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These are my experiences from several trips to East Africa from 1990 to 1995. I always travel alone and the experiences you make if you travel in a group may be very different from what I describe below. I am male and I report from a male point of view for single male travelers. If you are offended by this, or if you are a feminist, then better not go ahead.
Abstract
If you have ever dreamt to be desired by several women at the same time and have another partner every night, then East Africa will be your destination of choice. Never throughout the world I have found sex to be so free from cultural and social restrictions. Only if you play the game without a condom, you will probably sign your own death sentence.
MOST OF EAST AFRICAN PROSTITUTES ARE HIV POSITIVE. SORRY, THIS IS NOT A JOKE !
Prostitution in general
Unlike Western countries African prostitutes virtually never have
any kind of organization. Many are part time prostitutes and
almost all are alone. This allows you to build personal long term
relationships if you happen to come to the same point several
times. Due to migrant labour and millions of displaced peoples all
over Africa (but in East Africa in particular) prostitution is
socially accepted to a degree completely unknown to any Western
country. OK, I mean it! I keep getting open offers in bars and
night clubs and there's absolutely nothing shameful about it.
Everyone needs sex and the Africans never went through this kind
of crippling christian education that tells you everything your
body wants is bad. This is true of all African countries that are
basically non-muslim. Some times managers have asked me if I
wanted one of their employees for a night or brothers ask me if I
liked their sister or hotel managers have come to my room after
close. African prostitutes are also the cheapest I have come
accross in all of the many countries I have been to. It's very
rare you pay more than the equivalent of 5 to 10 US$ and if the
girl likes you, she may not ask any money at all. As a rule of
thumb those who ask the money first are professionals. In my
experience less than a third do. In some places I had the
absolutely wonderful feeling I could have any women I like if
only I ask.
Sex and fun
Actually most of the time it's pretty hard to determine if a girl
you take to your room is really a prostitute or just someone who
wants fun. Things I found reported in this site such as being
hurried to finish or having limited time (just an hour or so) or
even being asked more money for every piece of cloth to take off
_never_ happened to me in Africa, not a single time in hundreds
of cases. Considering the reports I read on European countries
(have no experience on this at all) suggest to me that what is
goin' on there is a cold business that's just about the money.
African girls always seem to really enjoy what they do (or they
will not do it at all).
White faces
There is a long tradition in Africa that white is beautiful. In
the markets women buy a kind of cream that is supposed to make
them lighter (actually it turns them yellow). Scientists (such
as Leo Frobenius) have reported that white people were regarded
as superior centuries ago. Don't feel guilty for what European
powers did to Africa in the colonial age. This is history.
Everyone who tries to make you feel guilty for this wants your
best, that is, your money for some reason or another. Believe me,
African girls like white men. If you're white, you'll be exotic
and desirable there. If you are Indian, they may not like you
due to the social tensions that are rising between Indian and
Black communities in East Africa.
Tourism in Africa
Sub-saharan Africa is not a monument destination. Most tourists
either come there to see animals or to have sex. You're in for
an adventure either way but if you belong to the second group you
better discover Africa the local way, that is, the hard way. The
things that are goin' on on top of trucks, in buses and in those
highway hotels you find along mud tracks dubbed highways are
absolutely beyond your wildest dreams. If you travel Hilton
style, this may ensure you have a hot shower every day and see
relatively few cockroaches but you take too much of you American
or European lifestyle with you to experience a mentality you will
most certainly never forget.
Bars; Nightclubs
You can find out about specific nightlife offers from tourist
brochures if you think you need to. But you don't need to. In
virtually every bar you find single women that stick around for
customers. It's simplicity in itself. Smile at them, let them
have a beer and this is it. If you make local friends you also
need not feel ashame to openly ask where to go. It's even
expected you will be in high needs if you are a single male
traveller. In a place in Uganda I got stranded for two days to
connect to another bus. I watched women doing some work in the
back room of a shop and I could see their breasts move under
their thin skirts while they worked. I remarked to a friend that
they were very sexy. He asked where I was staying and turned up
with two of them to choose from that night. In this case I know
for sure that none of these girls were prostitutes in any sense.
He must have just told them about my remark, they felt honored
about it and both wanted to see me. They did. Both of them, of
course. Unthinkable in the West, eh?!
Having lived as a resident in Tanzania for one year, I know the following:
1) No Tanzanian ever performs a gratuitous act without expecting something in return. Although you may not see it on the outset, if you live there long enough you will eventually become privy to this sort of reciprocity. It is generally more subtle than American or European reciprocity, i.e., you are not asked to return a favor or fee, and the length of time of repayment can be longer. However, the person is always expected to return a favor ar fee at some point; not to do so is seen as rude. This does not have to be at a later date but can be at any time.
2) Tanzanian women have sexual relations with their boyfriends in attempts to receive material items from them. This is very similar to many other countries. Even in America, women "marry up" while men marry "down." Many of the Tanzanian men, if not all, are paying their girlfriends in some way for their sexual favors, be it new kangas or plastic flowers, etc. However, sex (unmarried) is taboo in Tanzania and you will not hear of these things unless you pry into lives very slyly.
3) I saw many a prostitute steal money from white tourists. Usually attempts to do this are made while dancing, or in the car, or hotel. I know many people who, after ignorantly dancing with a prostitute, or thief, went to buy a beer only to discover that their wallet was missing.
4) The prostitutes in such establishments are always accepted so easily because they give portions of their money to the management, not because "sex is accepted as right anytime."
5) Tanzania is 30% Muslim, 30% Christian, and 30% "other religion." The sexual freedom you refer to (stemming from the absence of a Puritanical history) does not exist. Rather, any attempts to obtain sex from a white or other man is an attempt to embark on some sort of economic transaction. In Sudan, for example, there are 24 year old unmarried women who do not know what a kiss looks like. These women are no more or less Muslim than the Muslim or Christian women in Tanzania. All of the women I met in Tanzania regarded sex as a taboo subject and were very reluctant to be perceived as whores by the menfolk by having sexual relations and thus they guarded their sexuality very closely.
6) Perhaps, to for once Substantiate your theory, you should test it out. Before you have sex with someone, tell them you are flat broke as you were just robbed, you have no clothes to give away, you want sex for absolutely free and you do not want a wife or girlfriend, nor will you ever be returning to Tanzania even if your life depended on it. See how far you get into a bedroom. Then come back and inform people correctly about the sexual activity of people in another country.
I have never been so disappointed in a person before until I read your page. Not only does it portray an entire people incorrectly, but you seem to think you know what the people in another country are like, and find yourself to be a sort of "authority" on the subject. As an anthropologist myself, I can state firmly that you have engaged in projecting Your Value System onto another group of people. For someone who has been to Tanzania so much, you seem to have very little grasp of what the people are about. What a waste of time.
Have a nice day
"The writer is an idiot because these things could never happen in Tanzania. I am positive it was either his imagination or it was in another country but not Tanzania."