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African Journal of AIDS Research

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Modelling a traditional game as an agent in HIV/AIDS

behaviour-change education and communication
Charles Ogoye-Ndegwa
Published online: 11 Nov 2009.

To cite this article: Charles Ogoye-Ndegwa (2005) Modelling a traditional game as an agent in HIV/AIDS behaviour-change
education and communication, African Journal of AIDS Research, 4:2, 91-98, DOI: 10.2989/16085900509490347

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 African Journal of AIDS Research 2005, 4(2): 91–98 Copyright © NISC Pty Ltd
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Modelling a traditional game as an agent in HIV/AIDS behaviour-change

education and communication

Charles Ogoye-Ndegwa

Aga Khan Education Service, Kenya School Improvement Project, PO Box 80025, Mombasa, Kenya
e-mail: ogoyecn@yahoo.co.uk

The level of HIV/AIDS awareness among the Luo of western Kenya is at its highest yet the epidemic continues
unabated. While HIV/AIDS is locally recognised as an emergent deadly condition, people seem unconcerned.
Deaths related to HIV/AIDS are often euphemistically explained in terms of tuberculosis, respiratory diseases, and
‘thinning disease’ or chira. The situation is aggravated by gender-based cultural attitudes that are unfortunately
Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 00:37 19 December 2014

predisposing to risk of HIV infection. This ethnographic study explores the potential to model cultural constructs
such as traditional games as a means of health communication and agent of behaviour change. The gender
undertones and implications for HIV/AIDS in the language of the game ajua are significant in understanding
community-specific HIV infection risk. Modelling this traditional game as an agent in HIV/AIDS behaviour-change
education and communication allows for forging a socially and culturally compatible and enabling intervention
mechanism. The study leads to the conclusion that behaviour-change education and communication in a complex
cultural setting should be culture specific and internally derived. Significantly, cultural constructs like traditional
games can provide ‘rootedness’ in terms of HIV/AIDS communication and intervention.

