African Sexual Vulnerability to HIV Infection: Examples from Lesotho.

Abstract

In an attempt to adequately respond to and redress the velocity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, many countries of the world have embarked on intensive education and research programmes in pursuit of the most effective strategies and methods of prevention, care, mitigation and a possible cure. Successful as some of the strategies might have claimed in some parts of the world, in reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS, their impact has not been felt that much in many of the African countries where the infection rate continues to rise, reaching its crisis proportions. Though the factors that promote the HIV/AIDS pandemic are multifarious, this paper, however, proposes that certain African cultural factors, which are unique to Africa such as those associated with human sexuality, might be related to its persistence in the Continent. It is generally held that over 90% of the HIV infection cases in Africa take place through the exchange of sexual fluids. For this reason, the paper examined the ‘African sense of human sexuality' as an important index in Africans' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sport Facilitation Vol. 10 2008: pp. 113-124