The Political Economy of HIV in Africa by Deborah Johnston Kevin Deane Matteo Rizzo

Author:Deborah Johnston, Kevin Deane, Matteo Rizzo [Deborah Johnston, Kevin Deane, Matteo Rizzo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
ISBN: 9781351725736
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

Methods

In Malawi, 23% of the land is covered with water (Government of Malawi 2007). Given the large bodies of fresh water covering Malawi’s land, fish and the fisheries sector play an important role in providing employment, nutrition and income to Malawians. This study was based in two villages on the southern arm of Lake Malawi in Mangochi District, which is situated in the Southern Region of Malawi. Despite the wide body of water covering Malawi, fishing activities are concentrated in Mangochi District (Hara 2008) because the shallow water found in this area facilitates fish breeding (Darwall and Allison 2002). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimated that in 2003, 30% of all livelihoods in Mangochi were in the fishing industry (the most recent data the authors could identify). Both villages were selected because of the large fish-landing sites that are situated within the boundaries of the village. Many of the people living in the villages were heavily involved in fishing. However, the presence of large landing sites for boats meant that there was large inward and outward migration of people working within the fishing industry.

As noted above, the HIV prevalence rate in Malawi stands at 11.7%. In keeping with prevalence trends in other southern and eastern African countries, young women are particularly vulnerable to HIV, with the prevalence among women aged 15–19 standing at 4% compared with less than 1% for men of the same age (National Statistical Office 2005).

The dominant form of fishing within the two study villages is kauni,2 which is focused on catching usipa, a small cichlid fish. This type of small-scale fishing requires an engine boat, a crew of 10 men, three to four dug-out canoes, lanterns and nets, and takes place at night.3 The fishing industry in Malawi, like many other countries, is highly gendered with men undertaking the fishing and women buying, processing and selling fish at market. In this role female fish traders are highly mobile, travelling from beaches across the district to access fish, drying them either in their homesteads or in the area they have purchased the fish in, then travelling to the market to sell the fish (MacPherson et al. 2012). Female fish traders need to build and maintain capital for their fish-trading business and spoke frequently of the challenges they face in maintaining their funds (Ibid.). The capital is primarily required to buy fish and pay for the transportation (both for themselves to the different beaches and for the fish to the markets once it had been processed). Even when women are able to access capital they often face the challenge of securing access. Social norms within the villages prevent women from undertaking the fishing and therefore any access women have to fish has to be negotiated through men (Ibid.). Throughout the process of buying and selling fish, female fish traders face a great deal of economic risk and uncertainty. One key way female fish traders mitigate is through developing sexual relationships with men that can help secure them access to fish (Ibid.

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