HIV and gender-based violence is intertwined in many ways. This serious problem receives particular attention during the "16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign" which takes place from. You can read more about the campaign on the 16 Days Campaign website.
South Africa: Violent crime still remains endemic, with women and girls especially at risk.
In 1996, when South Africa returned to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the country made a resolution that declared violence a public health priority. But violent crime still remains endemic, with women and girls especially at risk.
Research shows that injury or death caused by violent crime in South Africa remains particularly high, although the scourge has gone down significantly in the last decade. Ten years ago about 60 – 70 people in South Africa would fall victim to injury or death as a result of violent crime. The rate has dropped, but is still exceptionally high compared to countries like the UK where one person out of every 100 000 would die violently every year.
“We have got about 34/100 000. That’s indeed quite a high number compared to something under 10 for other developed countries. We are leaders in the incidence of murder, rape, robbery and violent theft”, says Dr Norman Mabasa, chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA).
Mabasa adds that research also shows that South Africa has the highest rate of violence against women and girls.
“In 1997, the South African government reported rape and sexual abuse to be increasingly rapid and a matter of grave concern. In 1996 – 1998, girls aged 17 and under constituted approximately 40% of reported rape”, he says.
Violent crime in the country is at epidemic proportions and has far-reaching implications.
“This is an epidemic that has huge consequences, not only on people’s personal lives, but also on the economy of the country and, also, the ability of South Africa to sell itself to its own people”, says Dr Gustav Wolvaardt, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD), a SAMA project.
Violent crime against women, specifically rape, is a universal problem. In South Africa, it contributes to the high HIV infection levels among women.
“It exists in all countries, all religions and social classes. It also poses serious threats to public health and, in particular, sexual and reproductive health. It’s also a critical impediment to fighting HIV and AIDS. In South Africa, there are these twin epidemics of HIV and AIDS and gender-based violence. Both epidemics are severe and serious and disproportionately affect women and children. According to the latest national ante-natal survey, 30% of women between 20 and 24, 40% of those between 25 and 29 and 36% of those between 30 and 34, are HIV-positive”, Peter Teljer, Sweden’s ambassador to South Africa, explains.
In their efforts to address sexual and gender-based violence, the Swedes have a telephone help-line.
For a relatively small country of under 10 million people, the contact centre receives about 40 000 calls per annum. Sexual violence is so rife that the World Health Organisation estimates that one-third of all women and girls worldwide will be raped and suffer sexual violence, at least, once in their lifetime.
The FPD’s Dr Gustav Wolvaardt says this is an epidemic that has been neglected. He says part of the reason the crime is so well-established is that professionals such as health care workers, including teachers, have never wanted to be involved in efforts to address sexual and gender-based violence. He says there needs to be educational programmes to sensitise professionals such as health care workers and teachers about sexual and gender-based violence.
“Professionals, whether they are health care professionals or whether they are educational professionals, are perfectly positioned to identify victims of violence. For example, chronic victims of violence will show up within a hospital setting every six months – most of them. We’ve always left it to the psychologists or the social workers. We don’t expect them to get involved and do the work that’s expertise. But they need to know and spot patients that can be referred or spot kids because children are a very sensitive barometer of what happens in a household. These training programmes will ensure that these professionals can identify and then refer people for care”, Wolvaardt says.
He says it is with a great sense of guilt that he recognises that even though South Africa flagged violence as a global public health threat more than a decade ago, his profession has for a long time overlooked sexual and gender-based violence.
“I was part of the South African delegation that wrote that resolution in 1996 that we took to the World Health Organisation to say violence is something the health sector should get involved in. But, somehow, in South Africa we didn’t translate that focus that we created internationally into actions at a local level”.
“Part of it is because, firstly, it is a difficult problem and, secondly, it’s not a problem that people really want to grasp with. So, it’s taken really a long time. And my experience was very similar to what my experience was in the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. When you went to people and said: ‘We want to do something about AIDS’, they used to say, ‘oooh, no, no, no. We don’t want to link our logo to that’. But it is changing. I think everything is aligning… coming right. It is the right time to do this. I feel a bit guilty. I think this is a big issue that we’ve not given sufficient attention in the country”, says Wolvaardt.
