Impacts of AIDS on marriage patterns, customs and practices in Uganda

Abstract

Uganda has one of the highest numbers of reported AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa. This is mainly due to a number of historical and political factors. The government of Uganda has openly dealt with the AIDS crisis since 1986 but before that the socio-economic and political chaos in the country created an ideal situation for HIV to spread widely in both rural and urban areas. The HIV infection rate varies among different population subgroups: the 1987/88 sero-survey showed variations among regions and between rural and urban areas. In the most urbanized central region, 21.1 per cent of urban and 12.1 per cent of rural residents were estimated to be HIV-positive. In Western Region which is less developed than Central, 29 per cent of urban and 5.7 per cent of rural residents were infected. In contrast, in the remote and rural West Nile Region, 7.7 per cent of urban and 6.6 per cent of rural residents were HIV-positive (Asedri 1989). There is now a sizeable body of research in Uganda on sexual behaviour, social networking and HIV transmission, including sexual partner studies and studies of changing sexual behaviour in response to the epidemic (e.g. Berkley et al. 1990; Serwadda et al. 1992; Konde-Lule, Musagara and Musgrave 1993; Mulder et al. 1994). However, there is a need for more research on the impact of AIDS on the individual, the family and the community. Little is currently known about changes in households, extended families and their coping mechanisms, and the impact of AIDS on future productivity at the family level and within the community. The household is the basic unit of subsistence production in Uganda, and its existence and that of the extended family system within which it is embedded has enabled the society to weather the many stresses of war and social dislocation which have occurred in the country for over two decades. It is anticipated, however, that the increased stress occasioned by AIDS will be too much for the extended family systems to bear in the long run.