AEGiS-14IAC: Living on the edge: ethnographic observations on risk-taking among marginalised township youth in South Africa.

14th International AIDS Conference


Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

DonateNow
Print this article

Living on the edge: ethnographic observations on risk-taking among marginalised township youth in South Africa.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. ThOrE1406)

Wood KM
Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Despite the seriousness of the HIV epidemic in their midst and their witnessing of AIDS-related deaths among peers, South African youth continue to adopt safer sexual practices only erratically. This paper seeks to take analysis beyond narrow, individualistic explanations which focus on attitudes towards condoms and male 'irresponsibility', to consider the linkages of sexual risk to broader contexts of risk-taking among male youth in a setting characterised by daily violence and economic vulnerability.

METHODS: The findings are based on an anthropological doctorate for which the author conducted 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork including participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups, in a working-class neighbourhood of a township in the former Transkei region of South Africa.

RESULTS: The paper begins by describing the complex intersection of factors which impacts on individuals' capacity to take up sexual risk-reduction strategies. It goes on to consider how in a context of deprivation and poverty of opportunity, the daily lives of male youth are characterised by a survivalistic ethos which jeopardises their ability to confront fully the consequences of their actions. Many are bound up in criminal practices fraught with danger, as a means to instant income, camaraderie and 'respect'. Risk-taking is described as pleasurable. Sudden violent death as a result of alcohol-related stabbings and botched criminal 'missions', is common. In this context, short-termism, fatalism and a sense of being out of control are evident in young men's thinking about their lives, and mould their responses to HIV- a disease which brings incapacitation 'tomorrow', not today.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the importance for HIV intervention design of understanding the conditions in HIV-afflicted communities giving rise to a variety of risk-taking practices, which include- and go beyond- the sexual domain.

Keywords: AEGIS, Risk-Taking, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Infections, Condoms, Observation, Adolescent Behavior, Focus Groups, Poverty, Adolescent Psychology, Violence, South Africa, Adolescent, Human, MaleKWDaegis,risk-taking,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,hivinfections,condoms,observation,adolescentbehavior,focusgroups,poverty,adolescentpsychology,violence,southafrica,adolescent,human,male

020707
ThOrE1406

Copyright © 2002 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.