More research is needed to understand the circumstances
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been reported in previous studies to increase women's risk for HIV infection. However, a new study by HSPH associate professor S.V. Subramanian and doctoral student Guy Harling found that IPV is not consistently associated with HIV-risk worldwide. The researchers examined the relationship between women's self-reported experiences of IPV in their most recent relationship and their laboratory-confirmed HIV status in ten low- to middle-income countries. Data for the study, which involved a cross-section of women aged 15–49 years, came from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys in Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The study appeared online in PLoS One on December 8, 2010.
Further research is needed to determine whether the relationship between IPV and HIV in specific countries differs depending on whether the study population is clinic-based or uses a national sample, according to the researchers. Additionally, more research is needed to understand the circumstances in which IPV and HIV are and are not associated with one another.
A team of top South African and international sportsmen will lend their star power to a campaign that promotes HIV prevention, and relegates violence against women and children.
Johannesburg — A team of top South African and international sportsmen will lend their star power to a campaign that promotes HIV prevention, and relegates violence against women and children.
South African football players Matthew Booth and Teko Modise, rugby captain John Smit, cricket captain Graeme Smith and international football stars Ryan Giggs of Manchester United and Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona have already signed up.
These sporting talents will be Sports Ambassadors for Brothers for Life, a national campaign encouraging men to take a stand against gender-based violence and HIV.
They will promote messages on television, radio and outdoor advertising about the risks of alcohol and unprotected sex in relation to HIV, and support a national HIV counselling and testing drive launched in April by President Jacob Zuma.
Although fewer men go to be tested or seek HIV/AIDS treatment than women, they have not been the main focus of previous prevention campaigns. Now, the Sports Ambassadors will be calling on men to "yenza kahle" (do the right thing).
"When good men don't stand up to be counted, HIV and AIDS spreads," said South Africa's Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe. "We call upon men of all classes and races to join the fight against HIV and AIDS, occupying the front trenches in this war through their social conduct."
The campaign starts just 10 days before the FIFA World Cup kicks off and thousands of foreign football fans start arriving in South Africa. "There's going to be lots of drinking, probably quite a lot of sex, and we want to encourage people to be safe," said Dean Peacock, co-director of Sonke Gender Justice.
This is one of the 40 civil society organizations partnering with the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), the national Department of Health, Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), to promote the campaign.
"We want to use spokespeople who have the status necessary to influence the behaviour of everyone who's coming here," said Peacock. The rugby and cricket players were included to ensure that the life of the campaign extends beyond the World Cup.
Besides appearing in advertising to promote the campaign, the South African Sports Ambassadors will show up at events, bringing their high profiles to on-the-ground activities, Peacock said.
"Men have the power to make an enormous difference in their own lives, and in the lives of their children and partners," said Elhadj As Sy, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa. "The Brothers for Life Sports Ambassadors campaign shows them the way."
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to contracting HIV infections
Introduction
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to contracting HIV infections1. One of the reasons for this is the world-wide problem of gender-based violence, perpetrated against women and girls, more often than not by people who are known to them2.
A recent study in the United States has also found a strong correspondence specifically between the occurrence of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and HIV infection3, while studies from Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania reported that women who were infected with HIV had a higher probability of reporting IPV than those who were uninfected4. In Rwanda, women who have suffered from any kind of abuse in their marriages are up to 3.46 times as likely to be sero-positive compared to their counterparts who have not experienced any abuse5.
What is Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)?
Violence committed by a woman’s intimate partner includes physical violence, sexual violence as well as psychological violence1.
Physical violence constitutes any physical attack such as a slap, a punch, a kick, physical attack with a weapon as well as murder, while sexual violence consists of rape, intimidation and threats, harassment, unwanted touching and making someone take part in pornography. A women or girl is considered to be psychologically abused when she is humiliated, intimidated, isolated from her friends and family and prevented from earning a living, when her earnings are taken away by the abuser, or when she is denied the necessary resources.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is the type of violence against women that causes the most deaths and is also the most widespread form of gender-based violence6.
