Following his pleasant discovery earlier in
the day, Hueze Huesu, in his 50s, couldn’t
wait to get home later that night. He felt like
a school boy preparing for a first date. He
was excited about exploring the world of séx
with a ‘rubber.’
heard from some people that it prevents
pregnancy and séxually transmitted
diseases,” he said. However, his excitement
was deflated when he tried to explore…
He wanted to enjoy his new discovery with
one of his wives t night. He said, “For the
first time, I tried to use it when I wanted to
sleep with my wife but she bluntly refused.
She said she was not a prostitute and
queried why I wanted to use a condóm when
we have been married for years and never
used one.”
Since then, Huese, who has 10 children, has
never tried to use a condóm with any of his
two wives. “I have never believed in the use
of condóms anyway. This has not stopped
me from having séx regularly. The woman
knows the sign when the man is about to
release or reach climax. So she has already
even enjoyed it more than the man before he
withdraws,” noted Huese animatedly.
The use of condóms is strange to men in
Makoko, a densely populated slum town in
Lagos where majority live in wooden shacks
built on water.
Like Huese, many Egun people in Makoko, as
well as Oko-Agbon and Ago-Egun
communities in Yaba Local Council
Development Area, Lagos, do not like using
condóms due to their long held traditional
belief in the old practice of coitus interruptus,
also known as the withdrawal or pull-out
method during séxual intercourse.
For centuries, this has been used as a
method of birth control worldwide.
The history is not lost on the Egun people
whose forefathers migrated from
neighbouring Francophone West African
countries like Togo and Benin Republic, as
well as from Badagry, Lagos. This age old
practice has been transferred to the current
generation, where most of the people speak
their local Egun dialect and sometimes
French. Their major occupations are fishing
and farming. Only a few understand English
and the residents, whose maj live in wooden
shacks built on murky waters oozing with an
unpleasant odour.
“The use of condóm means nothing for us
here as Egun people. We don’t like using
condóms because we know ourselves, both
women and men; we don’t go outside or
sleep around. It’s those people who go
outside sleeping with different people that
contact such diseases like HIV,” said Lowato
Luke, one of the traditional chiefs in the area.
Luke, who has two wives and 12 children,
gleefully boasted that he had mastered the
withdrawal method and understands his
wives’ ovulation cycles. “I know the
particular times to have séx with my wives,
even if they are breastfeeding and I want to
have séx with them, I know how to do it to
prevent another pregnancy,” he said. Like
Huese, he also claimed that his wives enjoy
the séx more than he does. “But if you use
condóm, it won’t be that enjoyable. I have
never used a condóm,” he noted.
It is the same case with Kirianko Goi, in his
40s. “I don’t believe in the use of condóm
because I never heard that from my father.
It’s not for me to say whether I will advise
my children to use condóm or not. If the
young boys and girls want to have séx, they
won’t tell you. This generation is clearly
different from that of my father and mine.
But if I’m in a position to do so, I will advise
them, it is my duty to advise them,” he said.
Goi’s nephews, two young men in their 20s,
one married and the other unmarried, giggled
intermittently during their uncle’s brief
condóm talk. But they declined comments
when asked if they use condóms during séx.
Many of the men who spoke to our
correspondent in the community expressed
their aversion to the use of condóms during
séxual intercourse and were insistent that
their women enjoyed it that way.
Twenty-five-year-old Bernadette Sato, who
has two children, agreed. She does not like
condóm. “We don’t like using condóm. But if
we don’t want to get pregnant, we know
how to do it by ourselves; it pays us more
that way, because we don’t like using
condóm. I was told in a hospital in Cotonou,
Benin Republic, where I gave birth to my first
child, that people who don’t want to get
pregnant can use condóm. Sometimes, I use
a family planning drug before and after séx
with my husband to prevent pregnancy,” she
said, noting that many of her friends also
don’t like condóms, while some claimed it
could bring about disease. “I don’t know the
type of disease, but I just don’t like condóm
during séx,” she added.
Pipi Olorunwa, who has been married for 12
years and has six children, gave an insight
into the female perspective. She said:
“Although there is no official report that says
condóm is bad; personally, I don’t like it
because God did not create it. Those who
created it did so because of the level of
immorality in the world today so that they
can enjoy themselves. There are several
methods to avoid pregnancy. A couple can
have séx without the wife conceiving.
