[afro-nets] Westerners 'are more promiscuous' (6)

["Robert Karanja" <RKaranja@kemri.org>]

Westerners 'are more promiscuous' (6)
------------------------------------

Hi Richard,

Good to hear from you and I couldn't agree more, there is more to it than meets the eye.  I am always fascinated by the interaction of cultures and so the provocatively aimed title of the news item easily caught my attention.

I have always admired America for her constant striving towards the ideals that have branded her as a land of opportunity.  Yes, the semantics and word play that is aptly referred to as "political correctness" creates room for diverse agendas such as pro-gay and other such neoliberalist leaning views. Nevertheless, it does not take away the bottom line, which is the fact that words and their connotations are powerful - they shape the society and individual's worldview!  There is no denying that HIV/AIDS stigma in Africa is a killer.  This is because we know it mainly spreads through sexual contact especially where sex outside of marriage is practised and this is frowned upon by society.

The strong stigma associated with HIV is in itself an indication of the high moral standards in African societies based on both culture/tradition and further strengthened by Christian and Muslim religions as you well know.  However, in the recent interactions of African and Western cultures (circa. 18-19th century) this issue of morality has seen a negative image of Africa projected to the rest of the world.  This is where African culture was first and foremost described as pagan and immoral.  Pseudo science designed to shore up prevalent paradigms of racial superiority gave more credence to this fallacy by "establishing" for example that the African male is "more generously endowed" in various parts of their anatomy such as the genitalia (never the brain) etc, thus creating stereotypes that can safely be said to perpetuate themselves to this day.

Needless to say, our high HIV prevalence plays right into the hands of those who espouse such chauvinistic worldviews. So is it appropriate to use the word "promiscuous" to counter such concepts?  At some level I do feel it is entitled but at all the same I will shy away from encouraging its use. The stigma is too painful to even contemplate the ideological arguments.  What's worse? It is often women who are faithful to their monogamous relationship that are often infected by their "player" male partners that bear the brunt of this stigma.

That said, point taken.

Shukran,

Karanja R. 
mailto:RKaranja@kemri.org