Quarterly Bulletin

Even with the perceived difficulty of abstaining from sex before marriage in most cultures of the world, in Zambia there seems to be strong signs that abstinence is working and is becoming a preferred way of avoiding infection with HIV. Professor Michael J. Kelly reflects on the importance of abstinence in Zambia. “Ili che!” means “it’s okay!”

Something good is happening in Zambia and many of us are not aware of it. Young people are changing their sexual behaviour. They are starting sex at a later age than their predecessors. More than half remain abstinent until age 19. Those that are having sex seem to be less likely than their older friends to have more than one sexual partner.

What is more, the majority of Zambian men and women support these practices. Ninety percent of the men and women in Zambia are of the view that young people should wait until they are married before they have sexual intercourse, while almost 95 percent say that married men and women should have sex only with their spouses and with nobody else.

LATER SEX AND MORE ABSTINENCE AMONG THE YOUNG

The 2007 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) spoke of a substantial decline in the proportion of young women and young men who had sex by age 15. In 2000/2001, 18 percent of young women (aged 15 to 19) reported having sex before age 15; by 2007 this had fallen to 12 percent. During the same period the proportion of men aged 15–19 who had sex before age 15 decreased from 27 percent to 16 percent.

There is also a decline in the proportion having sex by age 18. Twelve years ago, three-quarters of both women and men aged 15 to 24 had had sex by age 18. By 2007 this had fallen to just over half (and included in this half were some who were already married).

Change along these lines was first noted back in 2005. At that time, half of those aged   15–24, both male and female, were reported as beginning sex by age 18.5. In the three previous surveys, taken in 1998, 2000, and 2003, half the young people in the same age group were reported as beginning sex at the much earlier age of 16.5.

The ZDHS also stated that “Among both young women and men who have never married, abstinence is common in the 15–17 age groups”: 61% of never-married women in this age group and 65.3% of men reported that they never had sex. Although the percentage having sex rises with those who are older, 56.2% of the never-married women aged 15 to 24 and 43.4% of the never-married men in the same age group were abstinent and never had sex.

Something similar has been found at the University of Zambia. In 2006, a survey of 759 students found that almost 40% reported that they never had vaginal sexual intercourse. Since 177 of these students were married, or had been married at one time, the percentage of never-married students reporting that they never had sexual intercourse would actually have been considerably higher.

ZAMBIA’S YOUTH ARE HUMANISING SEXUALITY

All of this is highly encouraging evidence of a tendency among young people to behave in sexually more responsible ways. When travelling to Cameroon in March 2009, Pope Benedict stressed that one element of the solution to HIV and AIDS was “a humanisation of sexuality, that is, a spiritual renewal that brings with it a new way of behaving with one another”.

If he had known about the developments taking place among the young people in Zambia, Pope Benedict would surely have been pleased to know that so many are remaining abstinent and that young people are waiting until they are older   before  having their first sexual intercourse. These are signs of a spiritual and human renewal in the understanding and practice of sexuality that is leading young Zambians to new ways of behaving towards one another.

This is something valuable in itself, since it is a sign that young people in Zambia are showing more responsibility in their practice of sex. It is also a good thing because it means that young people are hearing and acting on messages about the need for abstinence and delay in sexual activity if they are to avoid becoming infected with HIV.

THE PRIORITY OF ABSTINENCE AND FIDELITY

It is important for us to proclaim and celebrate what is happening among Zambia’s young people. They are on the right road and need the encouragement of everybody in society. Unfortunately they do not always get this encouragement. Over and over again one hears the negative message that abstinence is an impossible ideal. All too often experts, especially those coming from outside Africa, make unfounded assertions that abstinence is inherently ineffective, that it is based on an ideological and hyper-moralistic framework, that it is a failed approach, that there is overwhelming evidence that abstinence-until-marriage programmes are ineffective at preventing the transmission of HIV. These are not made-up statements. Each one of them appeared in a June 2009 evaluation of PEPFAR, the United States HIV Programme in Zambia.

A much more balanced position appeared in a Consensus Statement published in June 2004 by the influential British medical journal The Lancet. The intent of the Consensus was to present a sound public health approach to preventing the sexual transmission of HIV. Some 150 AIDS experts, including individuals from local and international faith-based organizations, endorsed the Statement. Having affirmed that changing or maintaining behaviours aimed at risk avoidance and risk reduction must remain the cornerstone of HIV prevention, the Consensus Statement presented a number of key principles, the first of which were the following:

These are remarkable statements of priority, coming as they do from a secular source and from so many acknowledged world experts in the fields of HIV prevention and sexuality. These priorities fully accord with Church teaching in its insistence on the importance of abstinence and fidelity. Understandably, as a document dealing with HIV prevention from a public health perspective, the Consensus Statement also speaks of condom use, but this does not lessen the force of its assertion on the priority of abstinence and fidelity.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGH IDEALS

Everybody admits that remaining abstinent is difficult. It is a challenge for every man and woman, and even more so for young people. But difficulties and challenges are not good reasons for not proposing this as the norm for people who are not married. Abstinence is a high ideal. Aiming at such a high ideal will never do harm and in very many cases will bring success. It is those who aspire to high ideals who achieve them, whether these be grades in an examination or living a life of abstinence.

Also, it is a solid finding of psychology and experience that people often try very hard to live up to whatever high expectations are set for them, whether these come from themselves or others. We have seen this many times.

On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a famous speech in which he said that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, he had a dream – the dream that one day the United States would live out the true meaning of its belief that all humans are created equal, the dream that one day his four children would live in a nation where they would be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. The ideal that the United States would embrace and practice racial equality seemed very remote back in 1963. But today, with the son of a Kenyan as President of the US, the ideal has clearly been realised in a way that far exceeds anything Dr. King could have imagined.

It was something similar with Nelson Mandela. When he was breaking rocks in his high security prison on Robin Island in 1984, he maintained and propagated the ideal that one day South Africa would free itself from the slavery of apartheid. Ten years later this seemingly impossible dream was realised when he became President of South Africa.

We have seen the same kind of thing in the field of HIV and AIDS. In December 2003, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS launched a campaign to get three million people in developing countries on to antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2005 (the ‘Three by Five’ campaign).

At first, almost in the same ways that some people ridicule abstinence, much of the world scoffed at the Three by Five ideal, saying it was too idealistic, it was unrealistic, it would not work, it was asking too much, the costs were too high, it just could not be implemented. But this idealistic initiative started an irresistible movement to save people from harrowing sickness and death by getting ever more of them on to ARVs. It transformed the treatment of AIDS in developing countries. By the end of 2005, more than 1.3 million people were on treatment for AIDS, and just two years later, by the end of 2007, the initial, seemingly impossible target of treating three million people had been met (and currently, more than four million people are receiving treatment).

ABSTINENCE AS A HIGH IDEAL

In all three cases, attainment of the targets seemed impossible. But people were galvanised by the high ideals and challenging objectives, and eventually these were attained.

And it can be the same with abstinence. The ideal is high, but young people want to be challenged by high ideals. If we aim lower and lead them to believe that abstinence is impossible for them, we are not doing them any favour. Instead we are demeaning them with our message that they will never be sufficiently responsible or mature enough to abstain from sexual intercourse until they are married.

EXTENDING OUR FAITH IN THE YOUNG

Far better for us to put more faith in the young and their generosity and idealism. They want to live in a sexually responsible way. They want to be reassured that abstinence is possible for them. They want to be encouraged in their efforts to live according to this ideal. What they do not want is for older people and various organisations to imply that they cannot remain abstinent, that they must always be satisfied with something less.

It will not be easy for them. Neither was it easy for Martin Luther King, for Nelson Mandela, or for WHO and UNAIDS, and yet look at the blessings all of these have brought to the world! Let us not make it harder for the young, either by discouraging them, or by agreeing to norms in our communities that turn a blind eye to sexual activity outside of marriage on the part of men or to women exchanging sexual favours for money, material benefits, or various favours. Let us also make it easier for young people by raising our voices against the debasing and demoralising advertisements and images that are given much space in the media.

Let every one of us do everything possible to make abstinence acceptable, possible and genuinely “cool” for Zambia’s young people. That way we will be helping to form them into women and men of real character. And that way we will also be dealing a deathblow against HIV and AIDS.

NEW WAYS OF BEHAVING WILL STOP HIV AND AIDS

Here in Zambia, we have a massive HIV and AIDS epidemic that is very widespread in the general population. We know of very few instances in which such a generalised epidemic has been rolled back. But where there has been some success  in  this,  the success has been due primarily to changes in sexual behaviour – fidelity to a single partner, delay in the commencement of sexual activity, and a more widespread practice of abstinence. The behaviour of young people in Zambia is showing more and more of these characteristics. In other words, they are on their way towards a Zambia that will be free of HIV and AIDS. We simply must support them in this.

And as Catholics we should celebrate this development. It endorses the HIV prevention approach that our Church adopts. It confirms that the approach adopted by the Church can be highly significant in reducing the sexual transmission of HIV in an epidemic such as the one being experienced in our country. In other words, we are learning through the young people the truth of what a Professor from Harvard University said in 2008: “What the churches are called to do by their theology turns out to be what works best in AIDS prevention.”

Michael J. Kelly, S.J.
Luwisha House
Lusaka, Zambia