer to material exchange at all but delayed agreeing to have sex until they were given, or were promised, money or gifts.
Sexual negotiation sometimes involved explicit bargaining between potential sexual partners.
"When I told the girl that I wanted to have sex with her, she told me to give her Tsh 2,000. I told her that I did not have that amount of money and the girl said I should then give her Tsh 1,500. I told the girl that I did not have that amount, but I could give her Tsh 700. The girl said that the money was not enough, and after long negotiations we agreed that I should give her Tsh 1,000". (Young man: PO-01-C-2-1 m)
Payment was not always made before sex took place. For example, when a girl asked a male informant for Tsh 1,000 before they had sex, he told her:
"I don't do such business, I only give money after the act [having sex]". (PO-99-C-5-2f)
In this case he did pay as requested. In on-going relationships sex was sometimes provided on credit, young women being understanding of their partners' financial difficulties.
"If the boy doesn't have money and the girl demands it, the boy asks the girl to lend it to him, that is, he makes love with her and gives her money on another day. In fact after some days or a week, the boy pays the girl her money. Usually due to adverse life situations, girls are given very little money, like Tsh 50, Tsh 100 or less than Tsh 1,000". (Young man: PO-00-I-4-4f)
It was generally considered disreputable for a woman to explicitly solicit sex. Formal prostitution (umalaya) was condemned and women suspected of it were the subject of gossip. A malaya was a woman who openly had sex with many partners in exchange for money/gifts, not maintaining the discretion and at least appearance of monogamy of respectable women.
Intermediaries: "Posta"
The vast majority of young men reported that they had, at some point, involved intermediaries in their sexual negotiation (also common in Kilimanjaro [
25]). Intermediaries were referred to as
posta (literally 'post office' or 'mail') and were individuals close to either the male pursuer or the woman being sought (e.g. close relatives, friends, or fellow members of work teams). The
posta encouraged the girl/woman to like a particular man, and facilitated him giving her gifts. The female researchers were themselves sometimes approached by
posta, as happened to this 25 year old fieldworker: '... she asked me whether I would also like to have a lover. She told me that if I took a lover, he would help me meet my daily requirements.' (PO-99-C-5-2f)
Posta could weaken or strengthen the girl/woman's bargaining position, which usually depended on his or her relationship to the two parties. If related to the boy/man, the posta was likely to encourage the girl to agree to sex for only limited money or gifts, while if related to the girl, the posta was likely to help her negotiate more money or gifts.
Posta's efforts, and others who helped facilitate an encounter, were sometimes rewarded with small gifts from the man. The fieldworkers noted several examples of a younger sibling/relative being given money for keeping silent, unlocking a door for a girl to return from having sex, and/or having to share a room in which a couple had sex.
Relative bargaining power: attributes
The amount of money or kind of gift exchanged was shaped by the relative bargaining power of the sexual partners. Several factors influenced this, relating to each partner's general attributes and particular circumstances.
The main attributes that made a girl or young woman desirable, and therefore able to demand greater remuneration, were her physical attractiveness, in particular light skin colour and large buttocks, her appearance in terms of clean, smart clothes and elaborately made up hair, her respectability and her prestige as a newcomer.