“I also don’t like the chemical and odour
from condóm because I believe the chemicals
used in preserving the condóm could cause
problems and is harmful to the body.
Although I didn’t get the information from a
medical expert, but everybody does
according to their belief. I don’t use any drug
either to prevent pregnancy. I just do it the
natural way with my husband.”
“We don’t use need it or any other
contraceptive because we understand how to
do child spacing,’’ noted the head of the
traditional chiefs in the area, 55-year-old Mr.
Francis Agoyon Alashe. When probed further,
he gave a timeline of the spacing among
some of his 14 children as proof. It showed a
two or three-year gap among them. “My
children are well spaced. Some of them,
including the twins, were born in 1984, 1986
and 1989. I stopped having children in 2003,”
he explained, adding that he still had séx
with his wives during those period without
childbirth because he had ‘planned it
carefully with the withdrawal method.’
“Of course, the woman enjoys it. It’s a
matter of agreement between the man and
the woman. We don’t like using condóms as
such because we want flesh to meet flesh. If
a man is too anxious during séx, he will
release on time, but if he can control his
excitement, he can take longer minutes,” he
explained.
According to Agoyon, the use of condóms
could even have ‘negative effects.’ “We
believe using condóm could bring disease on
its own. This could happen when the sperm
goes back into the manhood. We call it
‘foon’. Then, to urinate will be very difficult,”
he said
However, a medical doctor, Dr. Kareem
Jamiu, punctured holes in Agoyon’s
statement. “That’s not true. It’s not
medically possible. But there is what is
called ‘retrograde ejaculation’, where the
sperm goes backwards to the bladder
instead of forward. Normally, when a man
wants to release, the bladder neck closes so
that the sperm can easily flow forward. But if
the bladder neck muscles are weak or
relaxed, then it means there is a problem.
Some causes of retrograde ejaculations are
complications from diabetes, a
malfunctioning bladder sphincter, as well as
some STDs. But in a normal male, the
bladder neck is normally so tight and so the
sperm cannot go back,” explained Jamiu,
who once worked with the Doctors Without
Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières during
their intervention programme in Makoko,
Oddo and Badia communities in Lagos State.
The MSF team, comprised foreign doctors
supported by Nigerian medical staff, worked
in these areas for over two years and
established a health centre, until they left in
2012.
Despite the lack of information, knowledge,
and awareness about the consequences of
unprotected séx, there is a general low rate
of STDs and HIV/AIDS in the Makoko
communities, noted Jamiu, who confirmed to
our correspondent that the people in the
communities really don’t like using condóms.
He said: “We tried talking with them but it
was difficult getting the message across to
them. When you tell them about it, they just
laugh about it and say they will try.
“From our experience with them, their way of
preventing pregnancy is coitus interruptus.
Most of the males that had STDs patronised
traditional healers, while the females
sometime came for treatment, although the
rate of STDs or HIV/AIDS was not as
widespread as feared. I don’t think there
was any difference between the rates in
Makoko when compared with the general
population or with people who live in
different settings. Sometimes, there were 11
cases of HIV in a month, sometimes 12. The
community also recorded low figures in
malaria and cholera cases,” he explained.
“We have special herbs to cure STDs like
gonorrhoea and other types of diseases,”
said Huese. “It is an Egunsecret,” Agoyon
replied when probed about it.
This surprising trend may be due to what is
medically termed ‘herd immunity’, Jamiu
noted. “When a group of people are exposed
to something too frequently, they tend to
develop a general immunity to it,” he
explained.
According to Vaccines Today, an online
publication, “Herd immunity is a form of
immunity that occurs when the vaccination
of a significant portion of a population (or
herd) provides a measure of protection for
individuals who have not developed
immunity.”
“I think that’s what happened in Makoko.
The rates of diseases were not really as bad
as envisaged, Jamiu said.
Another medical doctor who worked with
MSF, Dr. Valentina Edoro, echoed Jamiu’s
words. “There were isolated cases of STDS,
but not high. The number was not something
that needed any special intervention. When
the women came for family planning; we
found out that they don’t discuss it with
their husband. We needed to bring the men
on board during discussions on family
planning, but it came about much later when
we were about rounding off the project,” she
said. Edoro added that many of the men in
Makoko said they didn’t enjoy séx with
condóms because they believed it decreased
the pleasure during séx.
