The Gift of Agency: Sexual Exchange Scripts among Nigerian Youth

Abstract

This article examines the practice of directly exchanging goods for sexual intercourse using data from 36 focus-group discussions with youth living in rural southern Nigeria. Conceptualizing this practice as a sexual script, the authors conduct a deductive thematic analysis framed by the broader context in which sexual exchange occurs. Combining scripting theory with an analysis of the form of the payment, it was found that the cultural script of exchange supports girls’ agency. However, at the interpersonal level of practice, this script often loses out in conflict with the cultural scripting of male control. The shape of this practice is influenced by intrapsychic scripts (e.g., sexual violence is an option), interpersonal resources (e.g., family money), and cultural scripts (e.g., stuff and status bring friends). In the final analysis, sexual exchange is found to be a script that both enables and restricts agency. It is a power niche for those with limited social and economic power, enabling them to seek and access material goods, social status, and sexual experience. It is also a means of coercing unwanted sex via peer and parental pressure, poverty, and a context of gender inequality. Implications for HIV prevention are discussed.