Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

Intergenerational transactional sexual relationships between girls and older men are
thought to be common in Mozambique. A 2003 study in Zambezia (Bagnol, B and
Chamo, E) quoted other sources suggesting that between one eighth and one quarter
of adolescent girls have transactional sexual relations with men at least ten years
older than themselves. Such relations form part of a complex web of different sexual
relationships, both for the girls and for men. The study reported that girls seek out
such contacts because of the perceived social status and access to economic gains
available. Men seek out young girls because their sexuality is perceived to be more
exciting than older women, they may be less able to refuse, and they are thought to
be less likely to be infected by HIV.
The widespread incidence of transactional sexual relations between women and men
in Mozambique and the cross-generational incidence of such relations make it difficult
to identify the boundaries between this type of sexual interaction and commercial
sexual exploitation of children. Girls engaged in exchanging sex for some form of
monetary or in-kind benefit do not usually regard themselves as “prostitutes”. The
negatives effects of such exchanges are not seen to be the accepting of money or
goods for sex, per se, but the fact that such relationships do not lead to marriage and
may mean that a girl becomes pregnant without the father being identified, resulting
in the girl’s family becoming responsible for the upkeep of the baby.
Box 5.3: Milking the cow
In 2004, Options Consultancy Services and Population Services International
(PSI) Mozambique conducted a qualitative study among young women in Maputo
engaged in cross-generational transactional sex, in order gain a more in-depth
understanding of the phenomenon, which is thought to contribute significantly to
the spread of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique. The study used the PEER (participatory
ethnographic evaluation and research) method, based upon training members
of the target group (peer researchers) to carry out in-depth qualitative interviews
among their peers.
The study revealed that the young women engaged in cross-generational and
transactional sex had a complex sexual network involving multiple partners,
including both transactional and non-transactional relationships. These sexual
partnerships were classified into a range of different types of relationship:
namorados (same age boyfriends, with whom there is a perceived relationship
of trust); pitos (partners for sexual pleasure and with whom there is no economic
exchange); sengue (older married men) and amante (lovers).
The sengue and amante were both transactional relationships. All of the young
women stressed that the primary motive for transactional sex was economic, and
that they had no emotional attachment or expectations beyond exchange of sex
for money and other economic benefits. However, transactional relationships were
perceived to be distinct from prostitution, as transactional exchange always took
place in the context of a relationship, whereas prostitution was considered a oneoff
business encounter with a client.
Rather than perceiving themselves as passive or coerced victims of relationships
with older men, the young women interviewed saw themselves as active agents
involved in a continuing process of defining their social and sexual identity and
making choices about the risks in which they engaged. Transactional sex was
conceptualised as a strategy by which they were able to reverse the existing
balance of gender and power relations. Through the power of their sexuality,
the young women were able to extract financial resources from men in order to
access the material goods and life-style that symbolise modernity and success.
This strategy was referred to as ‘to sengue’, derived from the Portuguese
adaptation of a local term ‘sengar’, meaning ‘to milk the cow.’
CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS
181