The greater a young woman's respectability, the more desirable she was to her potential partner and the more she had to lose by agreeing to sex, which usually meant that more valuable gifts were exchanged. Meanwhile one of the characteristics of less sexually reputable women, primarily wasimbe, was that they were said to be less discriminating about their sexual partners, caring less about their age or marital status, and they agreed to sex for very low prices (as little as Tsh 100). Women defined by men as "bad" for being disrespectful (kiburi) or wahuni, attracted less sexual partners and received very little for sex. Furthermore, young women who agreed to sex for minimal reward were sometimes suspected of having AIDS. 'He said that it seems that the girl was aware that she had AIDS since ...when she came to [Village 4] she was ready to have sex for small amounts of money between 200/- to 300/- shillings.' (PO-02-I-4-1 m)
Nearly all informants reported that newcomers to the village, of both sexes, were perceived as highly attractive sexual partners. These newcomers may have been complete strangers or may have emigrated from the village but occasionally returned on celebration days. Having sex with a newcomer was prestigious, especially if s/he had come from a town. It was observed and reported that urban girls and women usually had 'good clothes', had 'nicely made hair' (chemically softened), and were cleaner than most village women. Men competed with each other to be the first to have sex with a female newcomer, sometimes offering her as much as Tsh 5,000. The four female researchers experienced this themselves during participant observation, with some men offering as much as Tsh 10,000 for sex. However, the sexual attractiveness of newcomers was likely to wane as soon as they were known to have been seduced locally, and if they came to be seen as having had several partners they rapidly acquired the status of wasimbe, with limited bargaining power.
The most important attribute shaping the desirability of a male partner was his perceived earning capacity. Schoolboys had the least to offer, in contrast to young men with small businesses or who were farming, and adult men.
"Most girls prefer villagers [not at school] to school boys [as sexual partners], because villagers give them more money than school boys. Schoolboys give Tsh 200 and at most Tsh 500, while a villager gives Tsh 1,000 to a girl." (17 yr old Sukuma woman, at school Std 4: PO-99-I-1-2f)
Furthermore, a few girls said that schoolboys not only offered very little for sex, but frequently failed to pay what they promised. Men with little income were likely to have few partners.
It was reported that the men most favoured as sexual partners were those with a steady, relatively high income, such as teachers, government employees (e.g. village authorities) and business people, and a few women reported relationships with such men. Young women with sexual partners who owned shops or kiosks said that they went there to select whatever item they wanted without paying, or to ask for money.
Personal attractiveness, whether in terms of "good behaviour" (tabia nzuri) or appearance, seemed to be less important for a man to win sexual partners than "the weight of his pockets". There was a common saying that: "There are no unattractive/ugly men, and if there are, then they are those without money". However, if a man was perceived to be attractive a young woman might accept a more modest payment for sex, while if unattractive he was likely to be refused unless he offered a lot more. The following fieldnote shows how girls sometimes demanded a price clearly intended to avoid sex, though we cannot tell why: 'K2-m (a 23 yr old man) said they were coming from the well where they had followed some girls. ...the girls had told them that if they wanted to have sex with them, they should give them Tsh 10,000. They said they were not ready to give the girls that amount of money to have sex with them only once...they could have sex with lots of other girls for a small amount of money.' (PO-00-I-4-1 m)
Like female newcomers, male newcomers to the village were particularly valued as sexual partners. This was primarily because of their perceived affluence, but also the prestige of their presumed modern urban lifestyle. The male researchers were thus also sought as potential sexual partners, although less directly than were the female researchers, for instance women tried to get the female researchers to act as intermediaries to access male researchers. Women known as wasimbe, or reputed to be wahuni, preferred newcomers who were ignorant of their sexual reputations which might have undermined their bargaining power.
There were occasional evening video shows in the villages, brought from the district capitals by young men. Some young women got a man to pay their Tsh 100 entrance fee, agreeing to have sex afterwards with their benefactor. Frequently this was one of those running the show:
"The young men who come to show videos in the village usually have sex with village girls, because they allow them to enter free of charge and are also seen as having money and thus being potential providers." (Male attendee at video show: PO-99-I-1-2f)
Relative bargaining power: circumstances
Whatever their attributes, partners' current circumstances also shaped their bargaining power, in particular women's immediate material needs, men's access to ready cash, and the stage of their relationship.