Prevalence of IPV
Although most people would assume that something like rape is committed by strangers, more often than not, women and girls are forced into sex by people that are familiar to them such as their intimate partners, members of their family and other people they know such as school teachers and authority figures in their lives1,2.
The exact numbers from different studies vary, but the upper limits from extensive studies conducted in countries across the globe show that more than 50% of women have experienced abuse by their intimate partners1,6,7.
The close connection between IPV and HIV
IPV is acknowledged as a significant source for the deterioration of a woman’s capacity to influence her reproductive and sexual health6. There are both direct and indirect risks of HIV to women who are faced with sexual violence2,3 and the problem is exacerbated when the perpetrator is an intimate partner.
The direct risks include perpetrators who are HIV-positive, exposing them directly to the virus during an act of rape2,3.
Indirect risks are linked to the behaviour of the perpetrators of violence as men who are abusive towards their wives and who are often more likely to exhibit other unsafe sexual practices such as having multiple partners and refusal to use a condom5.
If a girl experiences sexual violence, she is more likely to exhibit unsafe sexual behaviour and where people experience sexual violence in intimate relationships, their power to negotiate safe sex is often diminished2,3,6.
Women who are living with HIV often become victims of violence and abuse2. The fear of violence will prevent many women from seeking information and treatment offered by HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns2. This same fear also prevents women from disclosing their positive status to their partners1.
What are the opportunities to address IPV in HIV preventative programmes?
Health professionals as well as policy makers need to be made aware of the close linkage between IPV and HIV so that legislature can be adapted accordingly3.
The links between IPV and HIV require further investigation in order to find the best method of attending to both issues7. Understanding the factors that allow women to demand protected sex will allow policy makers and health professionals to use these facts to decrease the number of HIV infections9.
Apart from the health burdens imposed by IPV, there are also high financial costs associated with IPV8. Domestic violence can be addressed as part of HIV preventative strategies as well as stand-alone initiatives aimed at addressing the deeper causes of gender-based violence such as the need of men to prove dominance and power over women2.
Programmes that pay more attention to gender attitudes and sexual norms related to masculinity and femininity might help to address some of the factors that lead to IPV. Examples of such programmes which have already been implemented include Men as Partners (MAP) and the Stepping Stones programmes1.
Women who test positive for HIV should be screened for IPV and receive necessary counselling and treatment1,3.
Although most studies have shown contraception use to decline among women who have experienced IPV, a recent study conducted in sub-Saharan Africa showed an increase in female controlled contraceptives among the victims of IPV. This suggests that the wider distribution of female controlled contraceptives may prove an effective route of contraception, although it does not protect them from sexually transmitted infections and HIV. Thus, it leads to the conclusion that only interventions directed at both males and females will be effective 4.
Programmes aimed at targeting IPV should address the underlying factors that cause such violence, including: gender inequality, multiple partners, alcohol abuse and poverty7.
A study conducted by the University of Botswana in 2005 concluded that a woman’s dependence and feeling of powerlessness reduces her capacity to negotiate condom use. This study also found that men with multiple partners were more prone to refusal to use condoms9.
Communication about HIV/AIDS between intimate partners should be strongly encouraged by all HIV prevention initiatives9.
References
Reviewed by: Hendra van Zyl
Understanding Men’s Health And Use Of Violence: Interface Of Rape And HIV In South Africa
Introduction
Methods
The study was conducted in three districts in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal Provinces – spanning geographical areas: rural, urban and city. It was a crosssectional with a two stage random sample. The sample was drawn by Statistics South Africa. Following a cluster design, 222 enumeration areas (ea) were selected and 20 households approached per ea for interview. One man aged 18-49 years interviewed per household. Interviews followed a questionnaire and were administered via APDAs (Audio-enhanced Personal Digital Assistants). A finger prick specimen of blood was requested for HIV testing and collected as a blood spot which was dried.
