«No money, no honey»? Poverty and young men’s unmarried relationships in urban Burkina Faso

Anne E Calvès

doi:10.14428/rqj2019.07.01.01

Abstract

In Burkina Faso, the expectation that a young man has to financially support his girlfriend is deeply rooted in gender norms and is a keystone of masculinity construction. With the persistent economic crisis, high unemployment rates, and the growing importance of materiality in intimate relationships, this economic obligation seems more and more difficult to fulfil, however. Qualitative studies have reported the frustration of unemployed and poorer young men in West African cities who face difficulties in attracting girlfriends due to their economic condition. This sexual marginalization of poorer city-dwellers, suggested by anthropological evidence, has yet to be explored quantitatively. This is the purpose of the study. Based on unique life history data collected from young adults in 2010 in the capital city of Ouagadougou, the present research examines the impact of poverty on young men’s sexual relationship histories. Although they engage in a number of premarital relationships, results suggest that young men in Ouagadougou are not equal in the search for sexual partners. The study provides support for the «sexual marginalization hypothesis» and shows that other things being equal, unemployed males and uneducated young men are significantly less likely than their better-off counterparts to engage in relationships over time

Highlights

In Burkina Faso, marriage remains almost universal, it often no longer represents the beginning of exposure to sexual activity, especially in urban areas
Like in many other parts of the world, «romance and finance are in mutual embrace» in the African context (Mills, Sewakiryanga, 2005, p. 94) and money and gift exchanges are an essential component of the courting process that is intrinsically linked to masculine and feminine identities
With the persistent economic crisis and youth unemployment that have characterized most sub-Saharan African cities, including Ouagadougou (Calvès, Kobiané, 2014), since the beginning of the 1990s, this tacit financial obligation seems more and more difficult to fulfill for several young urban males

Summary

Introduction

In Burkina Faso, marriage remains almost universal, it often no longer represents the beginning of exposure to sexual activity, especially in urban areas. Like in other African cities, unmarried youths in contemporary Ouagadougou often engage in a number of premarital sexual relationships, either sequentially or simultaneously, for various reasons (Mazzocchetti, 2010; Rossier et al, 2013; Sawadogo, 2016). If some of these relationships, such as those with older, wealthier, married men, seem explicitly financially driven, the line between the affective and the material dimensions of most male-female intimate relationships in African cities is often blurred (Poulin, 2007; Cole, 2009; Hunter, 2010). In a context where masculinity construction is strongly linked to sexuality and young men’s ability to have girlfriends and multiple sexual partners (Brown et al, 2005), several studies have reported the bitterness and frustration expressed by unemployed, poorer urban men who feel marginalized on the dating scene and fear prolonged sexual abstinence or difficulties in keeping their girlfriends due to their economic condition (Mills, Sewakiryanga, 2005; Mazzocchetti, 2010; Mains, 2012)

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Results

Conclusion