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"There is a lot of money in this business. You just need to know where and how to get the business. Men need sex, and we are here to provide it". The tragedy I am trying to bring out in this article today is that, abject poverty is leaving women with little choice but to enter that age-old profession - prostitution! ON closer analysis, I am convinced that scratching the itch from a different angle might just touch the core of it, and perhaps spur someone, somewhere there into activity.
Sadly, it only trade, along with the sale of food, which enjoys a demand that will never wane as long as men walk the earth. For this reason, it has become the only option for people who have reached a level of wretchedness that has stripped them of the last vestiges of human dignity!
The only question the community ought to ask itself is: How much worse are the lives of our daughters and sisters before prostitution, that they should consider it as their only deliverance from poverty?
"There is a lot of money in this business. You just need to know where and how to get the business. Men need sex, and we are here to provide it". These are words of Tekla Sato (not real name), a 16-year - old Mwanza City girl I talked to on the subject. She has been here for two years surviving as a commercial sex worker.
"My family is poor, very poor! I have to do this to supplements the family's income" she says. A woman who was their neighbor at the time (in the village) approached her and told her about the job in the city. She hired her a room and brought in men who paid her to have sex. In fact the situation of the like is not new in our community but the only lesson one can learn here is that poverty has lent impetus to sex trade and despite the threat of HIV/AIDS; to some it is the only key to a brighter future!
Tortured by the reality of their wretched lives, it is no wonder that all of the commercial sex workers I talked to expressed a fervent desire to leave the profession. But the harsh fact is that without an alternative, they have no choice but to continue.
Before the advent of colonialism, our land was a decent country, if the aged folks are to be believed. Prostitution was either non-existent or at least it took place in less over ways!
To date, many reasons have been given for the flourishing of prostitution in the country. In developing countries like Tanzania, the trade exists mainly as a means to an end; women engage in it for survival. Experts say that people trade in their bodies to be able to support drug-related habits. And anywhere, as psychologists say, abuse of a child mentally or physically may also give rise to prostitution in life.
But, why the sudden change in Tanzania from a culture fully governed by decency to one where prostitution is becoming just another way of life? Before the coming of the white man, sex was seldom spoken of, at least publicly, except between adults. Thus children lacked exposure on the subject, grew up knowing that it was taboo not only for them to talk about sex, but also to think about it. Then came the western culture, fully pre-loaded with indecency and pornography. The atmosphere lessened the stigma associated with sexual issues.
Women then saw the need to satisfy their financial needs through the selling of their bodies and prostitution increased somewhat. Through time, the practice advanced from a simple favor-for-sex joke to a more elaborate material-for-sex batter business, before exploding into the advanced and highly complicated need -based trade we know today?
The slump in the economy has brought with it the urgent need to earn a living, while increased assertiveness making people less vulnerable to social scandal. People have become more independent in their thinking and subsequently more assertive. Education also has enhanced liberalism by instilling in people powerful sense of self; no body wants to be told what they could or could not do with themselves.
Parents are treated to the shock of teenagers demanding their rights including the right to independent sexuality. The modern education is making youth able and eager to think independently of their parents.
Prostitution around the world, therefore, has become a thriving trade that has resisted all efforts to stamp it out. With the society providing luring indecency, the dying economy has also given our tender aged girls the impetus to get out in the name of earning a living in the HIV infested arena!
Our government, religious institutions and the society at large, have a cause to take urgent action; debate, argue or fight. And any policy implemented should take into consideration that prostitution has firm grip in our society. Dismissing this as developed countries have tried would be in vain, since inevitably the vice is here to seems to be the stay!
About the Author
freelance journalist, district political party secretary and african cultural advocate.