Promoting Abstinence, Being Faithful, and Condom Use with Young Africans

A comprehensive study by Mary Louisa Plummer of the MEMA Kwa Vijana sexual health intervention trial in rural Mwanza, Tanzania. Drawing on ten years of fieldwork and a rich qualitative dataset, the book explores the implementation of a major theory- and community-based HIV prevention intervention for adolescent populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Using young people’s own voices, Plummer explains the difficult personal and social choices underlying the consistent practice of the ABCs of abstain, be faithful, and use condoms, deconstructing myths regarding the simplicity of the ABC approach. The book describes ideological, cultural, linguistic, attitudinal, material, gendered, and methodological barriers to implementation, offering insight and honesty about what succeeds and fails in behavioural HIV prevention. A multidisciplinary social science and public health text for scholars and practitioners embarking on HIV prevention research.