Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:44:35.147Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Beth Maina Ahlberg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the current HIV debate there are diverse opinions about the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and the reasons for it. Caldwell and his colleagues, for example, argue that the whole of Africa has a distinct sexuality which is inherently permissive. They claim moreover that no religious moral value is attached to sexual activity, and Christianity has thus not succeeded in changing matters. They find in this failure the reason for the failure of the fertility control programme in sub-Saharan Africa, and they argue that HIV/AIDS control efforts will fail similarly unless the fear it generates forces Africans to adopt the Eurasian model, with its religious, moral value.

The article re-examines Caldwell et al.'s conceptualisation of the role of moral value in social change. Without considering the internal expressions, mechanisms and social contexts within and through which moral value is maintained and changed, they assume that Christian moral values could lead to a change in sexual behaviour from permissive (as they see it) African sexuality to the Eurasian model. In making such an assumption they ignore the ethical and behavioural contradictions generally inherent in moral systems. Moreover they pay little attention to the process of change in Western societies, where Christian morality has lost a great deal of its control over behaviour. But even if we assume that internal contradictions and processes of change do not exist, the christianisation process in Africa fundamentally transformed local customs in ways that delinked their role in regulating behaviour, including sexual behaviour.

For discussions and decisions on options and strategies for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, identifying the nature and impact of that transformation is essential.

Résumé

Dans le débat actuel sur le HIV, il y a des opinions diverses au sujet de la propagation du HIV/SIDA en Afrique et les raisons pour ceci. Caldwell et ses collègues, par exemple, affirment que l'Afrique toute entière a une sexualité distincte qui est fondamentalement permissive. De plus, ils prétendent qu'il n'y a pas de valeurs religieuses ou morales attachées à l'activité sexuelle, et que le christianisme n'a done pas réussi à changer ces attitudes. Ils voient dans cet échec la raison pour un autre échec, celui du programme de contrôle de fertilité au sous-Sahara africain, et ils soutiennent que de la même manière les efforts visant à controller le HIV/SIDA échoueront à moins que la peur qu'il engendre force les africains à adopter le modéle eurasien avec ses valeurs religieuses et morales.

Cet article examine de nouveau la conceptualisation de Caldwell et autres, quant au rôle des valeurs morales dans les changements sociaux. Sans considérer les expressions internes, les mécanismes et les contextes sociaux au sein desquels et à travers lesquels les valeurs morales sont maintenues et changées, ils présument que les valeurs morales chrétiennes pourraient aboutir à un changement dans l'attitude sexuelle, passant de la sexualité africaine permissive (selon eux) au modèle eurasien. En faisant une telle supposition, ils ignorent les contradictions au niveau de I'éthique et du comportement qui sont généralement inhérentes aux systèmes moraux. De plus, ils ne prêtent que peu d'attention aux processus de changement dans les sociétés occidentales, où la moralité chrétienne a perdu une grande partie de son contrôle sur les attitudes.

Type
Sexuality, HIV and divorce
Information
Africa , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , April 1994 , pp. 220 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aggarwal, V. P., and Mati, J. K. G. 1982. ‘Epidemiology of induced abortions in Kenya’, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in East and Central Africa 1, 54.Google ScholarPubMed
Ahlberg, B. M. 1979. ‘Beliefs and practices concerning treatment of measles and acute diarrhoea among the Akamba’, Tropical and Geographical Medicine 31, 139–48.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, B. M. 1989. ‘A critical review of family planning programmes with special reference to sub-Saharan Africa’, IntemationalJournal of Prenatal and Perinatal Studies, 397–416.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, B. M. 1991. Women, Sexuality and the Changing Social Order: the impact of government policies on reproductive behaviour in Kenya. New York: Gordon & Breach.Google Scholar
Appiah-Kubi, K. 1981. Man Cures, God Heals: religion and medical practice among the Akans of Ghana. New York: Friendship Press, 14–17.Google Scholar
Ashmore, R. 1987. Building a Moral System. Englewood Cliffs N. J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Ashton, H. 1967. The Basuto: a social study of traditional and modern Lesotho. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, T., Burns, T. R., and Deville, P. 1986. The Shaping of Socio-economic Systems: the application of the theory of actor-system dynamics to conflict, social power, and institutional innovation in economic life. New York: Gordon & Breach.Google Scholar
