African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Editor's PicksSocietyUganda

Toxic masculinity and the spread of HIV in Uganda

By Alice McCool & Brian Mutebi
May 8, 2018
11666
4
Share:
Yusuf Byaruhanga and Israel Bendaki, members of the HIV "positive living group" in Kampala. Credit: Thomas Lewton.

In Uganda, HIV prevalence is four times higher among young women than young men.

Yusuf Byaruhanga and Israel Bendaki, members of the HIV "positive living group" in Kampala. Credit: Thomas Lewton.

Yusuf Byaruhanga and Israel Bendaki, members of the HIV “positive living group” in Kampala. Credit: Alice McCool.

In an informal settlement in central Kampala, Yusuf Byaruhanga sits within the faded pastel walls of a school. With his walking stick resting next to his chair, the 63-year-old talks openly about the fact he is HIV-positive.

“Most men fear shame, stigma and discrimination, or losing their job, so they conceal their status,” he says. “Some don’t see the benefit of coming out as positive.”

Byaruhanga is part of a “positive living group” whose members support each other, share experiences and educate the wider community about HIV and sexual health. They have even started a small business together making and selling crafts.

This group is part of a movement in Uganda that has helped to destigmatise the disease, but even individuals like Byaruhanga still uphold some less-than-progressive views. Asked whether it is important to disclose one’s HIV-positive status to potential sexual partners so they can give informed consent, he brushes away the suggestion. “If a woman loves you, they will sleep with you regardless of your status,” he says.

Yusuf Byaruhanga. Credit: Thomas Lewton.

Yusuf Byaruhanga. Credit: Alice McCool.

These kinds of attitudes are important. Although HIV rates continue to decrease in Uganda, it is still significantly more prevalent among women than men. According to a 2016-17 national survey, 7.6% of women are living with HIV compared to 4.7% of men. This disparity is particularly alarming among 15-24 years old for whom the disease is four times higher in females than males.

The reasons behind this disparity are complex, but largely boil down to different forms of gender inequality. This includes the ongoing adherence to traditional male gender roles in which men are expected to be dominant. It is perhaps telling, for example, that young women in Uganda who have experienced domestic violence by a partner are 50% more likely to have acquired HIV than women who have not.

Robert Wyrod, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado and author of AIDS and Masculinity in the African City, explains that traditional relationship dynamics also contribute to these inequalities.

“There is a sense that younger women are drawn to relationships with older men who can provide support…and those older men are much more likely to be HIV positive,” he says. “It becomes a vicious cycle of economic inequality plus gender inequality”.

Wyrod continues that women can also remain at risk even once they are married. “Men’s persistent sexual privileges mean that they often have other partners in marriage, normally secretly,” he says. “If women confront their husbands it can be disastrous for them – they can face violence. And so that slightly older bracket of women are also vulnerable to infection.”

Another member of the positive living group, Dorcus Ndagire, 45, contracted HIV when she was raped as a young woman. She was engaged to be married, but her church refused to marry her when it transpired that she was positive and her husband-to-be was negative. It would not have been an issue if it had been the other way around, but for her situation, she says, “the stigma was too much”.

Ndagire asserts that men in her community frequently leave their partners saying that they can no longer provide for them. “They claim to have lost income or employment then they move onto another woman,” she says. “Women are left with the sickness, struggling to care for their children.”

Dorcus Ndagire with her son Clement. Credit: Thomas Lewton.

Dorcus Ndagire with her son Clement. Credit: Alice McCool.

The protector and provider role is integral to masculine norms in East Africa, but the results can be devastating. Stephen Tugume, 24, found out he was HIV positive when he was tested as a teenager after his mother became sick and later died. Tugume started taking the necessary drugs, but his father who was also positive refused to join him.

“He said to me ‘Stephen, I am not doing well financially. When I start these drugs, which are very strong, I won’t be able to survive. I don’t earn enough to support my family and myself’,” he remembers. His father died seven years later.

According to Wyrod, systemic poverty and traditional notions of masculinity are now the key barriers to tackling the HIV crisis. “While there are some organisations in Africa involving men in aids prevention, we haven’t seen a similarly enthusiastic attempt by governments to talk about men’s privileges and men’s sexual privileges,” he says. “And in countries like Uganda, you have a national government, a president, that is embodying these problematic, dominant ideas about men and masculinity.”

“But the clearest source of all these problems,” he says, “is the persistence of urban poverty”.

Back at the positive living group, its founder Israel Bendaki, 55, proudly displays the sandals and bags they have been making. “I started this group to help men living in denial,” he says. “When I was diagnosed in 1990, I concealed my status and resorted to drinking to take away my worries.”

The situation has been vastly improved since then, he says, when there was no medical treatment available and the stigma was so strong that people “wouldn’t even share a cup with you”.

But there is still a long way to go. Most men continue to keep silent about their positive status in Uganda, while young women remain disproportionately affected in an environment of toxic masculinities. Although Bendaki’s initiative is labelled a “men’s group”, it is mostly made up of women.

This story is part of Big Men, a European Journalism Centre project telling journalistic stories about men, masculinity and gender equality in East Africa.

Previous Article

Zimbabwe: Why President Mnangagwa never takes off ...