In general, the more affluent a girl or woman was, the greater payment she was likely to demand before agreeing to have sex. As an msimbe observed, to the affirmation of another:
"If a man realises that a girl has no source of income he takes advantage of her and can even have sex with her for Tsh 100.... Men take advantage of a woman who does not have her own source of income. If you just wait for men they make fun of you, like goodness knows what. They will really show you contempt. It is better that you have your own small source of income, and if a hawara (lover) adds to your capital, you just continue with it". (19 yr old Sukuma woman: PO-99-C-5-2f)
However, the amount given for sex was also shaped by the male partner's access to money and the girl/woman's bargaining skills. Schoolgirls in their early teens usually only received sugarcane or peanuts from sex with schoolboys, as a male recent school leaver said: "I mean, there at school, girls are finished for just peanuts." However, older girls, and girls who had out-of-school lovers, could demand and receive larger gifts, partly because their partners had more money, but in some cases because they argued that they had less parental support and therefore greater needs.
The dry, harvest period was a festive time with traditional drumming, dancing competitions and little farm work. Farmers were at their most affluent shortly after harvest when they sold their cash crops, and their available money then dwindled until the next harvest, unless they found employment as labourers during the planting season. Consequently the frequency of sex, and payment accepted for sex, varied seasonally. During the rainy season, it could often be as little as Tsh 200, while after harvest this frequently increased to as much as Tsh 1,000.
Similarly, fishermen were more likely to agree to pay large sums for sex when they had just returned from a fishing trip and had ready cash. In lakeshore villages a few young women targeted fishermen when they had just returned from a catch, by strolling about on the beach in tight fitting dresses. These women were said to 'kuchuna mbuzi', literally 'skin the goat', meaning lure the fishermen into having sex for money.
As a relationship developed, bargaining power tended to increase for the man/boy. It was widely reported that more money or gifts were necessary to seduce a girl or woman into starting a sexual relationship than to have sex on subsequent occasions:
"In the beginning of a relationship the man gives relatively more money. But as the relationship continues he reduces it, or even becomes sly so as to have sex for free... [When] I met my boyfriend for the first... [sexual encounter] he gave me Tsh 1,500; this was reduced to Tsh 1,000 the second time." (Sukuma schoolgirl, Std 7: PO-01-I-1-2f)
Several reasons may combine to explain why less was exchanged for sex after first intercourse within a relationship (also found in Durban, South Africa [
8]). The young woman might have become less desirable to her partner, the prestige of seduction having been achieved and fantasies of sexual contact realised. Meanwhile the woman's respectability had been undermined by her succumbing to his pressure to have sex. Furthermore, most men were unable to maintain the gifts offered for first sex. Several young people reported that consequently young women often ended relationships after a few sexual encounters, to find more lucrative ones:
Respondent (14 yr old Sukuma school girl) It was me who rejected him.... I was asking for money and he refused, I asked for body oil and he refused
Interviewer: Now, that [new boyfriend], does he give you money?
Respondent: He gives me money. I buy body oil, exercise books and pencils
Interviewer: About how much money does he give you?
Respondent: Tsh 1,500. (II-99-C-51-2f)
Exchanging sex for gifts or money thus gave women an incentive to change partners, although it encouraged men to keep them.
Bullying, tricks and deception
There were various ways in which men sometimes manipulated women or girls' circumstances to strengthen their bargaining position. Physical coercion in sex was generally condemned, and sometimes resulted in fines by the village authorities, but cases rarely reached that level, and then usually only if there was evidence of extreme violence, the girl was very young, and/or there was no prior gift-giving [
53]. It was difficult to ascertain the prevalence of coercive sex, but threats seemed more common than actual violence, which was primarily associated with heavy drinkers. Threats were generally made when a young woman was thought to be reneging on an explicit or implicit agreement to have sex in return for a gift. For instance, young women reported that if they refused to have sex after consuming a gift at festivals, men often threatened to beat them or snatch away their
kanga (cloth tied like a skirt). They said that they agreed to have sex to avoid such embarrassment.
