WINDHOEK– On Monday, a small group of sex workers converged on a local hotel in Windhoek during a rather low key event to observe International Sex Workers Rights Day.
What underscored the importance of the gathering was however the passionate appeals for government to recognise the rights of sex workers in Namibia. Longtime activist for sex workers rights Nicodemus Aoxamub, better known as Mama Africa, also appealed to government to take steps to decriminalise sex work. “By decriminalising sex work the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic will be dealt a heavy blow, since access to health and justice services will be made easier. We want government to abolish apartheid laws, because we feel like second class citizens,” said Aoxamub, who has been a sex worker for 34 years. Nunu Peter*, also a sex worker, dropped out of school seven years ago, to join the trade in order to live ‘the good life’ that he so badly desired. The 24-four-year-old male who refers to himself as a ‘she’ (female) was only 17 at the time and had just dropped out of Grade 9 when he joined the sex trade. He cites poverty and difficult circumstances while growing up as the primary reason he decided to become a sex worker.
“The circumstances around me made me drop out of school,” says the self-confessed homosexual. “My family does not really support me and they do not know what I’m doing, because I don’t live with them. I moved out of the family home to live as an independent person,” he said. Dressed in a mini-skirt, a t-shirt and high heels the soft spoken Nunu*, who spoke on the sidelines of the inconspicuous gathering to observe International Sex Worker Rights Day on Monday, said sex workers suffer many abuses and indignities at the hands of the general public and to a certain degree also from their clients on a daily basis. “Discrimination and stigma are high due to us not being recognised by the government and we go through a lot of physical and emotional abuse. When it comes to clients as well,” he revealed. Asked who his clients are, Nunu* said they they are mainly truck drivers, fishermen and “any individual man who wants to have fun for the night.” He further said nurses and the police form part of the majority of those who stigmatise and discriminate against sex workers. Nunu* genuinely believes that sex work is his calling and re-iterated Aoxamub’s call to step up efforts to recognise the rights of sex workers and to decriminalise, what is often referred to as the oldest trade in the world – prostitution. * Denotes not real name.
By Alvine Kapitako