Next Article

Meet some of the foot soldiers in ...

Alice McCool & Brian Mutebi

Alice McCool is a freelance journalist based between Uganda and the UK. Her work has been published in outlets including VICE, The Guardian and BBC News. Follow her on twitter at @McCoolingtons. Brian Mutebi is a Ugandan journalist. Follow him on twitter at @Brian_Mutebi.

4 comments

  1. JK 10 May, 2018 at 09:06

    You need to get something clear sir, in Uganda, our president Museveni, unlike your leaders, actually tackles these issues, masculinity related issues right from domestic violence to rape to all sorts of gender imbalances so to say the president is the embodiment of such is disrespectful and paints a bad picture hence not helping the general situation around the problem. Needless to say he has previously been accredited for their fight against HIV in Uganda. Small facts can ruin something of good purpose, learn that.

  2. Henry Price 15 May, 2018 at 16:33

    comrades one of most unfortunate conditions that exist worldwide is willingness to lie or give inaccurate reports on HIV/AIDS prevalence. HIV/AIDS prevalence or rate of growth is always greater as oppose to information reported. Next to cure there is only one effective way of managing HIV/AIDS plus I personally made that request to Organization Of African Unity (OAU) that is now African Union (AU) excess 25 years ago. It is to create HIV/AIDS communities thereto we will enable ourselves to more readily identify those intentionally spreading HIV/AIDS. There is many or infection rate would not be as great as it is. We must effectively deal with that infection rate or we agree to our sudden demise plus lessening quality of living. Our world may be capable of dealing with millions of HIV/AIDS infected without destroying quality of living but it is incapable of dealing with billion or more of HIV/AIDS infected without destroying quality of living. Worst of all there seem be no meaningful incentive to find cure for HIV/AIDS. many are growing rich from sale of HIV/AIDS drugs. That is frightening plus true thus, we need apply what would be other feasible plus effective methods that are humane. Modern world class living HIV/AIDS cities is it. They would be in all best interest unto this monster is destroyed.
    Very much sincere,
    Henry Author(people of books) Price Jr. aka Obediah Ubuntu IL-Khan aka Kankan aka Gue.

  3. Sam 24 June, 2018 at 13:19

    Alice McCool & Brian Mutebi,

    First and foremost, on which research studies do you base your assertion that, “In Uganda, HIV prevalence is four times higher among young women than young men”?

    Secondly, with many peer reviewed scientific research findings conclusion that Depo Provera, an injectable contraceptive, increases HIV contraction by as much as two fold, why would you not attribute this high disparity of HIV between young women and men to Depo Provera? After all, it makes sense because men don’t use Depo Provera, while women do.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111003195253.htm

    Thirdly, while you are quick to base your article on Dr. Robert Wyrod’s words that, “systemic poverty and traditional notions of masculinity are now the key barriers to tackling the HIV crisis,” I should point out that once you look at the trend of HIV/Aids in the US from the 1980s up to 2016, his hypothesis falls apart. Of course you also have to look at other countries like Haiti, to get the whole picture.

    One thing about this disproportional high rate of HIV/Aids among women compared to men that you see in Uganda, is true within African Americans. Another thing in common is the use of Depo Provera contractive drug. In the US, African American women use Depo Provera at a dispropotionaly much higher rate than other races.

    http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0896920510380948

    So my question is this, “Why have you avoided discussing Scientific​ reseach findings of the role Depo Provera has in increasing HIV/Aids contraction?”

  4. Sam 31 July, 2018 at 01:48

    I would like to hear how people like Dr. Robert Wyrod would explain the following disparity among women in the US:

    *Race/Ethnicity:*

    Women of color, particularly Black women, are disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for the majority of new HIV infections, women living with HIV, and HIV-related deaths among women in the U.S.

    *In 2010, Black women accounted for nearly two thirds (64%) of all estimated new HIV infections among women, while only accounting for 13% of the female population;* white women accounted for 18% and Latinas 15% of new infections (Figure 2).3, 12, 13

    https://www.kff.org/hivaids/fact-sheet/women-and-hivaids-in-the-united-states/

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • AngolaCongo-KinshasaEconomyEditor's PicksPolitics

    Angola’s oil could actually be the DR Congo’s. Here’s why it isn’t.

  • Politics

    Djibouti: Forward operating base – By Aly Verjee

  • Politics

    South Sudan’s peace talks trapped in semi-permanent coma – By James Copnall

  • 80905
    Followers

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Most read

  • kenya refugee camps closure

    Whether or not Kenya closes its camps, much damage has been done

  • Will President Samia Suluhu Hassan address gender inequality in Tanzania?

    Tanzania has a female president. Does it have a feminist president?

  • central african republic us: Several foreign partners are involved in the CAR, from the UN to Russia and France, but few have the perceived neutrality to intervene diplomatically. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.

    Why the Central African Republic and the US might need each other

  • elections: President Idriss Déby of Chad has been in power since 1990. Credit: Paul Kagame.

    Chad elections: President Déby seeks a sixth term in a region for old men

  • President Denis Sassou Nguesso won the 2021 elections to secure another term.

    Congo: Sassou Nguesso wins another term but still faces two big threats

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu