African Sex Workers Fight for Rights

African sex workers are among the world's most marginalized and mistreated. They are criminalized, abused, targeted by politicians and police, chastised and shunned by society, and at high risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Sex workers are often as young as 10, and many resort to sex work because of extreme poverty. In some cases, parents or family members push them into prostitution because the family has no other recourse to money. Many are refugees who fled violent conflict zones — the Congo, for example — and wound up in surrounding countries where they find themselves without legal rights, cautiously skirting the fringe of society, and at constant risk for rape, abuse, incarceration, and murder.

They are also vulnerable to criminal gangs, who sell them to human traffickers. The traffickers move women between African countries and occasionally to European or other foreign countries. They take sex workers' papers and demand large sums of money from them to pay off their "debts." The workers have essentially no way out of these situations, barring dramatic escapes or the help of aid organizations.

Meanwhile, the focus on sex workers as criminal targets has multiple negative impacts. Corrupt police demand "freebies" from the workers — an insidious form of rape — and enact large fines which, paradoxically, force the women to frantically hustle for more work to compensate. Police often physically and psychologically abuse sex workers, beating them and forbidding them to bathe. Little is done to attempt any sort of control over or accountability for police actions.

Rather, the sex workers are seen as a lower class of human being to be prosecuted; in Nigeria, for example, police and politicians in the Islamic city of Bauchi rounded up hundreds of sex workers for violating Sharia law. Their fate is yet unknown; however, eighteen gay men were recently arrested in the same area and are facing death by stoning.

Sex workers in both South and East Africa have begun organizing against the pressures and dangers they face. In South Africa, SWEAT (Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task force) has been using the World Cup as an opportunity to advocate for the decriminalization of sex work and the importance of encouraging safe sex and AIDS prevention; the fact that president Zuma asked for the importation of a billion condoms might be a sign that some of their tactics are working.

In Uganda, activist Kyoma Macklean began fighting for sex workers' rights following the violent rape and murder of a young prostitute outside of Kampala. She has spoken out in the Ugandan parliament and the United Nations conference on human rights, and heads the Center for Rights Education and Awareness in Nairobi, Kenya. The CREAW is helping a group of sex workers who, incredibly, after reporting the murders of eight sex workers in the Kenyan town of Thika, were arrested and charged with spreading rumors and false information. The organization is fighting for the decriminalization of sex work, increased AIDS awareness and prevention, and greater consciousness about the lives and struggles of sex worker. CREAW has published several books in East Africa about the experiences and stories of sex workers.

To support African sex workers, check out the Center for Rights Education and Awareness.

Photo credit: A Campaign Designed To Drop Sales