Sexuality as a Site of Difference

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zambia is driven, at least in part, by particular expressions of heterosexual masculinities. This chapter describes aspects of former students’ sexual repertoire. My purpose is to investigate what “sex” meant for these men and to throw light on their sexual conduct, fully aware as they were of the extent of the pandemic. The majority of former students regarded sexual activity as a site of difference between “Europeans” (whites) and “Africans” (blacks); in conversations and interviews they produced essentialized and opposed “African” and “European” sexualities, not unlike some “European” commentators.¹ All the men interviewed had had sexual intercourse only with black Africans. In general, their ideas about “European” sexuality were gleaned from television, films, “blue movie” videos, and pornographic novels. The category “African” was linked to the notion of “tradition,” while “European” was associated with, and indeed considered synonymous with, the term “modern.” Moral evaluations of the two supposedly distinct sexualities were contested. Some men presented a self-critical view of “African sexuality,” portraying African males as unable to control their sexual desires.² However, while European men might be supposed to have greater self-control, there was much debate as to whether their “modern” sexuality was evidence of an advanced culture or of immorality.³