Keywords: Africa, ethnography, cultural attitudes, gender stereotyping, Luo

Introduction

HIV/AIDS education and communication has met with both
success and failure. Failures may be caused by lack of
resources, insufficient political will, and inappropriate or
unsustainable messages and prevention strategies
(UNAIDS, 1999). Recent calls by UNAIDS (HIV/AIDS
communication framework) and the Rockefeller Founda-
tion’s programme in communication for social change, for
example, emphasise the need for new approaches to HIV/
AIDS communication. In response, UN agencies have
established the Communication for Development Round-
table (CDR) to map out strategic priorities for communica-
tion and development. Unfortunately, the CDR has focused
more on macro-level communication needs and strategies,
while less effort has been made to forge internally derived
and culturally specific communication strategies. Signi-
ficantly, the role of socio-cultural constructs, modelled as
agents of health communication and behaviour change,
remains an unexplored and overlooked area of research.
Approaches to HIV/AIDS communication involve
behaviour-change communication, social-change communi-
cation and advocacy communication. Behaviour-change
communication is characteristically client-centred, results-
oriented and cost-effective, and it aims at encouraging the
target population to make informed choices. On the other
hand, social-change communication focuses on people as
agents of their own change, and hence emphasises commu-
nity empowerment through dialogue and debate, while
recognising that social change is a long-term process.
Advocacy communication involves attempts at influencing
public perceptions, policy and programme decisions, as
well as community voicing, in order to effect social and
political change. Those communication approaches are,
however, interconnected.
Behaviour-change education and communication
involves a sender and receiver who are connected via a
message transmission channel. This involves attracting
attention, gaining acceptance, and successful interpretation
of the message to the point of action-taking. Often, there is
a communication barrier at the sender level, when the
target (receiver) doubts the credibility of the message
source. This is exemplified by different people reacting to
the same message differently, often with distortions. There
is a channel barrier when the sender fails to evaluate the
target audience and message-channel compatibility before
transmitting information.
In Kenya, as in many other African countries, HIV/AIDS
behaviour-change education and communication have
been effected through different mass media, such as radio,
television and newspapers. Equally important have been
community media such as mobile cinemas, drama, role-
plays, songs, posters and brochures. All these, unfortu-
nately, have their limitations in terms of target audience,
outreach, and message acceptance and accommodation by
the target group. Most importantly, mass media communi-
cation, which is often externally derived, may lack cultural
‘rootedness’ and social compatibility; the effect is limited
 92
audience coverage, inappropriate language use, and
ineffective message interpretation, often with distortions.
Positive attributes notwithstanding, mass media is limited to
those who have access to radio and television sets, and
effectiveness is limited to those who understand the
language and interpret the message accurately.
Ineffective HIV/AIDS communication may be as dange-
rous as the absence of that communication. An example is
mass media’s commercial advertisement of condoms as
offering maximum protection against HIV infection. This may
be misinterpreted by youth as meaning that a maximum
safeguard against HIV/AIDS has been found, leading to
irresponsible sexual relationships. Another example concerns
discussions about the significance of circumcision in relation
to HIV infection risk; Siegfried et al. (2003) call for caution
and reiterate: “the potential negative impact [the] introduction
of circumcision may have on current health promotion
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endeavours to promote sexual behavioural change...promul-
gation of the belief that circumcision completely protects
against HIV transmission, resulting in a lack of condom use.”
Such examples underline the potential significance of
modelling community-specific cultural constructs — like a
traditional game — as an agent in HIV/AIDS behaviour-
change education and communication. Such modelling
entails an exploration of how a construct with its inherent
characteristics can be used to represent, explore, under-
stand, and explain salient issues in order to achieve positive
change. Model building helps in understanding systems so
that we not only can operate them, but are able to repair and
improve them, while possibly constructing new ones (Kahn
& Spedding, 1984). When modelling, a prediction is made
regarding the system’s reaction to the proposed interven-
tions. Modelling therefore helps in the development of a
procedure for improved decision-making. Modelling HIV/
AIDS intervention strategies is not only significant in
understanding culturally-specific HIV/AIDS transmission and
prevention mechanisms, but equally important to planning,
managing and predicting intervention outcomes. Concep-
tually, modelling a cultural construct like a traditional game,
as an agent in HIV/AIDS behaviour-change education and
communication, builds on the premise that behaviour is
more of a social than a biological phenomenon, and that
behaviour is very often culturally defined and entrenched. At
a social level, integrating concern for recipients into the
process of message preparation allows for ultimate
message accommodation.
Cultural, social and behaviour change
Among the Luo, as in many other African communities,
certain cultural beliefs and practices may be highly predis-
posing to HIV infection. Culture is sometimes negatively
viewed as an impediment to development and a hindrance
to positive change. According to Goldspink (2000), culture
“may constrain development and change through cultural
inertia.” Gender discrimination and male dominance, for
example, have roots in cultural attributes and gender
stereotyping; these have direct and indirect consequen-
ces on health service delivery and utilisation as well as
health-seeking and decision-making opportunities for both
genders.
Ogoye-Ndegwa
However, culture can be used positively as an agent of
social development and health change. In the context of
behaviour-change education and communication, Gold-
spink (2000) notes: “Culture…speeds the potential macro-
impact of local action by accelerating the propagation of
behaviour and ideas.” Plotkin (1994) reiterates that culture
is an adaptive agent in the learning process at a social
level, noting that knowledge is developed and retained over
