ECAS 2013

This paper strikes up a conversation with Mark Hunter's wonderful 2010 book, Love in the Time of Aids. Inequality, Gender and Rights in South Africa. Hunter raises some considerable challenges to understandings of gender relations in contemporary South Africa. Focusing specifically on his concepts of the "political economy and geography of intimacy" and "love" and his challenge of the concept of a "crisis of masculinity", this paper suggests that feminist and critical masculinity approaches remain valid tools to analyse the lives of urban women, especially female heads of households. Drawing on thirty in-depth interviews with female heads of households in three townships of Pietermaritzburg (Msunduzi), KwaZulu-Natal in 2010, this paper outlines the harsh realities of women left to raise children and grandchildren on their own, their disappointments in "love" and men, and their economic marginality and dependence on the state. As a demographic trend, female headed households in poor, often informal, urban areas, have been noted in South Africa since at least the 1930s. Today, they are the norm in poorer urban townships. While these dynamics could be read as a "crisis" of marriage and gender relations, there are also deep experiences of positive emotional and psychological transformation at play that resonate with a feminist understanding of female challenges to patriarchal power, violence and abuse.

Extant literature gives inadequate attention to the use of micro theoretical approaches in examining the phenomenon of cross border sex trade among the Benin of Southern Nigeria, a region described as the hub of sex trafficking in Nigeria. This paper therefore, fills this gap by adopting an ethnographic approach in the socio-cultural and historic milieu in which the phenomenon of international sex trade occurs and the current trajectories it is presently undergoing. Qualitative data were obtained from key informants who are the custodians of Benin culture and relevant archival materials were also engaged in order establish the rationale for the pervasiveness of cross border sex trade in the region. The study found that Benin earlier contact with the Portuguese had fifteenth century culminated in a commercial intercourse between them which then established a prestige structure in the traditional Benin Society. Hence, contact with the Europeans, which entailed overseas travel is still perceived among the Benin People of Southern Nigeria as status symbol, thus explaining the prevailing value structure which deifies "traveling overseas". The paper further revealed that, women of the socio-economic stratum of this Benin extraction accept the option provided by lucrative cross border sex trade overseas. The paper concludes that migration to overseas by Benin women is perceived as a form of social and economic empowerment against the backdrop of apparent cultural discrimination which privileges males over females in the region.

Among the Suri agro-pastoralists, a relatively self-sufficient and independent people of ca. 34,000 in the extreme southwest of Ethiopia, young adolescent girls often assert that they menstruate together and regulate their sexual cycle, relating it to the phases of the moon. 'Menstrual synchrony' is a much debated and still unresolved phenomenon in the scientific literature. Rather than giving immediate credence to the (intriguing) assertion of its existence, I claim that the young, unmarried Suri girls - who are very well aware of all biological facts around procreation, the fertility cycle and pregnancy prevention - may use this assertion to maintain sexual independence and choice of partners in a society that is marked by significant gender equality but also competition, reflecting women's vital economic and social roles.

After a brief presentation of the (inter-disciplinary) debate on menstrual synchrony and the possible role of human pheromones, I go on to describe Suri gender relations and sexual culture, using field data gathered in two villages. I then tentatively assess the plausibility of the claims to menstrual synchrony, and elaborate an interpretation of Suri female sexual/reproductive strategies in a society marred by instability, male group violence, and an uncertain future.

This study examined the lifestyle, sexual, emotional and mental health needs of lesbian and bisexual women in Abuja, Nigeria. Respondents were recruited from a lesbian-oriented outreach organized by WHER initiative in Abuja in July 2011 with 36 women in attendance, but only 29 participated in the study. Questionnaires were utilized for data collection and analyzed descriptively using SPSS. About 58.6% of respondents identified to be lesbians while the remaining identified as bisexuals. All respondents were unmarried with mean age of 25.8 years. A large proportion (84%) reported engaging in unprotected oral sex; nearly two-thirds reported not using gloves and condoms when sharing sex toys, and similar proportion had sex with both men and women 1 year before the study. About half of them had unprotected sex with men and 41.7% reported transactional sex with men. Some reported being physically abused in their childhood (20.7%), and almost one-third reported ever been raped by a man. Slightly more than half (55.2%) have ever used marijuana and 10.3% injected drugs. 65.5% reported experiencing depression often, 55.2% have ever thought about committing suicide; and 10.3% have ever attempted suicide. The study revealed the existence of huge, unmet health needs; it also highlights the importance of rights-based approach to public health interventions for these women. Empowerment programs are needed to alleviate the dependency of some lesbians on risky sex with men. Lesbian-oriented counseling service is greatly needed. Access to dental dams, finger cots and other products and services can help protect their sexual health.