Blood was tested for HIV in the laboratory of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, using ELISA. Ethics approval was given by the Medical Research Council’s ethics committee. We completed interviews in 215 of 220 eligible eas (97.7%) and we completed interviews in 1,738 of 2,298 (75.6% ) of the enumerated and eligible households.
Results
The sample included men of all racial groups and of a range of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Half of the men were under 25 years of age and 70% were under 30. The population was some what younger than men in the general population.
Rape prevalence
Rape of a woman or girl had been perpetrated by 27.6% of the men interviewed and 4.6% of men had raped in the past year. Rape of a current or ex-girlfriend was disclosed by 14.3% of men. Since many men had raped more than once, rape of a woman or girl who was not a partner was actually more often reported than rape of partners. In all only 4.6% of men had raped a partner and not raped a woman who was not a partner (i.e. an acquaintance or stranger). 11.7% of men had raped an acquaintance or stranger (but not a partner) and 9.7% had raped both. In total, 8.9% said they had raped with one or more other perpetrators when a woman didn’t consent to sex, was forced or when she was too drunk to stop them. Rape of men and boys was also reported, 2.9% said they had done this. Attempted rape was reported by 16.8% of men and 5.3% of men said they had done so in the previous 12 months.
Patterns of rape
Nearly one in two of the men who raped (46.3%) said they had raped more than one woman or girl. In all, 23.2% of men said they had raped 2-3 women, 8.4% had raped 4-5 women, 7.1% said they had raped 6-10 and 7.7% said they had raped more than 10 women or girls.
Asked about their age at the first time they had forced a woman or girl into sex, 9.8% said they were under 10 years old, 16.4% were 10-14 years old, 46.5% were 15-19 years old, 18.6% were 20-24 years old, 6.9% were 25-29 years and 1.9% were 30 or older.
Factors associated with raping
Age was significantly associated with the likelihood of having raped, with men aged 20-40 were more likely to have raped than younger or older men. Education was also associated, with men who had raped being significantly better educated, although they were not more likely to have a tertiary qualification. There were significant racial differences in rape reporting, mostly notably men who were Coloured were over represented among those who had raped. Men who had raped were significantly more likely to have earnings of over R500 per month, although they were not more likely to be in the top income bracket, over R10 000.
Men who raped were more likely to have occasional work and less likely to have never worked at all.
Parental absence was significantly associated with raping, as was the quality of affective relationships with parents was related to raping. Men who raped perceived both their fathers and mothers to be significantly less kind (p<0.0001). Rape was associated with significantly greater degrees of exposure to trauma in childhood.
Teasing and harassment, or bullying, were reported by many of the men in their childhood. Over half of the men had experienced this themselves (54%) and somewhat fewer (40%) had teased and harassed others. Both experience of bullying and being bullied was much more common among men who raped. Delinquent and criminal behaviour were more common among men who raped. Men who raped were much more likely to have been involved in theft and, with the exception of legal gun ownership, they were very much more likely to have been involved with weapons, gangs and to have been arrested and imprisoned.
Men who disclosed having raped were significantly more likely to have engaged with a range of other risky sexual behaviours. They were more likely to have ever had more than 20 sexual partners, transactional sex, sex with a prostitute, heavy alcohol consumption, to have been physically violent towards a partner, raped a man and not to have used a condom consistently in the past year.
Associations between rape and HIV
The HIV prevalence among men who had raped was 19.6% and 18.1% among those who had never raped. This difference was not significant (p=0.53). The HIV prevalence was lower, 12.7%, among those who had raped in the past year. Men who had raped another man, in contrast, had a higher prevalence of HIV (27.8%).
The most striking feature of the age-specific HIV prevalence, when plotted for men who have and have not raped, is the very high prevalence of HIV for all men in this sample. The prevalence among all men aged 25-45 was in excess of 25%, and among those aged 30-39 years, over 40%. When examined by rape perpetration status, however, there was no overall difference between the HIV prevalence of men who had raped women and those who had never raped.
