On the front line of the fish for sex trade ‘spiralling out of control’


Amid mounting shortages, an unusual trading custom has flourished in this part of northern Malawi, close to the Tanzanian border. What began as an occasional bargaining tool has grown into an uncomfortably normalised business transaction between fishermen and their customers – one that brings with it serious health risks.

Trading fish for sex has become engrained in Malawi’s fishing communities. Many buyers are women who – in a market where demand significantly outstrips supply – feel they have no other choice but to trade their bodies to guarantee a sale.
“You can’t buy fish here unless you agree to have sex with the fisherman,” Esther Kondowe, a 36-year-old mother of five, told The Telegraph. “In my case, I have been able to buy this fish because I am in a sexual relationship with the fisherman.”

She added that thousands of vulnerable women are being forced to have unprotected sex with fishermen, leading to unwanted pregnancies and exposure to HIV.

“I was forced to have sex with the fishermen after attempts to buy [produce] normally proved futile,” Esther said. “I remember having unprotected sex under duress from the first fishermen who refused to use a condom. He said he would not sell me fish if I insisted on safe sex.”
But local activists told The Telegraph the abusive transaction has spiralled “out of control” and is facilitating the spread of HIV among the fishing camps of Kaonga and beyond.
Rhodice Mwenda – from the town Nyungwe, seven miles south of Ngala – contracted HIV in 2014 from her fisherman husband, who she claimed engaged in “sex for fish”.
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