Recent demographic and anthropological research has shown a significant increase in both the number of never married people and the age at first marriage in many parts of Southern Africa. Weddings are no longer a seemingly universal ritual experienced by almost all adults in a society. Fertility rates have declined at a much slower pace and reproduction is now largely disentangled from marriage. Thus, the paper asks which hidden dimensions shape reproduction if marriage does not. My interpretations are based on ethnographic census data, archival data on men being sued for child maintenance, and detailed reproductive life histories collected during anthropological fieldwork in rural Fransfontein in Northwest Namibia since 2003. Today only 30 percent of the population 15 years and older is (or has been) married in Fransfontein. An in-depth look at reproductive histories reveals that many unmarried women have a significantly higher number of reproductive partners than married women. While married women have on average children with one or two different partners, unmarried women may have up to five or six reproductive partners. Many unmarried women manage to survive as a result of the social networks they were able to build through joint parenthood with the different fathers of their children, a practice Jane Guyer has conceptualized as 'polyandrous motherhood'. Finding, keeping and also losing a man through joint parenthood has become a very common experience for most unmarried Fransfontein women. The paper will discuss these reproductive dynamics and relate them to other social dimensions like generation and class.

Fertility in Niger is among the highest: the mean number of children per women was 7.4 in 1992, 7.5 in 1998 and 7.1 in 2006. Few studies attempted to explain the sustained fertility to high levels. Why does fertility in Niger remain so high? We use quantitative data on women and men from the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey and compute parity progression ratios. We hypothesize that fertility is higher when individuals live in rural areas at the moment of the survey. Secondly, fertility levels differ across ethnic groups (cultural factors expressed in terms of marriage and value of children may explain some of those differences). Thirdly, a higher level of education is associated to lower fertility levels of women and men. In particular, our results show significant differences between Haoussa, and other groups (Djerma, Touareg, Peul and others). Fertility differences between Haoussa and Djerma may be due to the greatest propensity to postpone marriage among Djerma who live near the capital city. In contrast, Haoussa are more conservative; girls' early sex and marriage as well as school-leaving is common. As poverty increases, men use religion to blame western values and systems, including family planning (FP). In contrast Djerma tolerate FP but do not use it effectively. Haoussa are sedentary while Touareg are a nomadic people. Finally the difference of men fertility between Haoussa and Peul could be a consequence of the practice of polygamy for Haoussa, that is quite rare for the nomadic Peul.

Using longitudinal data from six rural communities in three coastal regions of Ghana, this study examines emerging patterns of childbearing in households comprised largely of fishermen, fishmongers and farmers. It also includes an examination of the household fertility decision-making environment for coital frequency, contraception and birth-spacing. Data reveals interesting pattern of childbearing with regard to educational attainment of respondents; for women, their age at birth of first child is a stronger determinant of subsequent childbearing and eventual total fertility rate in Ghana's on-going demographic transition.

In looking for empirical evidence about the activity of countries, a proposal is made for studying (measuring and modelling) the activity of countries through the use of Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) and Socio-Demographic Matrices (SDMs).

SAMs and SDMs are presented as tools that have specific features for conducting studies in several different areas, as well as for supporting policy decision processes.

Based on methodological principles that are derived mainly from the works of Richard Stone, emphasis is placed on the desirability of working in a matrix format, which includes, on the one hand, people (SDM) and, on the other, simultaneously, activities, products, factors of production and institutions (SAM). This is considered to be a way of capturing the relevant network of linkages and the corresponding multiplier effects in the subsequent modelling of the activity of the countries studied.

A method will be proposed for the construction of those matrices. In the case of the SAMs, it is proposed that their design and construction should adopt, at least as their starting point, the latest version of the System of National Accounts (2008 SNA) and the corresponding results of its adoption/adaptation by different countries.

The exposition of this proposal is accompanied by an example applied to Mozambique, as well as by some considerations about the quality, suitability and completeness of the data used in their construction of SAMs and SDMs.

Currently, about 23,3% (UNAIDS) of the population between 15-49 yrs in Lesotho are found to carry the HI-virus. Medication to prevent

HIV-transmission from mother-to-child (PMTCT) during pregnancy, delivery and

breastfeeding is available, however, preventing pregnancies of HIV-positive women is considered a cheaper way. Thus, although not specifically mentioned in the national ARV-treatment guidelines or in the HIV testing and counselling training courses for staff, in many cases HIV+ women are advised to prevent

subsequent pregnancies and are discouraged from notions of large families. Notwithstanding, Lesotho has currently one of the lowest total fertility rates

in Africa with 3,3 children born per woman already and the government intends to lower it even further. This is due to the governmental policy aimed at having a young generation that is HIV-free by reducing the possibility at the earliest possible stage. Yet, the national aids commission regrets that 24.4% of the women who knew about their HIV positive status still got pregnant. Even though,some health institutions even combine antiretroviral drugs, which are given to HIV-positive people, with contraceptives. In others, HIV-positive women are "counselled to the point of accepting contraceptives" (Fieldnotes).

I would like to show in this presentation, that some HIV+ women understand PMTCT rather as a chance than an emergency option like the government does: It is now much more likely to have a child being born free from HIV and the provision of PMTCT stimulates a desire for healthy offspring.