However, she pointed out that the
withdrawal method may not necessarily be
effective in preventing pregnancies and STDs.
“This is because the pre-ejaculation fluid
from a man’s man-hood may contain sperm,
which means that the man may still has
enough sperm to make a woman pregnant,”
she said, noting that the women were less
conservative about family planning than the
men.
“Surprisingly we also discovered that their
children were healthy and they breastfed for
longer time, malnutrition was not a problem.
Yes, they had a lot of chest infections
because of their environment and they
smoke. But they were healthy, despite their
environment. I was also surprised about the
low rate of STDs because they don’t protect
themselves with condóms. They don’t marry
outside the community, I don’t know if that
is a factor,” she noted.
Conservatism, illiteracy, lack of awareness,
traditional beliefs, environmental factors, high
risk séxual behaviour and poverty may be
some reasons for the widespread practice of
unsafe séx among people in the community.
There is also a high rate of teenage
pregnancy there.
Their claims asides, SUNDAY PUNCH
gathered from some of the residents that,
despite their marital status, a few of them
still had séxual affairs outside the
community.
“Today, girls are getting pregnant more and
giving birth. Séx is more common in Makoko
among the young boys and girls. They like it.
All they know in this settlement is séx. You
see young girls of 13, 14 years, who have
had séx. And when they are brought to the
elders, they would claim that they are
husband and wife. We deliberated some
cases last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We
had cases of r*pe in the past but it is very
rare. Nowadays, some of these young girls
spend their mothers’ profits from her trade to
get boys to have séx with them,” Agoyon
said. Most times, a traditional marriage
ceremony is quickly conducted between these
young, consenting lovers. It doesn’t cost
much to have one in Makoko, a traditional
wedding ceremony could cost between
N10,000 and N150,000, Agoyon said.
This developing trend may change the status
quo in the community in terms of population
growth and rates of STDS.
This is the more reason why, beyond the
changing perspectives, Jamiu said people in
communities such as Makoko needed more
enlightenment about the use of
contraceptives such as condóms, considering
the social and economic effects such
population increase in slums areas would
have on the country.
According to recent World Bank statistics,
Nigeria, with a population of over 160 million
where majority live on less than $2 a day,
has the seventh highest birth rate in the
world. The report stated that Nigerian
women give birth to an average of six
children within their childbearing years.
“Their educational awareness and knowledge
of contraceptives is very poor in Makoko. I
can’t comment on how it works for them.
But if the communities can be provided with
standard education, it will help change their
mentality and way of life, because you can’t
dislodge them from there. That’s where they
are comfortable to live in. It’s more of a
rudimentary life. They have some brilliant
children where during interaction with them,
you know they can be better. Education is
what they need,’’ he noted.
Although the older generation still holds
strongly to the séxual practice of their
forefathers, the younger generation of Egun
people seem to be drifting away with the
current of modern times, while in the murky
waters surrounding their communities.
Remi Goka, in his 30s, who was evasive
about his marital status, said he used
condóms whenever he was with his
girlfriends. Like he put it, he didn’t know if
they had other séxual relationships outside.
“But I go for tests regularly. I have many of
my friends who use condóms,” he said.
His friends, whose ages ranged from 18 to
30; Hunkarin, Yomlomnun Monday, Keyebo
Richard and Djisou Honsou, who had his
name tattooed on his arm, all agreed. They
all use condóms also. Goka agreed that séx
among young people was now a common
way of life in the community.
“Yes, there is a difference between my
generation and the older one because we are
more enlightened about the issues. We have
a larger population now. It’s a thing of
choice,’’ he noted.
With an increasing population, especially of
women and children, poverty, poor living
conditions, lack of education and basic
infrastructure and services, the increasing
rate of unprotected séx in Makoko
communities is a worrying trend, especially
as the general dislike for cóndoms hasn’t
changed much with the younger generation.
“They live in a kind of cocoon. For them, it’s
a way of life. The men go for fishing; the
women go to the market and come back.
From what I have observed, there are no
special values being handed over. So, it goes
on like a cycle. The young boys grow up to
impregnate their women and it just goes on
and on,” Edoro noted.
Written By Punch’s Arukaina Umukoro
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