The Cape Town boyfriend and the Joburg boyfriend: women’s sexual partnerships and social networks in Khayelitsha, Cape Town

Abstract

In South Africa, young people’s “multiple” or “concurrent” partnerships have been increasingly prominent in public health discourses – as drivers of HIV transmission. Multiple partnerships are typically framed in moralising, negative terms and depicted primarily as male-driven, within a broader framework of women’s vulnerability and use of sex for survival and material gain. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with adolescents and young adults in Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, this article investigates young women’s partnerships by exploring their complex interpersonal and social dynamics. We unpack women’s multiple motivations for, and careful management strategies of, both sexual and social relationships in a broader context of socioeconomic exclusion, threats to health and wellbeing, social obligations and relationships of care. The meanings and practices associated with young people’s relationships are more than the sum of individual sexual behaviours, rigid cultural scripts or simply a locus of “risk.” The data presented here highlight some of the limitations of “prevention” approaches that do not take into account this nuanced and multilayered view of such relationships. The affective and empathetic dimensions of young peoples’ relationships, as well as the socioeconomic contexts in which they occur should also be considered. Without accounting for this context, standard “prevention” approaches are less likely to succeed.

Personal support and expressions of care for pregnant women in Soweto, South Africa

“…In some cases, the social repercussions of an unintended pregnancy may leave a woman with little or no care from those from whom she might have expected support, with impacts on her health and well-being [13,14]. Accordingly, many women need to make various compromises in their own care and in sustaining the household, including in relation to new intimate relationships established when they are pregnant or when the baby is very young [15,16]. At the same time, as we illustrate below, many women invest in the relationship related to their pregnancies, and retain the hope that these men will accept the pregnancy and commit to shared parenting.…”

High HIV incidence among young women in South Africa: Data from a large prospective study

“…In South Africa, young women have been recognized as having particularly high HIV incidence [ 13 , 14 ] and our data reinforce that younger women were at greater risk, likely reflecting both biological and economic vulnerability [ 13 – 15 ]. Having new or multiple partners was also strongly associated with HIV incidence, and concurrent partnerships have been increasingly prominent as known drivers of HIV transmission [ 16 – 21 ]. High baseline HSV-2, N .…”

Making sense of fidelity: young Africans’ cross-national and longitudinal representations of fidelity and infidelity in their HIV-related creative narratives, 1997–2014

“…Manyaapelo et al ( 2019 ) and Swartz, Colvin, and Harrison ( 2016 ) draw attention to the male and female experiences with and sense-making around multiple concurrent relationships in South Africa. Manyaapelo et al’s male participants describe the pressure amongst male peers to demonstrate their masculinity via sexual prowess.…”

“…This discrepancy points to the importance of ongoing ethnographic surveillance of youth sense-making around HIV risk and the social drivers of risk in order to inform a response grounded in youth needs. Manyaapelo et al (2019) and Swartz, Colvin, and Harrison (2016) draw attention to the male and female experiences with and sense-making around multiple concurrent relationships in South Africa. Manyaapelo et al's male participants describe the pressure amongst male peers to demonstrate their masculinity via sexual prowess.…”