Bayer, R. 1989. Private Acts, Social Consequences: AIDS and the politics of public health. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Beidelman, T. O. 1982. Colonial Evangelism: a socio-historical study of an East African mission at the grassroots. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bell, N. K. 1991. ‘Social/sexual norms and AIDS in the south: ethics and the politics of AIDS: lessons for small cities and rural areas throughout the U.S.’, AIDS Education and Prevention 3 (2), 164–80.Google ScholarPubMed
Berreman, G. D. 1981. The Politics of Truth: essays in critical anthropology. New Delhi: South Asian Publishers.Google Scholar
Bland, L. Purity. 1983. ‘Motherhood: pleasure or threat? Definitions of female sexuality, 1900-1970s’in Cartledge, S. and Ryan, J., (eds), Sex and Love: new thoughts on old contradictions. London: Women's Press.Google Scholar
Broude, G. J., and Greene, S. J. 1976. ‘Cross-cultural codes on twenty sexual attitudes and practices’, Ethnology, XV (4), 409–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. and P. 1988. ‘Is the Asia Family Planning Program model suited to Africa?’, Studies in Family Planning 19 (1), 19–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caldwell, J. C., Caldwell, P., and Quiggin, P. 1989. ‘The social context of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population and Development Review 15 (2), 185–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, R. 1982. Rural Development: putting the last first. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Clifford, J. 1988. The Predicament of Culture: twentieth century ethnography, literature and art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Church of Scotland Mission. 1931. Memorandum prepared by the Kikuyu Mission Council of the Church of Scotland, December. Nairobi: Kenya National Archive.Google Scholar
Cutrufelli, M. R. 1983. Women of Africa: roots of oppression, trans. Romano, Nicolas. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Dodge, R. E. 1964. The Unpopular Missionary. Westwood N. J.: Revell.Google Scholar
Dougall, J. W. C. 1939. ‘The case for and against mission schools’, Journal of the Royal African Society, 38 (50), 91–108.Google Scholar
Doyal, L. 1979. The Political Economy of Health. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1965. The Position of Women in Primitive Societies and other Essays in Social Anthropology. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. M. J. 1991. ‘Anthropology as cultural critique: inserts for the 1990s cultural studies of science, visual-virtual realities, and post-trauma policies’, Cultural Anthropology 6 (4), 525–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, G. M. 1962. Traditional Cultures and the Impact of Technological Change. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Frank, O., and McNicoll, G. 1987. ‘An interpretation of fertility and population policy in Kenya’, Population and Development Review 13 (2), 210–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, C. E. 1966. ‘Native and missionary religions’, in Diamond, S. and Burke, F. G. (eds), The Transformation of East Africa: studies in political anthropology. London: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Furedi, G. 1973. ‘The African crowd in Nairobi: popular movements and elite polities’, Journal of African History 14 (2), 275–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaba, C. R. 1971. ‘Sin in African traditional religion’, Ghana Bulletin of Theology 4 (1), 21–30.Google Scholar
Gebhard, P. H., 1970. Foreword in Marshall, D. S. and Suggs, R. C. (eds), Human Sexual Behavior: variations in the ethnographic spectrum. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Geshekter, C. L. 1990. ‘International tourism and African underdevelopment: some reflections on Kenya’, Studies in Third World Societies, No. 6.Google Scholar
Goody, J. 1976. Production and Reproduction: a comparative study of the domestic domain. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, G., and Kanstrup, C. 1992. ‘Sexuality: the missing link in women's health’, IDA Bulletin 23 (1), 29–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groves, C. P. 1948-1958. The Planting of Christianity in Africa I-IV. London: Lutterworth.Google Scholar
Hancock, G. 1989. Lords of Poverty. London: Mandarin.Google Scholar
Hauge, H. 1974. Luo Religion and Folklore. Oslo: Scandinavian University Books.Google Scholar
Hayward, V. E. W. 1963. African Independent Church Movements. London: Edinburgh House Press.Google Scholar
Hogbin, H. I. 1957. ‘Anthropology as public service and Malinowski's contribution to it’, in Firth, R. (ed.), Man and Culture: an evaluation of the work of Bronislaw Malinowski. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Horgan, J. 1991. ‘Exporting misery: a U.S. abortion ruling affects women's health worldwide’, Scientific American 8-9, August.Google Scholar