Associations between physical intimate partner violence and HIV
In all 42.4% of men had been physically violent to an intimate partner (current or ex girlfriend or wife). Asked about physical violence in the past year, 14.0% (95%CI 12.4, 15.7) of men disclosed perpetration. Men who disclosed violence were very much more likely to have engaged in a range of risky sexual behaviour, as well as to have raped and been raped.
A logistic regression model of factors associated with having HIV showed that men who had been physically violent to a partner on more than one occasion were significantly more likely to have HIV (OR 1.48 95% CI 1.01, 2.17, p=0.04). Other associated factors were being African, rather than of another race group, being 25 or older, and having had a genital ulcer.
Those who had completed matric at school or attended tertiary education and those who were circumcised were less likely to be infected.
Discussion
The findings highlight the very high prevalence of rape in South Africa and the high prevalence of HIV in the adult population. The prevalence of rape has similarities to that found in other studies in South Africa. The very high prevalence shows that generally rape is far too common, and its origins too deeply embedded in ideas about South African manhood, for the problem which can be predominantly addressed through strategies of apprehension and prosecution of perpetrators.
A much broader approach to rape prevention is required. This must entail intervening on the key drivers of the problem which include ideas of masculinity, predicted on marked gender hierarchy and sexual entitlement of men. Efforts to change these require interventions on structural dimensions of men’s lives, notably education and opportunities for employment and advancement. Our study suggests that the pathway which leads to these ideas and the practices of rape and other forms of violence towards women starts in childhood and strengthening families, and protecting children from exposure to adversity in childhood are critical for ensuring that men in the population develop psychologically as pro-social members of society.
A very surprising finding of our study was that men who raped were no more likely to have HIV than men who hadn’t raped. Yet one of the very important findings is the very high HIV prevalence found in all the men, but particularly those aged 25-45.
This provides a salient reminder of how likely it is that a man who rapes has HIV, irrespective of whether he has more than another man. Clearly post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV after rape is a very important part of post-rape care for victims who are HIV negative.
The fact that so many rapes are gang rapes, or involve multiple acts of sex penetration (30% in cases reported to the police) and the high prevalence of injuries (at least 58% in rapes reported to the police) (Vetten et al 2008) further supports the very considerable risk of exposure to HIV of victims at the time of rape and risk of transmission through rape.
The factors that were shown to be associated with having HIV in the study are in many respects unsurprising. Its well known that the epidemic has disproportionately spread amongst Africans, that the most well educated are relatively more protected, that having genital ulcers increases the likelihood of having HIV and that circumcision is protective. What has previously been suspected, but not shown in research, is that men who are physically violent towards their intimate partners are more likely to have HIV. This finding is completely congruent with the documented association between being violent and sexual risk taking, and indeed the finding that women who experience violence are more likely to have HIV (Dunkle et al 2004).
This is explained by an underlying construction of masculinity which is predicated on use of violent and sexually behaviours. It has been argued that this is a key driver of the HIV epidemic and our finding supports this. HIV prevention needs to embrace and incorporate promoting more gender equitable models of masculinity. The intervention
Stepping Stones, has been shown to effectively do this, and should be promoted
(Jewkes et al 2008).
Recommendations:
1. Rape prevention must focus centrally on changing social norms around masculinity and sexual entitlement, and addressing the structural underpinnings of rape.
2. Post-exposure prophylaxis is a critical dimension of post-rape care, but it is just one dimension and a comprehensive care package needs to be delivered to all victims and should include support for the psychological responses to rape.
3. HIV prevention must embrace and incorporate promoting more gender equitable models of masculinity. Interventions that do this effectively must be promoted as part of HIV prevention.
Are you a victim of domestic violence? Here's what you can do to protect yourself.
Domestic violence can be identified as any controlling or abusive behaviour which harms your health, safety or well-being or the health or well-being of a child, committed within the framework of a family.
A family includes anyone who is in a domestic relationship such as married persons (married according to any law or custom) who live together as husband and wife. It also includes people living together in a relationship similar to marriage as well as parties who are of the same sex and that are/were dating, engaged or in a customary relationship, and includes children in any "family" set-up.
