A Change of Scenery

Tswana Culture and HIV/AIDS

The Botswana society is patriarchal historically and there is still a strong presence that resonates throughout the country. Men are very aggressive towards women who in turn are supposed to be submissive. Society tells a woman that it is not okay to ask her man where he was, or where he spent the night. And women are supposed to be domestic and take care of the family. It is not uncommon for a man to have what is called a small house. This means he has his wife and family at one place and a lover or two on the side. The practice is not frowned upon and considered to be cultural as polygamy once was the norm before Colonial and Missionary rule. What I mean by Missionary rule is that when the British claimed Botswana as theirs all they saw was a desert and left the country and the people relatively alone so the people were not destroyed under colonial rule. However what the colonists did bring were Christian missionaries, and while some were there (e.g. David Livingstone) before the Bechuanaland Proctorate was established, many came afterwards with bibles and guns, forever changing Tswana society. The missionaries were appalled by the traditional Setswana culture (i.e. rain making rights, rites of passage, circumcision (both male and female), and polygamy) and many convinced chiefs, once converted to abolish all traces of it. This plan of course failed and traces for the past still linger today such as having multiple lovers. These cultural traditions have led to many problems, but most notably above all else, HIV/AIDS. Botswana presently has a HIV/AIDS proliferation of 17.1%. In a country of only 1.8 million people that is a substantial number. The spread of this virus is not due to a lack of education. People know to wear condoms when they have sex, it is drilled into their minds and they are constantly reminded by educators, signs, commercials, advertisements, and peers. The Botswana government gives them away for free so that people do not have to purchase them. From my understanding it is having sex with multiple partners that spread the disease, many young couples do what is called co-inhabitation which is where you live together for a while and then when you break up you just move in with the next boyfriend/girlfriend. Women become pregnant and pass it on to their children because they do not get tested. If a woman has HIV and is pregnant she can lower the risk of passing it on to her child to less than 4% if she takes medication from 40% without. You can be tested for HIV at no cost, and if you are positive the government supplies ARVs (antiretrovirals) for free as well. You can tell the government cares about the people, it is just sad that a country’s culture contributes to its demise. Not to say Botswana is dying because by no means is it. There is just unnecessary death, primarily due to gender roles and fragments of a culture that have been skewed by westernization.

Alcohol.

Many Batswana have what we in the US call a drinking problem but in their eyes there is no problem at all. People drink copiously many nights a week putting frat boys with beer bongs to shame. People drink and drive, and undoubtedly ever Saturday and Sunday morning if you walk around town you see broken glass and crushed garbage bins from drunken collisions. That is one reason I do not go out at night. Some people drink all day every day. There is a student bar on campus, Block 411, I haven’t been there and probably never will, because I hear it is rowdy and dirty. At month’s end when the students receive their allowances (the Botswana government pays their citizens to go to university) many do not go to class and hang out at 411 until all of their allowance has disappeared in the form of booze. We had a discussion in one of my classes as to whether or not drinking too much is a social problem, all of the American and European students agreed that it was, where as the African students were adamant it was not and that there was no such thing as Alcoholism. I have to imagine it is here, in this country, and that individuals and families alike are affected by it. I just do not understand how people can’t see it. This is merely a cultural difference, and there is nothing I can do to change their minds just as there is nothing they can do to change mine.

However despite the vices of this country, the good shines above the bad. The people are wonderful, friendly, open, and normally inquisitive. Sometimes when we talk they cannot grasp my culture just as I can never quite grasp theirs. They are happy people, respectful people, peaceful people. I hope to eventually better understand the culture and know that my classes and Motswana friends are helping do so. I hope everyone at home is doing well and love receiving mail. If you write me I will write you back. I love you and miss. I realized today that it is only three months until I come home. Somehow that doesn’t seem very long anymore.