Abstract #243  -  Tradition, culture and HIV
Authors:   Presenting Author:   Dr. Gudrun Anita Heeren - University of Pennsylvania
Additional Authors:  Prof  John Jemmott, Prof  Zolani Ngwane,
Aim: In many countries traditions, culture and customs have changed over years. We wanted to examine how lobola, the custom of transferring cattle or other goods from the family of the groom to that of the bride as part of marriage negotiations, might influence attitudes towards women and sexual behavior of men in South Africa today.
Method / Issue: We held 11 focus group sessions to discuss health related issues with heterosexual men and women in a SA township. The participants consisted of one group each of men only; women only, mixed gender and couples. The men also completed, a survey which asked questions to elicit their views, attitudes and about lobola and their believe about the influence in regard of behaviour in general and specifically towards the woman itself.
Results / Comments: We are presenting here one part of the main study focusing on behaviour of heterosexual . The participants age range of the participants was between 18 and 55 years. Their education level was between Standard one to post graduate level. About a third of the participants were unemployed. All members declared themselves as sexually active heterosexuals. In spite of wide spread beliefs that traditions and customs are no longer strong literature review and the results of the focus groups showed that lobola is still an important part of culture in places like South Africa. This is regardless of people’s educational background. Most women believe that the payment of lobola forms a greater value and strength to their marriage; hence they insist that husbands should pay lobola. It is in this light that many participants strongly believed that the marriage will not last, the husband or the wife will not respect each other, the other family will not accept the marriage, if lobola has not been paid. Failure to pay lobola assumes that the woman remains single in marriage as a result even the children of the young couple belong to the father of the wife, but not to the husband. The husband will have no influence in the upbringing of the children. We did not find a difference of in behaviour towards their wife if men agreed to pay lobola or not. Most men agreed to pay lobola and most women saw it as paying respect towards the new family.
Discussion: In this study men and women made clear that they see tradition and culture such as paying lobola as important part of their life. Paying lobola is paying respect towards a tradition and towards the future of the new family. This is accepted as an important part in regard of the marriage, which will contribute to the stabilization of the marriage. The data are not representative for all men, since the sample size was very small. The data collected did not establish any evidence that men’s behaviour is different, if they believed in this tradition or not.
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