Domestic violence includes physical abuse or threat of physical abuse; emotional, verbal and psychological abuse; economic abuse; sexual abuse; intimidation; harassment; stalking; damage to or destruction of property or entry into your residence without consent.
If you are going to take any action against physical abuse, you should remember to take photo's of your injuries and keep record of the number of times that the abuse occurred as well as when it occurred.
There are two ways in which to deal with domestic violence:
1. You can take preventative measures to stop the violence by applying for a Protection Order against the person who is abusing you; or
2. The person that abused you will be prosecuted criminally for his/her violent offences. It is a crime to assault, intimidate or abuse someone physically or sexually. In this instance the party who has been or is being abused must report this to the police. A charge will be laid against the abusing party and The State will continue to prosecute him/her in a Criminal Court. The wrongdoer may be sentenced to prison or a fine may be imposed upon him.
Which Act regulates domestic violence?
The Domestic Violence Act 116/1998 makes provision for a person who is being abused to apply to the Magistrate's Court for a Protection Order. This is done on Application and must be granted by a Magistrate, if there is evidence supporting allegations of abuse.
Who can apply for a Protection Order?
An order may be requested by anyone who is, or was, in a domestic relationship with the respondent (abusing party).
An application for a Protection Order can be brought on behalf of the applicant by any other person with the applicant's consent. A child may also apply for a Protection Order without the assistance of his/her guardian.
The Procedure:
You must approach the Clerk of the Magistrate's Court, charged with dealing with Protection Orders, closest to where you work or live and complete and sign a Form 1 which sets out the abusive actions that must be stopped. It is important to have your attorney present as there are certain allegations that you must make in your application and affidavit. If you are able to obtain the services of an attorney you should engage his/her services as there are certain allegations that you must make in your application and affidavit. If not then the Clerk of the court will assist you."
The Clerk of the Court will submit the application and affidavits to the Court. The Court hears the Application.
If the Court is satisfied, it will grant an Interim Order with a return date on which the respondent (the abusing party) must show cause why the Interim Order should not be confirmed.
The Interim Order must be served on the respondent by the Sheriff or Peace Officer of the Court. If an order is not properly served, then it is invalid. An interim order must be served on the respondent personally and can only be acted upon if there is proof of service. The State will give financial assistance to parties who do not have the financial means to pay for service of the order themselves. The cost of service varies in different areas. The minimum cost will be R42.00 and will escalate according to the distance that the Sheriff must travel.
A Warrant of Arrest will also be issued by the Clerk for the Arrest of the respondent if he/she contravenes the Interim Order. The Clerk of the Court will send copies of the Protection order to the relevant parties as well as copies of the Protection Order and the Warrant of Arrest to a police station of the applicant's choice, normally closest to where the applicant lives.
The applicant will be protected throughout the procedure as he/she does not have to supply their address on the Protection order. When does the Protection Order expire?
The order will have force until the applicant freely and voluntarily applies for the amendment or setting aside thereof. It may also be set aside at the hearing on the return date if good cause is shown by the respondent why it should not be confirmed.
What other remedies do you have?
1. You can apply for a Peace order at a Magistrate's Court.
2. Divorce is also an option should the violence / abuse be continuous and you are married.
Who can you talk to about domestic violence?
NICRO is an organisation which runs a programme to rehabilitate perpetrators of domestic violence.
(021) 422 1690
SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit Head Office: (021) 393 2363
Women Abuse Helpline: 0800 150 150
Childline: 0800 055 555
Please note this information is only meant to be used as a guideline. It is always better to consult with an experienced attorney and ensure that your attorney explains everything to you in detail until you understand.
To ask the Family Law Committee a specific question, click here.
KISUMU, 19 June (PLUSNEWS) - Peres Atieno didn't know what AIDS was when her husband died 11 years ago, nor did she suspect she might be HIV-positive. What she did know was that custom required her to be inherited by her dead husband's brother, a relationship that would ensure she and her children were taken care of.
The ethnic Luo community of western Kenya has followed the practice known as wife inheritance for generations. However, as HIV has taken a grip on the community, the coercion of widows like Atieno into new relationships has unwittingly helped spread the virus.
