STDs and Intrarural Migration in Zambia: Interpreting Life Histories of Tonga Migrants in Relation to the Transmission of STDs and HIV

Since 1993, up to 2000 Tonga from the Gwembe valley have begun migrating on a seasonal basis to pick marigolds and paprika on a commercial farm developed in Chiawa on the lower Zambezi river. The paper shows how this unusual rural-to-rural migration figures in the spread of STDs and HIV. It relates the findings of two anthropological studies--the famous longitudinal study of the Gwembe Tonga begun in 1956 by Colson and Scudder, and a current wide-ranging study of the factors involved in community capacity to prevent, manage and survive HIV/AIDS begun in 1991 in Chiawa. Using life histories constructed from data from these two projects, the authors are able to speculate on individual exposure to STDs and (in more recent years) to HIV, in relation to the migrants\u27 contact with various workplaces and urban centres and in relation to their marriage and mortality patterns. Current data (1993-1996) on the Tonga migrants\u27 sexual practices and strategies--as well as on the prevalence, treatment and prevention of STDs and HIV--on the commercial farm where they work, helps to confirm the significance of these migrants in the spread of STDs and HIV. In addition, the paper assesses the potential influence of their exposure to health education and health care from the work settings where some have worked in the past