Men were said sometimes to bully women into agreeing to sex by fabricating stories about prior gifts. One female informant reported:
"He gives her, like, Tsh 20 for sugar cane, then he wants to beat her if she refuses [sex]. If asked by people why he wants to beat her, he says she ate [took] his money worth Tsh 2,000". (13 yr old Sukuma schoolgirl, Std 5: PO-99-C-5-2f)
Young women sometimes agreed to sex in such cases to avoid embarrassment and protracted disputes.
A common trick was for a man to use an intermediary to get a young woman to accept a gift indirectly. For instance, a few food kiosk owners reported that men sometimes told them to serve food to a particular woman, suggesting it was the kiosk owner's gift. The man then paid the bill, putting him in a strong position to negotiate having sex with the woman, since she was indebted to him. However, most women were aware of such tricks:
"A man buys you tea or soda, he gives you money, he cunningly pleases you. He can cater for your costs first before propositioning you." (Young Sukuma woman, out of school: PO-99-C-8-2f)
Some girls and women described being deceived with false promises of future payment, though if this was repeated several times they would seek a new partner. A young female informant bitterly described her boyfriend as "sly":
"He tells you, 'Tomorrow, when tomorrow comes.' He says, 'Tomorrow', like that, and you continue to have sex with him. Eventually a month is over without being paid your money". (PO-99-C-5-2f)
Failure to fulfil such promises could lead to considerable animosity, especially in situations where the young woman's relatives knew about it, and particularly if they benefited from the sexual exchange. Men were sometimes compelled to honour promises of payment, sometimes surreptitiously:
"When a boy agrees he will give a girl money if they make love, and then afterwards he doesn't give it, that girl goes to tell her grandmother. The grandmother gets very annoyed that the boy makes a fool of her grandchild by not giving her anything. The grandmother looks for local medicines to make the boy 'become a woman' [impotent], that is ... he loses the power of making love.... After some time the man discovers the change and immediately goes to a traditional healer for divination. The traditional healer tells him the truth, that he did not give the girl her money after making love with her. That boy goes to seek forgiveness from the girl and gives her much more money than they had agreed previously." (Young woman: PO-00-I-4-4f)
Festivals
The Christian holidays and national festival days were important in the villages and eagerly awaited, villagers saving up money and gifts for these occasions. Much greater license than normal was given to young people, and young women with strict parents had a rare opportunity to hang about in the evening and talk to friends.
Young women were very concerned that their clothes should be as smart and new as possible on these celebration days. They often used their savings to this end, or if necessary borrowed from their friends or boyfriends. For instance as Christmas approached a 17 yr old schoolgirl (Std 5) 'was thinking of asking her boyfriend to give her Tsh 1,000 so that she can add to what she has and go to Geita [district capital] to buy shoes' (PO-99-I-1-2f), or in July a young woman said:
"I was given money by my partner in order to buy socks for the choir at the Sabasaba inauguration". (PO-00-I-4-4f)
On these days there was more sexual negotiation and activity, and transactional sex was much more explicit, usually taking the form of "halleluya" exchanges, deriving from 'alleluia' meaning praise and thanks to God. If someone greeted another person with the word "Halleluya" they expected to be given a gift or money. Most young women preferred to ask men for halleluya gifts because they gave more, but the women knew that they were likely to have to reciprocate by having sex, since most quickly spent the money or consumed the food or drinks given. Men generally demanded to have their gift back, or to have sex with the recipient, once they were sure that she had used it; if she still had the gift or money she might return it and avoid sex.
Many men in the market place demonstrated their affluence by buying sodas or beer conspicuously to attract women. Men often used festivals to seduce previously unobtainable women, offering them larger halleluyas than those who were easier to seduce.
Market days were held once or twice a week, depending on the village, attracting people from nearby villages and towns. Most operated in the evenings, allowing pupils to attend, for whom they were important social occasions. Many young people reported that they met their sexual partners there and that much sexual negotiation and exchange happened there, sugarcane playing a prominent role.