Nyanza Province, on the shores of Lake Victoria, is estimated to have an HIV prevalence of over 15 percent, but in some parts of the province as many as one in four people are infected.
Fuelling the spread of HIV
When Atieno's husband died in the mid-1990s, AIDS was little more than a rumour, highly stigmatised and shrouded in silence. Her parents-in-law preferred to believe their son had been murdered.
Not long after she acquiesced to custom and married her brother-in-law, Atieno gave birth to a baby boy, but the infant died. She tested positive for the HI virus soon afterwards, but her new husband abandoned her before she could persuade him to be tested. "The rumour is he is infected," she said.
Around the village of Orongo, 10km from Kisumu, the main city in Nyanza Province, the effects of AIDS mark the landscape: homesteads stand derelict while herds of goats graze on the grass that covers scores of unmarked graves.
"Everybody from this family has died except one son; there are so many graves here," said Florence Gundo, 63, pointing to a plot of land. She set up a community-based organisation, the Orongo Widows and Orphans Group, and now dedicates herself to helping women widowed by HIV/AIDS.
The group runs a small volunteer-staffed nursery for 50 children orphaned by AIDS, who are a testament to the havoc the pandemic is wreaking on communities in the province.
Besides ignorance and stigma, Gundo believes the Luo tradition of forcing infected widows to remarry has hastened the spread of the virus in this region.
"If I don't know my status and I am inherited I might infect him," she said. "The man can then go to his home and he is going to infect his [first] wife too."
As in many ethnic communities in Kenya, a Luo man is free to marry as many women as he can support, but polygamy is widening the circle of people at risk of HIV infection.
Gundo has enlisted respected village elders to help break down the taboos that surround HIV/AIDS and encourage widows to go for testing.
"When a widow has been left behind, it is a must for her to go for an HIV test and even for the inheritor," said William Guti, a local village elder who works closely with Gundo. "If they are to come together, they must know their status."
The stigma attached to AIDS has led to a shift in the practice of wife inheritance that has done little to help widows. In-laws are increasingly turning their backs on women whose husbands have died as a result of AIDS because of the widespread assumption that they are destined to follow soon after.
Property disinheritance
Standing by the ruins of what had been her home, Milka Achieng remembered the reaction of her in-laws when she tested HIV-positive soon after the death of her husband.
"They behaved angrily and told me I could not stay there as I would only bring them another coffin," she recalled. "One day I went to town and when I returned they had removed the sheet-metal roofing. They beat me and chased me away."
Achieng and her three children have moved from house to house for over a year, living in squalid conditions in the slums of nearby Kisumu.
Traditionally, widows like Achieng have been denied the right to inherit ancestral land, which is passed down through the male line or can also be allocated by traditional chiefs.
Kenyan law now gives widows limited rights to their deceased husband's property, but in-laws are often determined to hold on to as much as they can, out of fear the woman will remarry outside of the family. Property disinheritance is a relatively new phenomenon, but is on the rise.
"Kenyan law gives a woman the right to inherit her husband's personal effects and to hold his real property, such as houses and land, in trust for their children. Interestingly, men are able to inherit the property outright if their spouse passes away," said Anne Amadi, head of litigation at the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya, which provides legal assistance to disinherited widows.
"The origin of the widow-inheritance custom was to protect the dead man's family, but today the inheritors are using it as a way to gain access to the property; the culture is really being abused."
Florence Gundo is slowly but surely winning the support of village elders and local chiefs in helping widows win back their property, and Nyanza's widows are learning that modern Kenyan law gives them rights to property that tradition and tribal custom denied their mothers and grandmothers.
"Now I know that it is my right I can stand firm and say, 'I married your brother, I have his children; I have a right, I am the rightful custodian of this house'," said Betty Tom, 28, one of a growing number of widows in Orongo who have refused to be inherited, despite the threats of in-laws to strip them of their inheritance.
After long negotiations with the village elders, her dead husband's house was registered in her name. "My father-in-law has divided each and everybody's land; I have been given mine," Tom said. "He told me, 'this was for your husband, now this is your land and nobody is supposed to interfere with it'."
