African Cultures that Make the Spread of HIV/AIDS Easy
The rich African culture as it were, was and still is, admirable except for a few misgivings. The moral of circumcision for males was a virtue for the Bagisu, but to test out manhood thereafter, becomes a crisis in this time and age where sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS are alert and about.
It was a great consolation to have a widow inherited after her husband died, considering her well being and raising the children with a father figure. However, under today’s circumstances, African women like Uganda’s HIV/AIDS activist Beatrice Were and the Obwanda Distress Relief Woman’s Club in Kenya, live to tell of how they ...view middle of the document...
For the illiterate rural minds sharing of sharp instruments during shrine operations remains and in worst circumstances mostly in cases of barrenness, the male witchdoctors recommend having sex with their client as one way of inserting the medicine into the woman’s uterus. Even worse are cases where witchdoctors have recommended defilement and incest as remedies for cures or getting wealth. The case of young virgin girls being defiled as a cure for AIDS may have its root in this.
The culture of polygamy was a beauty if one read books like Chinua Achebe’s things fall apart, one could find the prestige of polygamous marriage clearly portrayed. Perhaps it did settle the marriage need of the bigger female population. However today it is a threat considering the new stance of deception, where men allege monogamy but practice polygamy by scattering their wives to prevent conflict. In so doing, most cases of infidelity have arisen than ever before exposing families to HIV/AIDS infection.
Early marriages in Africa remain an item to contend with despite campaigns to save the girl child. The culture of kidnapping girls for marriage remains a joy for the men who have to benefit from it, as long as they appease the parents of these girls. An issue which brings in the bride wealth crisis, where parent are willing to marry off their daughters or even prostitute them for the joy of gifts given to them by prospective husbands to their daughters or at worst defilers of their daughters.
Cross generational sex is a cultural aspect that was not condemned...