Huitzer, G., and Mannheim, B. 1979. The Politics of Anthropology: from colonialism to sexism. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, C. S. 1989. ‘Migrant labour and STDs: AIDS in Africa’, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 30, 353–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hutton, C., and Cohen, R. 1975. ‘African peasants and resistance to change: a reconsideration of the sociological approaches’, in Oxaal, I.Barnett, T. and Booth, D. (eds.), Beyond the Sociology of Development: economy and society in Latin America and Africa. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hyden, G. 1983. No Short Cut to Progress: African development management in perspective. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
IJsselmuiden, C. B., and Faden, R. R. 1992. ‘Research and informed consent in Africa: another look’, New England Journal of Medicine 326 (12), 830–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jankowiak, W. R., and Fischer, E. F. 1992. ‘A cross-cultural perspective on romantic love’, Ethnology 31(2), 149–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. I. 1974. ‘Social anthropology in Nigeria during the colonial period’, Africa 44 (3), 280–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyatta, J. 1938. Facing Mount Kenya. London: Seeker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Kershaw, G. 1975-1976. ‘The changing roles of men and women in the Kikuyu family, by socio-economic state’, Rural Africana 29, 173–94.Google Scholar
Kinoti, H. A. 1983. ‘Aspects of Gikuyu Traditional Morality’. Unpublished PhD thesis, Nairobi University.Google Scholar
Kivuvu, M., Tuliza, M., Malele, B., Combe, F.Goeman, J., Laga, M., Piot, P., and Heyward, M. 1991. ‘HIV Infection and other STD among Kinshasha Prostitutes: a comparison between 1988 and 1991’. Sixth International Conference on AIDS in Africa, Dakar. Abstract.Google Scholar
Krige, E. J. 1968. ‘Girls’ puberty songs and their relation to fertility, health, morality and religion among the Zulu’, Africa, 38 (2), 173–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, H. E. 1947. The Use of Indigenous Authorities in Tribal Administration: studies in the Mem of Kenya colony. Cape Town: University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Le Blanc, M. N., Meintel, D., and Piche, V. 1991. ‘The African sexual system: comment on Caldwell et al’. Population and Development Review 17 (3), 497–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leichter, H. M. 1991. Free to be Foolish: politics and health promotion in the United States and Great Britain. Princeton N. J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leith-Ross, S. 1939. African Women: a study of the Ibo of Nigeria. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Levine, C. 1991. ‘AIDS prevention and education: reframing the message’, AIDS Education and Prevention 3(2), 147–63.Google Scholar
Lovegrove, A. 1990. ‘AIDS: some theological reflections’, in Almond, B. (ed.), AIDS a Moral Issue: the ethical and social aspects. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mair, L. 1957. ‘Malinowski and the study of social change’, in Firth, R. (ed.) Man and Culture: an evaluation of the work of Bronislaw Malinowski. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. 1930. ‘The rationalization of anthropology and administration’, Africa Vol. III (4), 405–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, D. S., and Suggs, R. C. 1970. Human Sexual Behavior: variations in the ethnographic spectrum. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mbiti, J. S. 1969. African Religions and Philosophy. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Mburu, S. P. 1979. ‘How the youth was provided with family life education in my society (Kikuyu) and how this may be provided in Kenya today’, Kenya Journal of Adult Education 6 (3), 23–6.Google Scholar
McLean, S., and Graham, S. E. 1985. Female Circumcision, Excision andInfibulation. Minority Rights Group report 47. London: Minority Rights Group.Google Scholar
Messenger, J. C. 1970. ‘Sex and repression in an Irish folk community’, in Marshall, D. S. and Suggs, R. C. (eds), Human Sexual Behavior: variations in the ethnographic spectrum. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mies, M. 1986. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: women in the international division of labour. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Morris, H. F., and Read, J. S. 1972. Indirect Rule and the Search for Justice: essays in East African legal history. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mugambi, J. N. K. 1989. African Heritage and Contemporary Christianity. Nairobi: Longman Kenya.Google Scholar
Murray, J. M. 1974. ‘The Kikuyu Female Circumcision Controversy, with special reference to the Church Missionary Society's sphere of influence’. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California.Google Scholar
Ocholla-Ayayo, A. B. C. 1976. Traditional Ideology and Ethics among the Southern Luo. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Ojwang, S. B. O., and Maggwa, A. B. N. 1991. ‘Adolescent sexuality in Kenya’, East African Medical Journal, 74–80.Google Scholar
Omvedt, G. 1986. Women in Popular Movements: India and Thailand during the decade of women. UNRISD, Participation Programme, Report No. 86.9. Geneva: UN Research Institute for Social Development.Google Scholar