Cases like Tom's are still rare. Few women in rural areas know their rights, and fewer still are able to prove the legality of their marriage in a court of law, as most are common-law wives. Culture and superstition also prevent many men from writing a will, in the belief that it will hasten their death.
When Mildred Akinyi, A HIV positive widow recently declined a proposal to be inherited, the entire community was stunned.
Her decision sparked a series of heated debates over this deeply rooted cultural practise highly prevalent in West Kenya region. But since then, Akinyi, who is a member of the St. Monica Widows Group which operates under the Catholic Archdiocese in Siaya has been viewed as a hero. Her decision has brought reprieve to countless widows in the region.
Defiant but astute many widows in Nyanza province are now breaking free from the fetters of this cultural practice.
Father Thaddaeus Oluoch, the chaplain of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu while condemning the practice says it has subjected women into highly demeaning rituals.
“It involves forced ritual sex seen as a form of cleansing and the women are often harassed”
In some cases, some of the widows either get infected with the Aids virus or help spread it. However, inheritance is taking new dimension as some Luo elders at the village level in Siaya are allegedly encouraging some widows suspected to be HIV positive to hire commercial inheritors at an exorbitant fee.
Father Oluoch who works with the defiant widows, has expressed concern over the number of “commercial inheritors christened “joter” who are too costly to hire since they demand a balanced diet and huge “ugali” on top of the inheritance fee before engaging in ritual sex even with the corpse before burial.
“This has been a major set back to our endeavors since many widows are opting to pay for the services for the fear of being neglected by their in-laws and to avoid the “ghosts of the deceased” from invading the home,” says he.
The priests speaks for thousands of Luo widows suffering their agony in silence who must comply with the dictates of society and must be inherited.
The widows on the other hand revealed that they normally lure “border –border cyclists “ or ‘japer’ from a neighboring community who prefer cash, heads of cattle or decent diet and alcohol before they proceed with the ritual sex the entire night. They are then seen as the inheritors of the deceased‘s wealth. The practice has attracted many strangers from a neighboring community in Siaya District who are paid affront for the “historic game.”
One noted inheritor, name withheld said “when widows fall in love with me for ritual sex it means I have to admit a death sentence in form of illicit sex in exchange for wealth”
He further said the practice is very dangerous but lucrative and a way must be found to tame relatives who intimidate widows in forced sex with strangers “japer” just to inherit them
Some of the widows demanded that doctors be mandated to publicly declare the cause of their patients death inorder to alert the would be inheritors.
The would be inheritor is chosen by the deceased’s relatives during the funeral ceremony which last weeks as people feast and dance while others mourn..
Tired of the practice, the affected widows formed the Association through the church parishes, whose membership covers the entire Nana province. The group crusades against cultural practices in Luo community that spread HIV/Aids.
During their annual convention held at Yala Catholic Parish in August last year, the well over a thousand widows addressed the issue of wife inheritance and the debate went on unabated in the presence of stakeholders.
They unanimously layed forth the need for widows to be assisted financially, socially and spiritually as some of them according to Father Oluoch are left homeless by their irate relatives who even loot their husbands properties.
“Some widows are left in a dilapidated houses vandalized during the funeral ceremony and for the widows to build a new house, she must enter in with an axe and a cock plus a new “husband” normally on hire or the would be inheritor” .
The inheritor symbolically acts as a husband when during ground breaking ceremony of the new house and must have sex with her that night.
St.Monica group aims at empowering such widows and to help them start income generating activities.
The Group advocates for total abstinence by widows as experts on HIV/Aids believe it is among the last barriers to reversing the spread of Aids disease.
Nevertheless, clan elders feel the society has mistaken the Luos terming them as immoral and primitive. The reason for the practice they insist is to ensure the widow is taken care of even after the death if her spouse.
They say there is a fine distinction between desire and disorders which “Jater” and the widow must observe including rape prevention. Luo widows who are past menopause age also go for ritual sex to cleanse their family leading to sexual abuse.
But even so the widows remain defiant. They will hear none of it.