Young People’s Lives and Sexual Relationships in Rural Africa

A qualitative study by Daniel Wight and Mary Louisa Plummer of young people’s sexual relationships in Tanzania. New infections with HIV remain an urgent problem among young people in Africa, but many pursue sexual relationships with little thought for the epidemic. The book examines why the risk of HIV infection generally is not a salient concern for them. It is based on an extraordinarily large and representative qualitative study affiliated with an adolescent sexual health intervention trial, including three person-years of participant observation conducted by young East Africans in nine Tanzanian villages. The book describes patterns of sexual relationship formation, the variety of young people’s relationships and practices, and the contradictory social ideals that lead premarital and extramarital relationships to be concealed. Young men’s main motivations for sex were pleasure and masculine identity; young women’s were to receive money or materials for basic needs. Praised by Janet Seeley (University of East Anglia) as a thorough analysis deserving wide readership.