Regulating Romance

Shanti Parikh

Description

Drawing on ten years of ethnographic research, two hundred fifty interviews, and over three hundred youth love letters, author Shanti Parikh uses lively vignettes to provide a rare window into young people's heterosexual desires and practices in Uganda. In chapters entitled "Unbreak my heart," "I miss you like a desert missing rain," and "You're just playing with my head," she invites readers into the world of secret longings, disappointments, and anxieties of young Ugandans as they grapple with everyday difficulties while creatively imagining romantic futures and possibilities.

Parikh also examines the unintended consequences of Uganda's aggressive HIV campaigns that thrust sexuality and anxieties about it into the public sphere. In a context of economic precarity and generational tension that constantly complicates young people's notions of consumption-based romance, communities experience the dilemmas of protecting and policing young people from reputational and health dangers of sexual activity. "They arrested me for loving a school girl" is the title of a chapter on controlling delinquent daughters and punishing defiant boyfriends for attempting to undermine patriarchal authority by asserting their adolescent romantic agency. Sex education programs struggle between risk and pleasure amidst morally charged debates among international donors and community elders, transforming the youthful female body into a platform for public critique and concern. The many sides of this research constitute an eloquently executed critical anthropology of intervention.

Sujets

• Médecine
• Spécialités médicales
• African Studies
• Medical
• CAB Direct (database)
• Sociology
• AIDS
• Sexuality
• Anthropology
• Health
• HIV

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 11 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826517791
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

