Condoms as Contraception versus Condoms as Protection: Obstacles to HIV/AIDS Prevention among Young People Urban Nigeria

Daniel Smith, Brown University

Condoms appear to offer young people who are sexually active dual protection from unwanted pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, ostensibly increasing the desirability of condom use. This paper shows, however, that among Nigerian youths, the intertwined understanding of condoms as contraception and HIV/AIDS protection can actually inhibit safe sex. Findings demonstrate an extreme disparity between young people's knowledge about HIV/AIDS and condoms (high and mostly accurate) and actual levels and patterns of condom use (relatively low and extremely inconsistent). In the Nigerian context, part of the explanation for these incongruities lies in understanding the conflicting consequences with regard to partner trust and intimacy that emerge when condoms are interpreted simultaneously as contraception and HIV/AIDS protection. The stigma of AIDS and the consequent denial of personal risk is the outcome not only of AIDS' fatality, but of moralities of sexuality that are framed in relation to ideas about gender, reproduction, and intimacy.