Notions of sex,sexuality and relationships among adolescent boys in rural southeastern Nigeria

Although young people in Nigeria become sexually active at a very early age, little is known about how they view sex, sexuality, and relationships with the opposite sex. Yet knowledge of their notions and expectations regarding these issues has the potential to improve care and inform the development of sexuality education programmes. This paper reports the findings of a study which relied on in‐depth individual interviews and focus group discussions to investigate notions of sex, sexuality, and relationships among 120 boys aged 10–21 in rural southeastern Nigeria. Emerging data suggest that the popular images of sex, sexuality, and relationship among the boys support the notion of the cult of the male, which consists in a heady mixture of paternalism, systematic subordination of girls, and the glorification and idolization of male sexuality and sexual prowess. Boys generally held a penis‐centred view of sex and tended to liken sexual intercourse and relationships with girls to encounters during which girls were conquered, subdued, and demystified. The ideology of a double standard, in which males feel morally and physically edified by multiple sex encounters and viewed females as morally demeaned by the same, was observed among the boys. The findings show the need for approaches to sexuality education to be sensitive to the cultural contexts within which these notions are formed and sustained among boys in local communities.     

Male youth and Voluntary Counseling and HIV-Testing: the case of Malawi and Uganda

There is limited research addressing the beliefs of adolescents related to Voluntary Counseling and HIV-Testing (VCT). This paper analyzes qualitative data on such beliefs elicited from male youth in Uganda and Malawi. Although study participants understood the mainstream public health rhetoric on VCT, much of their narratives framed going for HIV testing in terms of danger, as a sign of lack of self-confidence, and as an acknowledgment of vulnerability. This tendency, we contend, is strongly rooted in the inclination of male youth to perform and validate their identities in gestures of self-certitude, imperviousness, invulnerability, and invincibility. Further, the idea of ‘not wanting to die alone’ from AIDS also featured prominently in the narratives, with many respondents declaring that they would deliberately infect others with HIV should they test positive. Key to freeing young people from the shackles of consternation and misconceptions about VCT and HIV is comprehensive HIV education.