REGULATING
romance
REGULATING
romance
YOUTH LOVE LETTERS, MORAL ANXIETY, AND INTERVENTION IN UGANDA’S TIME OF AIDS
shanti parikh
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville
© 2015 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2015
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
LC control number 2015003150
LC classification number RA643.86.U33P37 2015
Dewey class number 362.19697'920096761—dc23
ISBN 978-0-8265-1777-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-1778-4 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-8265-1779-1 (ebook)
I dedicate this book to the memory of my parents:
Arvind Mukundrai Parikh
Eleanor Vernice Joyner Parikh
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Going Public: The Virus, Video, Evangelicalism, and the Anthropology of Intervention
Part I. “Things keep changing”: Histories of Dispersal and Anxiety in Iganga
2. Demographic Shifts, Free Young Women, and Idle Adolescent Men
3. Patriarchy, Marriage, and Gendered Respectability
Part II. Publics: Interventions into Youth Sexuality
4. The Social Evolution of HIV: Inequalities and Biomedical Citizenship
5. From Auntie to Disco: Risk and Pleasure in Sexuality Education
6. “They arrested me for loving a schoolgirl”: Controlling Delinquent Daughters and Punishing Defiant Boyfriends
Part III. Counterpublic: Youth Romance and Love Letters
7. Geographies of Courtship and Gender in the Consumer Economy
8. “Burn the letter after reading”: Secrecy and Go-Betweens
9. “B4 I symbolise my symbolised symbology”: Packaging and Reading Love Letters
10. “I miss you like a desert missing rain”: Desire and Longing
11. “You’re just playing with my head”: Disappointment and Uncertainty
Conclusion: Sam’s Death and Refusals to Submit
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Map 1. Uganda with Iganga Town and Trans-Africa Highway
Tables
Table 2.1. Population of Bulubandi by age and sex, 1998
Table 2.2. Household heads in Bulubandi by sex and age, 1998
Table 2.3. Ethnicity of household heads in Bulubandi, 1998
Table 2.4. Religion of household heads in Bulubandi, 1998
Table 2.5. Wealth ranking of households in Bulubandi by sex of household heads, 1998
Table 2.6. Main income-generating activities of households in Bulubandi, 1998
Table 2.7. Bulubandi households in extended family networks, 1998
Table 2.8. Household membership in Bulubandi by sex of household heads, 1998
Table 3.1. Marital status of household heads in Bulubandi, 1998
Table 3.2. Polygyny in Bulubandi by sex of household heads, 1998
Table 3.3. Types of marriage of household heads in Bulubandi, 1998
Table 3.4. Divorce, separation, and widowhood histories of household heads in Bulubundi, 1998
Table 6.1. Defilement charges, Chief Magistrate Court, 1990–2001
Figures
All photos were taken by the author unless otherwise stated .
Figure 1. Sam Mukungu’s love letter to Birungi
Figure 2. “Learn to say no,” Africa’s first HIV billboard, built in the mid-1980s
Figure 3. “Feels good” condom billboard, built in the mid-1990s
Figure 4. Abstinence billboard, PEPFAR-funded, built in the early 2000s
Figure 5. “Get off the sexual network” campaign poster, circa 2009
Figure 6. Evening kayola (bazaar) in Iganga Town
Figure 7 Community-based participatory research method, picture-drawing with youth
Figure 8. Community-based participatory research method, trendline with elders
Figure 1.1. ABC (abstinence, be faithful, and use condoms) billboard, built in the late 1980s
Figure 1.2. Straight Talk condom campaign, 1996
Figure 1.3. Monitor gossip columns, mid-1990s
Figure 1.4. Spice magazine cover girls, late-1990s
Figure 2.1. Household survey with an extended family
Figure 2.2. Very poor: Grass-thatched house with mud walls
Figure 2.3. Poor: Temporary house with an iron roof and mud walls
Figure 2.4. Average: Semi-permanent house with iron roof and brick walls
Figure 2.5. Wealthy to very wealthy: Permanent house with tile roof, painted exterior, and garage
Figure 3.1. Bridewealth procession at a kwandhula ceremony
Figure 3.2. Christian exchange of wedding vows
Figure 3.3. Drawing of a good marriage, by boys
Figure 3.4. Drawing of a good marriage, by girls
Figure 3.5. Youth drawing of a bad marriage
Figure 4.1. “Be warned!” billboard, built in the mid-1990s
Figure 4.2. HIV support group making herbal medicine for HIV-related ailments
Figure 4.3. HIV support group’s poster listing uses of the moringa medicinal plant
Figure 5.1. Basoga dancing
Figure 5.2. Waist beads article and picture, New Vision , May 6, 1997
Figure 5.3. Contemporary ssenga holding sex manual for married people
Figure 5.4. Learning about sex: Youth drawing of cows mating
Figure 5.5. Learning about sex: Youth drawing of disco party
Figure 5.6. Learning about sex: Youth drawing of blue movies (pornography)
Figure 6.1. “Castration Center” cartoon, New Vision , December 18, 1991
Figure 6.2. Defilement campaign: Poster of sugar daddy with schoolgirls, 1990s
Figure 6.3. Defilement campaign: Talking with our Children about Sex and Growing Up pamphlet, Uganda AIDS Commission and UNICEF, 1990s
Figure 7.1. Youth drawing of “the chase”
Figure 7.2. Youth drawing of courtship in the past, tending to tasks in the village
Figure 7.3. Youth drawing of courtship in the present, eating at a restaurant in town
Figure 7.4. Mills and Boon romance novels
Figure 8.1. Decorated letter
Figure 9.1. Love letter and creative English
Figure 9.2. Grand effect
Figure 9.3. Peripheral elements
Figure 9.4. Romantic return address
Figure 9.5. Romantic salutation
Figure 9.6. Romantic closing statement
Figure 9.7. Creative request for a reply
Figure 9.8. Song dedications and margin quote
Figure 10.1. Straight Talk article on respect for girls, 1997
Figure 12.1. “Life became easier” antiretroviral poster, mid-2000s
Figure 12.2. Sam’s death certificate
Figure 12.3. Cartoon satirizing Western imposition of gay rights in Africa, 2011
Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to people who have worked to alleviate the impact of the HIV epidemic and of inequality in Uganda and elsewhere in the world for the past thirty-plus years. Although what follows is a critique of interventions and their unintended consequences, the epidemic would likely be far worse without these workers’ tireless efforts.
My greatest debt is to the residents of the Iganga region in eastern central Uganda who graciously allowed me into their lives from 1996 to 2015. I am especially grateful to the region’s young people for sharing their love letters and the private stories from which these missives emerge. I have tried to represent the richness of their lives and their desires, but no doubt my accounts are partial and biased.
The companionship and dedication of a group of research assistants sustained me during each field research period and kept me connected to Iganga while in the United States. To Janet Kagoda and Gerald Isabirye Kigenyi—thank you for your years of diligent research assistance and keeping me intellectually accountable and engaged. We were joined by an equally steadfast group of assistants: Salim Wantati, Steven Waiswa, Ronald Ojambo, Ruth Nakaima, and Robert Butwala during my initial project on the history of coming of age and premarital romance, and Moses Mwesigwa, Harriet Mugulusi, John Ibemba, Francis Kyakulaga, and Charles Ojambo on subsequent projects. Many evenings of laughing, dancing, and singing as we organized research data and tasks are fondly remembered. I extend my deepest gratitude to my hosts in Bulubandi village, Mrs. Agaati Ojambo and her family, who welcomed me into their home and their lives despite my endless questions.
I had the honor of many insightful conversations with elders in the Iganga region. Thank you to my initial teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Kigenyi; the wisemen of Bulubandi, the late Imam Kassan Wantati and the late Marichi Maiso; Mirembe Proscovia and the late Margaret Nakidodo, community women’s leaders; the late Christopher Isabirye; Florence Kumunu, hero to many; the courageous Reverend Jackson and Nurse Catherine Njuba from IDAAC (Integrated Development Activities and AIDS Concern); the dedicated Nurse Rose and other staff at Iganga District Hospital; Bulubandi Literacy Group; the Iganga health officer, Mr. David Muwanguzi; and members of various cultural groups and HIV support groups spread throughout the region. Numerous teachers, staff, and students in Iganga invested time in this project even though youth romance was not a topic that most schools wanted to discuss openly. I wish to express special appreciation to David Balaba of Kings Secondary School, Father Damien Grimes of Namasagali Secondary School College, and the headmasters and staff at Nakigo Secondary School, Kasokoso Primary School, and Iganga Parents Secondary School, for allowing me the opportunity to spend time in their schools. And to all the young people in Iganga—my heartfelt thanks for teaching me about youth romance, hopes, and fears; I am inspired by your optimism, your enjoyment of laughter, and your care for your peers.
This project benefited from my having access to materials and perspectives on gender, sexuality, and regulation from a variety of people working at agencies in Iganga, including the Probate (Domestic Affairs) Office, the Family Planning Agency, the District Hospital and Ministry of Health, the Iganga Magistrate and Busoga High Courts, and the Iganga branch of the Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA). Many media outlets, sexual health and HIV organizations, women’s and children’s rights organizations, and government offices in Kampala also gave me access to their materials; I owe a special note of thanks to the newspaper Straight Talk , CBS and Simba radio stati