SWAZI CULTURE ENCOURAGES HIV AIDS

The international outcry after news that Swazi MP Timothy Myeni has called for people who are HIV positive to be branded on the buttocks to advertise the fact, reminds me of just how much work needs to be done in Swaziland to stem the tide of AIDS.

A study of Swazi cultural practices, funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) http://www.unfpa.org/public/ and released earlier this year found that they made it difficult to stem the tide of HIV AIDS in Swaziland where the infection rate is as much as 45 percent among some age groups, the highest in the world.

The study found, ‘In Swazi culture, decision making has traditionally been a male prerogative. Family planning decisions, therefore, lie with the man.

‘Women report that they have been subjected to continuous child birth by their husbands or in-laws against their will.’

Another cultural factor is a preference (which is sometimes made into a demand by in-laws) for a woman to bear a boy child. Unwanted pregnancies result as the birth of a girl child is immediately followed by an effort to have a male heir who by traditional law is of the only sex that can lead a family into its next generation.

So strong are these beliefs, coupled with an antipathy toward condom use, that AIDS prevention efforts directed at women haven’t made much headway, according to current statistics. HIV prevalence peaks at age 25-29 amongst Swazi women, 40 percent of whom are HIV-positive in that age group, and at age 30-35 amongst men, 45 percent of whom are HIV-positive in that age group.

In the study, Swazi men strongly defended the practice of kungena, whereby a widow becomes the wife of the deceased man’s brother; a practice that health groups say spreads HIV. Swazi men also defended polygamy as a cultural necessity.

But men also lamented cultural practices they said could stop the spread of HIV, like kuhlawula, whereby men or boys who impregnate unmarried women are fined five cows by their community elders, are no longer enforced.

Several Swazi customs were once in place to ensure that young people stayed chaste until marriages. At the time, marriages were usually arranged between families as forms of alliances. Until the traditional ceremony was completed, young people were not allowed to have sex.

One taboo was the people did not engage in sex outside their age groups.

Boys were subject to ridicule by their contemporaries if they were known to sleep with older women.

Now, Sugar Daddies and Sugar Mamas are common. It is not even sexual attraction that draws the youngest of the partners to such relationships, but the lure of money.

In previous Swazi generations, girls’ sexual debuts were delayed through such customs as umcwasho, when all the nations’ girls of certain ages were forbidden to engage in sex for designated periods.

This was examined last year by a report undertaken by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). he study covered much the same ground as this year’s health ministry research.

On the subject of Swazi customs that have been forgotten, but which could if they had continued positively assisted anti-AIDS efforts, the report noted, ‘Today these social practices have degenerated as a lot of negative sexual practices are tolerated by society.’

SWAZI CULTURE LETS WOMEN STARVE

The status of women in Swaziland is so low that they are practically starved at meal times, according to a report just out.

Women, who under traditional Swazi law are treated as children and are in effect owned by their husbands or fathers, are expected to live lives devoted to their men and families.

A report on the State of the Population in Swaziland says that Swazi women are responsible for childbirth, raising the children and taking care of the entire family.

The report conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA on behalf of the Swaziland Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, said, ‘Unfortunately, the status of women is so lower than that of men, that she will not eat until everyone has eaten.’

During meal times, the women waited for the men and the youth to eat before they did.

‘Eating last also means that her choice of food is limited,’ the report says.

‘Traditionally, she does not consume milk and its products at her marital home, unless she earns permission through the offer of liphakelo beast by her husband.’ This is when the husband gives the woman a cow for her own use.

I have written before about the depressingly poor status of women in Swaziland, here in no particular order are some recent examples of the way women are treated in Swaziland.

Women are expected to give their husbands sex on demand and those who refuse have been blamed for men who rape children.

During the 2008 Swazi national election, women who campaigned for women to be elected to the House of Assembly were branded ‘evil’ by chiefs.

In a survey 40 percent of men said it was all right to beat women.

Women are denied the right to dress as they please (e.g. wearing pants) by village elders, who then punish the women with fines.

One in three Swazi women has suffered some form of sexual abuse as a child, while one in four experienced physical violence. Often the abusers are the girls’ own fathers or boyfriends.

A 17-year-old woman (described as a ‘minor’) was convicted for committing abortion after her lover, a married man, impregnated her and told her to get rid of it. She represented herself in court and was sentenced to a prison term of two years or an E2 000 fine. The man was not charged.

A spokesperson for the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) writing in the Times of Swaziland about women who carry condoms said, ‘The greater section of the public thinks it is promiscuous and you will readily be labelled a whore’

A Times columnist writes that rapists were not necessarily beasts as society had labelled them. ‘Most of them were men who had tried to ignore their desires which were fuelled by “half naked women” until such time that it became too much to bear and they raped someone.’

The Times Sunday published an article by one of its regular columnists headlined ‘Sexual harassment: Come on we love it’ which says, ‘Most women just love what is termed sexual harassment, especially in the workplace.’ The article is accompanied by a cartoon of a man touching a woman on her breast.

A fellow ‘blogger’ Sikelela Dlamini has written about how Swaziland’s constitution discriminates against women whose children were born of marriage to non-Swazi males have had their children’s travel documents invalidated because they are not Swazi. Check out what he has to say here.