a long time span — much longer than an individual lifespan.
According to this approach, an ‘agent’ is the vehicle through
which information is transmitted. In ‘agent’-type modelling,
the message is encoded, unpacked and communicated to
the recipients. Hence, physical features such as roads and
rivers have been used to define ethnic-cluster formation,
and so the classification of ethnic identity. Consequently,
features of the social environment, such as ‘village’ or ‘city,’
can be modelled as agents, and so too traditional games
that bring people together and bind them through a set of
social rules.
Modelling a cultural construct as an agent of health edu-
cation, communication and behaviour change should be
culture-specific, internally derived and participatory. This
underscores the significance of advocacy communication
that allows for community voicing and empowerment.
Since this approach is process oriented, the impact may
take long to measure, noting that at a socio-cultural level,
behaviour is shared and collective. Giddens (1984, p. 2)
reiterates that it is “neither the experience of the individual
actor, nor the existence of any form of societal totality, but
social practices ordered across space and time.” Human
social action, therefore, can be seen as self-reproducing in
nature and recurrent. According to Giddens (1984, p. 2),
such activities “are not brought into being by social actors,
but continually recreated by them via the very means
whereby they express themselves as actors.” It is against
this background that this paper explores the modelling of
ajua (Figure 1) — a male-dominated traditional African
game — as an agent for HIV/AIDS behaviour-change edu-
cation and communication.
PLAYER A
Player A’s collection pool
Head ‘Nyiwi’ Eye ‘Ge’
Foot Thigh Abdomen Neck
Player B’s collection pool
PLAYER B
Figure 1: Description of the ajua board
 African Journal of AIDS Research 2005, 4(2): 91–98
Ajua is popular among many African communities, and I
use the Luo’s1 terminology for it as a case in point. Ajua is a
traditional game using a board constructed of wood and
played by two people, and it often attracts a large number
of onlookers and players. The board has eight holes on
each side, in each hole three stones (also referred to as
ajua) are placed at the start. Each player chooses a strong,
outwitting strategy by organising a ‘house’ to challenge the
opponent. The most interesting moves — the art of the
skilled player — are those that win by a single stone or by
acquiring all the stones (thereby doubling points). Each
standard win earns two points, and lasts on average four
minutes. In a game of coupling or double counting, a game
is won at twelve points, and then a new game is begun.
The eight holes on each side of the board are assigned
corresponding names, beginning with tielo (legs) and
ending with wich (head), creating the image of a human
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being. The positioning of the body parts is particularly
interesting: following the foot is ge (the female reproductive
part), and the second to last is ng’udi (neck). Ge is the most
dangerous ‘house,’ because once a challenger conquers it,
the opponent is frustrated and disillusioned, and the game
can end at any time. A hole once conquered becomes a
‘girl.’ When you romp into a hole with a single stone on your
opponent’s side and you add your stone, the two stones are
‘mutually brought together’ and that becomes your ‘girl.’
Ge refers to the female reproductive part; when a player
conquers it, they use words such as ‘oh, homely!’, ‘sweet!’,
‘let me taste you!’, ‘you sleep without an inner pant!’, ‘a cow
dies with grass [cud] in the mouth!’, ‘I am old enough to be
named!’, ‘I am too old for AIDS!’, etc. You may often hear
another of the other waiting players or onlookers say, ‘Even
this old man still has the strength to climb a woman.’ Some
of the most dreaded players nickname themselves ukimwi
or ayaki (AIDS).
The whole playboard can be treated as a woman with
whom, at certain points, the player ostensibly enters into a
sexual relationship. The game, however, has strict rules,
and sometimes a sacrifice has to be made if one of the
rules is broken, like turning the playboard (mbero) over with
its stone contents (ajua) to spill and scatter. Generally —
and strictly in certain localities — playing the game during
the start of planting season is forbidden, for the people
believe it will stop rain from falling. This often results in
confrontations between locals and migrant workers and
fishermen along lakeshore settlements and trading centres,
with the accusation that the migrants do not have the local
people’s agricultural life at heart. The seasonal play restric-
tion is relaxed in towns however.
The game is a purely male game, and no woman is
expected to play it. However, Luo women who were able
to wrestle down men were allowed to play alongside the
male players.
Study population and methods
The Luo: socio-cultural basis for HIV/AIDS behaviour-
change education
Fishing settlements along the beaches of Lake Victoria
attract hundreds of people who seek employment in the
93
fishing industry. Immigrant fishermen and local people —
usually young men — rent houses along the lakeshore from
where they can effectively manage their time and fishing
processes. Among the Luo, cultural restrictions (for
example, those resulting from ‘death taboos,’ explained
below) have pushed many people from their original homes
into lakeshore settlements. As a result many homes are
deserted, and symbolically, many traditional ‘gates’ have
been closed. The Luo attach considerable importance to
‘gate erecting’ and ‘gate closing,’ which, must only be done
by a customarily recognised man. Once ‘a gate is closed’,
no woman returns to that homestead unless a man ‘erects
it.’ Many women whose husbands have died find their gates
closed, forcing them to seek shelter in the lakeshore settle-
ments, and so do many men who are considered to be
sexually taboo.
The Luo attach much importance to sex in relation to
daily life activities, important events and seasonal changes.
For instance, a man controls his homestead through his
duties as exemplified in the sexual relationship with his
wife, so that their children who are married but still staying
within the homestead are protected from cultural transgres-
sions arising from sexual relations. Hence the start of the
planting season is marked by sexual relations between
husband and wife, during which time their married sons in
their compound must not engage in sex with their wives.
Harvesting is marked with equally strict observance, and
there is strict order to sexual relationships between a poly-
gymous husband and his wives. Failure to adhere to such
sexual observances is believed to result in family misfor-
tunes, the ‘thinning disease’ (chira), or even death. Thus, a
woman whose husband has died must find an inheritor (male
