‘You are looked upon as a luxury tool’: Young Tanzanian women’s perception of community norms supporting partner violence during transactional sex (kudanga)

Abstract

This paper explores the definition of, and perceived community attitudes, toward kudanga, a Swahili street term for a type of transactional sex practised in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Rooted in economic and gender disparity, transactional sex increases adolescent girls’ and young women’s vulnerability to HIV and gender-based violence. We sought to understand perceived community attitudes about kudanga, and how the internalisation of norms surrounding gender-based violence relate to the experiences of young women who practise kudanga. Using qualitative data from focus group discussions with 37 young women, we found that community perceptions of kudanga were largely negative, and those who engaged in it were looked down upon and despised. Violence and lack of sexual agency were normalised when doing kudanga. However, young women understood kudanga to often be their best option to obtain economic stability and felt strongly that those who practised kudanga should not be stigmatised. Our research provides further evidence that transactional sex exists on a continuum and highlights the importance of reducing community stigma surrounding transactional sex as a means of decreasing risk of HIV and gender-based violence for young women. To our knowledge, this article is the first to explore kudanga.

Keywords:

• Transactional sex
• intimate partner violence
• gender norms
• Tanzania

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and thank the following study interviewers: Lucy Akaro, Anitha Mapunda, and Angelina Mwimba. We also thank the following American University Master’s degree practicum students for assistance with coding: David Kreft, Liz Albershardt, Lorraine Kudayah, Karen Swatson, Jestina-Jocelyn Mponda and Mary Schommer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the US National Institute of Mental Health [R21 MH114570, 2017-2020] for the research, and the District of Columbia Center for AIDS Research for support to Thespina Yamanis [P30AI117970, 2021-2025] in the writing. The funding sources had no involvement in the study design.