AIDS and masculinity in the African city: privilege, inequality, and modern manhood

309 Pages·2017·56.411 MB·English

by  Wyrod, Robert

AIDS and Masculinity
in the African City
privilege, inequality,
and modern manhood
Robert Wyrod
university of california press
AIDS and Masculinity
in the African City

AIDS and Masculinity
in the African City
privilege, inequality,
and modern manhood
Robert Wyrod
university of california press
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
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information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2016 by The Regents of the University of California
All photographs are by the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wyrod, Robert, author.
Title: aids and masculinity in the African city : privilege, inequality,
and modern manhood / Robert Wyrod.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press,
[2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: lccn 2015047468 (print) | lccn 2015047889 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520286689 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780520286696
(pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780520961784 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: aids (Disease)—Social aspects—Uganda. |
Masculinity—Uganda.
Classifi cation: lcc ra643.86.u33 .w97 2016 (print) | lcc ra643.86.
u33 (ebook) | ddc 362.19697/920096761—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047468
Manufactured in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible
and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on
Natures Natural, a fi ber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and
meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
1. Remaking Masculinity in Bwaise 1
2. The Making of Masculinity in Urban Uganda 43
3. Providing in Poverty 80
4. Women’s Rights in the Remaking of Masculinity 123
5. The Intersection of Masculinity, Sexuality, and AIDS 160
6. Beyond Bwaise 205
Epilogue 233
Acknowledgments 241
Appendix 245
Notes 249
References 259
Index 283

Figures and Tables
figures
1.1. Kampala’s central business district. 7
1.2. Bwaise’s main commercial strip. 9
1.3. HIV prevalence in Uganda by year, gender, age, and region of country. 14
1.4. Masculinity as a social process. 29
1.5. Kampala, Kawempe Division, and Bwaise. 32
1.6. Housing in Bwaise. 33
1.7. Business in Bwaise. 34
2.1. Main ethnic groups in Uganda. 45
3.1. Kimombasa section of Bwaise during the day. 96
3.2. Exterior of a lodge in Bwaise. 100
3.3. A typical carpentry workshop in Bwaise. 104
3.4. Author during carpentry apprenticeship. 106
4.1. A young couple in Bwaise. 129
4.2. A family outside their home in Bwaise. 133
vii
viii figures and tables
5.1. Bwaise’s main intersection. 171
5.2. Bwaise during the rainy season. 175
5.3. A group of women in Bwaise. 187
E.1. Bwaise’s main intersection in 2015. 235
tables
A.1. Demographic Characteristics of Interviewees, 2004 246
A.2. Demographic Characteristics of Participants in Couples
Research, 2009 247
Remaking Masculinity in Bwaise
1
Crammed into the back of a stuff y matatu, one of Kampala’s ubiquitous
white minivan buses, I strained to see my stop. I was making my fi rst visit
to Bwaise, a densely populated slum community that became the focus of
my fi eldwork in Uganda. Our matatu had begun its journey in Kampala’s
city center, near the offi ce towers, government buildings, and large hotels
that were the pulsing core of this vibrant capital city. In twenty minutes,
after many jarring stops to disgorge and ingest passengers, we had passed
the main university campus, a nearby slum with mushrooming student
hostels, a long stretch of carpentry workshops displaying overstuff ed
couches, and a Pentecostal megachurch that resembled an airplane
hangar. I knew I was now close to my destination, and when I spotted
Bwaise’s main landmark, a three-story furniture showroom, I shouted,
“Siteegi!” (Bus stop!), and clambered out of the matatu.
I had come to Bwaise to visit the home of Christine, a forty-four-year-
old widow who had lived in Bwaise for over two decades. Christine and I
met a week earlier at a nearby health clinic when I attended a support
group for HIV-positive people. Christine was the treasurer of the Post-Test
Club, and she had passionately channeled her own experience living with
HIV into educating and counseling residents of Bwaise about AIDS.
1