Osteria, T., and Sullivan, G. 1991. ‘The impact of religion and cultural values on AIDS education programmes in Malaysia and the Philippines’, AIDS Education and Prevention 3 (2), 133–46.Google ScholarPubMed
Palmer, C. 1989. ‘Is rape a cultural universal? A re-examination of the ethnographic data’, Ethnology 28, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philp, H. R. A. 1925. ‘Artificial atresia in Kikuyu women’, Kenya Medical Journal 2 (3), 86–94.Google Scholar
Plummer, F., Braddick, M., Cameron, W., Ndinya-Achola, J., Kreiss, J., Bosire, M., Ronald, A., and Ngugi, E. 1988. ‘Durability of Sexual Behaviour in Nairobi Prostitutes: increasing use of condom’. Fourth International AIDS Conference, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Presley, A. C. 1988. ‘The Mau Mau rebellion, Kikuyu women, and social change’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 22 (3), 503–26.Google Scholar
Preston, R. H. 1987. The Future of Christian Ethics. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Ray, B. G. 1976. African Religion: symbols, ritual, and community. Englewood Cliffs N. J.: Prentice-Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Republic of Kenya. 1967. Family Planning in Kenya. Nairobi: Ministry of Economic Planning and Development.Google Scholar
Rice, J. H. 1947. ‘Soil conservation organization in Fort Hall District as adapted from the indigenous Ngwatio systems’, East African Agricultural Journal, April, 2000-2001.Google Scholar
Rosberg, C. G., and Nottingham, J. 1966. The Myth of the Mau Mau. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Ross, M. W. 1992. ‘Attitudes towards condoms and condom use: a review’, International Journal of STD and AIDS 3; 10–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushton, J. P., and Bogaert, A. F. 1989. ‘Population differences in susceptibility to AIDS: an evolutionary analysis’, Social Science and Medicine 28 (12).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sabatier, R. 1988. Blaming Others: prejudices, race and worldwide AIDS. London: Panos Institute.Google Scholar
Sadik, N. (ed.). 1991. Population Policies and Programmes: lessons learned from two decades of experience. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, G. 1989. ‘Sexual permissiveness in Western societies: roots and course of development’, Nordisk Sexologi 7, 225–34.Google Scholar
Schoenfeld, E. 1992. ‘Militant and submissive religions: class, religion and ideology’, British Journal of Sociology 43 (1), 111–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strayer, R. W. 1978. The Making of Mission Communities in East Africa: Anglican and Africans in colonial Kenya, 1875-1935. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Tan, M., de Leon, A., Stoltzfus, B., and O'Donnell, C. 1989. ‘AIDS as a political issue: working with the sexually prostituted in the Philippines’, Community Development Journal 24 (3), 186–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trustram, M. 1983. ‘Distasteful and derogatory? Examining Victorian soldiers for venereal disease’, in London Feminist History Group, The Sexual Dynamics of History: men's power, women's resistance. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Turshen, M. 1989. The Politics of Public Health. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Turshen, M. 1991. Women and Health in Africa. Trenton N. J.: Africa World PressGoogle Scholar
Van Onselen, C. 1976. Chibaro: African mine labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900-1933. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Verby, C., and Herold, E. S. 1992. ‘Parents and AIDS education’, AIDS Education and Prevention 4 (3), 187–96.Google ScholarPubMed
Verryn, T. D. 1975. Church and Marriage in Africa. Zenith Printers.Google Scholar
Wachter, R. M. 1992. ‘AIDS activism and the politics of health’, New England Journal of Medicine 326 (2), 128–33. Weekly Review, 20 June 1986.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Welbourn, F. B. 1961. East African Rebels: a study of independent Churches. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Westermarck, E. 1894. The History of Human Marriage. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
White, L. 1983. ‘A colonial state and an African petty bourgeoisie: prostitution and class struggle in Nairobi’, in Cooper, F. (ed.), Struggle for the City: migrant labour, capital, and the state in urban Africa. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
White, L. 1990. ‘Separating the men from the boys: constructions of gender, sexuality, and terrorism in central Kenya, 1939-1959’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 23 (1), 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M. 1957. Rituals of Kinship among the Nyakyusa. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 1971. Religion and the Transformation of Society: a study in social change in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Worthman, C. M., and Whiting, J. W. M. 1987. ‘Social change in adolescent sexual behavior, mate selection, and premarital pregnancy rates in a Kikuyu community’, Ethos 15 (2), 145–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahan, D. 1979. The Religion, Spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar