By Jeremiah Aminu
In many African countries, transactional sex operates as an informal economy that hugely relies on the human body as a salient site of exchange. In this regard, the human body functions as a marketplace that offers a variety of “products and services” to clients in exchange for money, gifts, socio-economic opportunities, and societal influence. These “products and services” encompass a range of sexual practices such as blow job (oral sex), back to Egypt (anal sex), fingering (vaginal penetration with the fingers), electric shock (orgasm), smooching, and other sexual “services” of intimacy and gratification.
As an economy, transactional sex, in general, operates on the fundamental principles of demand and supply. On the terrain of demand are individuals (mostly men) who offer financial and material resources in exchange for sexual intimacy and gratification. On the terrain of supply are practitioners (mostly women) who commodify their bodies as a form of currency to satisfy the needs of their clients and obtain financial and material resources.
Notably, these sexual services vary according to the economic capacity of clients. This implies that the higher the monetary proposal, the higher the value of the service rendered; the lower the monetary proposal, the lower the value of the service rendered.
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Moving further, amidst the rife economic recession and unemployment in Nigeria, transactional sex has become a source of survival for many Nigerians, most especially young Nigerian women. In Abuja and its environs, for instance, many young women depend on transactional sex as a means of survival to navigate the dismal economic conditions within the country and gain social mobility. This trend is illustrated in Eyo Mensah’s 2019 study which revealed how young women in Abuja adopt transactional sex as a “survival strategy” to access basic necessities and improve their social standing:
“Some young women in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, and its environs who are constrained by harsh economic conditions have deployed transactional sex as a survival strategy to meet their basic needs and improve their social status and education. They [also] keep multiple concurrent partners for exchange of material gifts for sex”.
Furthermore, a catchphrase among these young women that captures their reliance on transactional sex as a means of survival is: “When you open your legs, you eat”. This further hints at the ideological posture that characterises transactional sex which mandates these women to trade their bodies to survive. The complementary slogan—”when you close your legs, you starve”—hints at the consequence that follows their unreliance on transactional sex as a source of survival. Thus, for them to navigate the unfavourable economic realities of the country, they have to “open their legs” to survive.
Proceeding further, within this informal economy, there are unique terms that provide insights into overarching ideologies that serve as pillars upholding the transactional sex culture in Nigeria. Essentially, they describe agents of transactional sex (both practitioners and clients), their attitudes, processes involved, and the extent of emotional attachment. Just as practitioners frame terms to describe their clients, it is in that same manner that clients employ words for the description of practitioners that they encounter.
For practitioners, for instance, “Money Miss Road” describes a client with whom the practitioner maintains some degree of emotional distance and detachment. Expressions such as “Cash Cow”, “Cash Transfer”, and “ATM” underscore the centrality of “money” in transactional sexual relationships. There are also expressions that image the processes involved in transactional sexual negotiations. An example is “a tight hand is a tight pussy”—implying that a client who is unwilling to pay the requested amount will get little or no sexual pleasure. Additional terms include blackout (which marks a client with a weak erection), anaconda or “weapon of mass destruction” (which describes a client with a giant penis), and earthworm (which signifies a client with a small penis).
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On the side of the clients, a “frog” is a fat practitioner, while “a lizard” is a slim one. An adept practitioner at oral sex is called a “suckative”, while a skilled practitioner at anal and vaginal sex is called a “fuckative”. The one who is greedy and overdemanding is often framed as an “Oliver Twist”. And the last on the list is “liability” which is used to describe a practitioner who is economically dependent on a client.
Altogether, “These slang words and expressions”, in Mensah’s words, “are commonplace everyday narratives that reflect the social experience of practitioners of transactional sex. They are rooted in specific cultural contexts and provide a cultural model of thoughts and resources to talk about transactional sex within their social universe and community of practice”.
In continuance, there are numerous factors that influence the progression of transactional sex culture in Nigeria. Mensah, in his 2019 study, highlighted some of these factors and their contributions to the continuance of this informal economy within the country with reference to the testimonies of selected interviewed respondents.
Several respondents attributed their initiation into this sexual culture to economic hardship. A participant in the study recounted how she took up the trade to cater for herself, her aged mother, and her three siblings. Another respondent described how her engagement in transactional sex funded her education at the tertiary level. She further claimed that her transactional sexual encounters with clients “helped her ‘feel among’ with her peers in terms of living a luxury life, driving a car of her own, brandishing the latest information technology devices (android phone, iPad and laptop computer) and getting “connected”.
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Other participants cited peer influence, family background, and environmental context as key factors responsible for their engagement in transactional sexual practices. According to one of the interviewed participants, “she grew up to know that transactional sex was her mother’s main source of livelihood, having sexual relationships with many male partners who she was told were her uncles”. She further explained that “her mother earned her privileged lifestyle from this sexual economy and also ‘initiated’ her into it”.
Another respondent gave a similar report whereby she unveiled how “her elder sister showed her the way by introducing her to some ‘big men’ for runs”. On the whole, these narrated accounts demonstrate the manner in which these factors (especially economic hardship as a leading issue) contribute to the progression of transactional sex in Nigeria.
To round off, the transactional sex culture in Nigeria is one that serves as a survival and social mobility strategy for many young women in the country. While poverty is a leading factor that contributes to their engagement in this practice, other motivations—such as sexual exploration and gratification, peer influence, environmental context, and family background—play significant roles in its progression.
Although transactional sex benefits its practitioners, they are also exposed to certain vulnerabilities such as Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs), psychological trauma, and, at its worst, death. As such, even if transactional sex appears to be the final option whereby one has to “open one’s legs to eat”, it is crucial to “shine one’s eyes very well” in order to successfully navigate this economy that offers diverse benefits and problems as well.