relative) for a sexual relationship for ‘her own good’ and that
of her family; she cannot plant seeds during the planting
period, neither can she spend time in any other homestead
since she is considered ritually unclean. Sons in her house-
hold are also put in a dangerous relationship with their wives
if their mother is not ‘inherited,’ and so must either desert the
homestead or never engage in sexual relations with their
wives while they stay in the deceased father’s homestead. If
the widow fails to get a sexual inheritor then her sons must
leave the homestead and stay elsewhere, usually along the
lakeshore settlements, and never in anybody else’s home-
stead. The process of getting an inheritor is potentially
frustrating and irritating, and several inheritors, often referred
to as ‘strangers’ may have sex with the widow just to ‘ritually
cleanse’ her before she can be ‘properly’ inherited by her
immediate male relatives. Men whose wives have died are
regarded as ‘professional inheritors’, and it is commonplace
to find such men inheriting women and living in shifts, even
with more than eight widows as ‘wives.’ Most sexually taboo
individuals and inheritors relocate to lakeshore settlements
where few or no cultural rules of conduct (like traditional
sexual taboos) are followed.
Many ‘new marriages’ are arranged in the lakeshore
settlements regardless of former marriage backgrounds.
This is similar to what Nyambedha et al. (2003, p. 304)
refer to as marriage with strangers, or jokowiny; they write:
‘…widows now organise their inheritance on their own and
sometimes they choose strangers.’ Such marriages are
 94
customarily not recognised since they have loose kin
involvement, hence they rarely last. In a single lakeshore
settlement, a woman may have been ‘married’ to more than
five people, and men are usually on the alert for ‘new
female immigrants.’ In some instances it is arranged so that
a woman who is newly visiting a lakeshore settlement is
‘assigned’ a man by the local beach leaders — to avoid the
male confrontations and fighting that often disrupts the
peace in such settlements. It is difficult to talk about ‘safe-
sex’ behaviour and condom use among lakeshore immi-
grants, noting the number of ‘unwanted’ pregnancies
among the Luo, and the traditional belief that having chil-
dren is the crown of inheriting a widow. Fishing settlements
thus provide bases for cheap, uncontrolled and dangerous
sexual relations that endanger the lives of many young men
and women with a risk of HIV infection.
Lakeshore fishing settlements not only attract a large
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number of sexually taboo individuals from within the locality,
but also a large number of young immigrants from distant
localities, often referred to as oche (sons-in-law). Women
from the surrounding villages who are sexually taboo, and
therefore cannot enter into levirate2 union with their kin
relatives as customarily instituted, may turn to immigrant
male fishermen who will first ‘break the taboo’ before the
woman is able to ‘return home’ to be properly inherited by
her brother-in-law or someone of similar kin line. The
‘professional inheritors’ are often on the lookout for widows
to inherit, and widows usually know whom to turn to for
inheritance. Thus women, whose husbands have died of
AIDS easily find suitors, and men whose wives have died of
AIDS easily find replacements.
Data collection, application and cross-cultural
generalisation
This work presents an ethnographic account of a traditional
African game played across ethnic boundaries and locales.
The choice of ajua among many other traditional games
was purely accidental. I once attended a meeting where the
local administration announced a temporary ban on playing
ajua during the planting season. Curious to know more
about the game, I visited some ajua playing localities, and
as I listened, learned and participated in the game, the
rules, gendered ideologies and HIV/AIDS undertones
became quite striking to me.
The data was collected in lakeshore fishing settlements,
inland trading centres, and some urban towns of East
Africa: Kampala in Uganda, Kisumu and Nairobi in Kenya,
and Shirati in Tanzania. I visited ajua clubs along lakeshore
settlements such as Sori in Migori, Wichlum in Bondo, and
Nyandiwa in Suba (districts of Kenya). The aim of my visits
was twofold: to make spot checks on playing localities
(space and time), and to meet as many players as possible,
which could provide data on ethnic variability. Data obtained
from different socio-cultural environments was useful not
only for validation purposes, but also helpful for cross-
cultural comparison and wider multi-ethnic generalisability.
My prime research questions were: How has HIV/AIDS
— a relatively recent phenomenon spanning a few decades
— come to be deeply entrenched in a traditional game
hundreds of years old? And, what did the ajua game
Ogoye-Ndegwa
language consist of before it acquired its current HIV/AIDS
and other sexual undertones?
Participant observation of ajua
The main method of data collection was participant
observation (see Spradley, 1980) over six years. I first
took time to learn the game; this entailed staying in the
places where ajua is played, usually lakeshore settle-
ments and trading centres. After learning the game’s
general rules and principles, I eventually became a
skilled player — having learned the art of outwitting and
out-manoeuvring an opponent. I enrolled as a member of
several ajua clubs, making use of a range of places and
players, as an active participant.
The study design was partly based on an experimental
strategy, in which I helped female players become enrolled
as members in local ajua clubs. The Luo culture does not
allow women to play ajua, and the fact that we enrolled
women to play alongside the men was an attempt at solicit-
ing reaction from the male players, particularly when it
would be viewed as going against tradition. This was
important on two grounds. First, the female players had a
chance to react with a sense of fun to the cultural stereo-
types (e.g., women as sex objects) and male chauvinism
inherent in ajua play. Interestingly, the female players ‘acted
male,’ and actually used the same sexual undertones
against their male opponents. Secondly, the inclusion of
females in an otherwise male-dominated activity highlighted
some inherent cultural contradictions, gender conflicts, and
challenges to HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives.
Three focus group discussions were organised with male
and female adults. The first discussion consisted of males
only, the second consisted of females only, and the third
was attended by both males and females. The discussions
focused on establishing the kind of messages the people
received in regard to HIV/AIDS prevention, sources of
those messages, effectiveness of the messages, and how
people applied the messages to their daily lives. This
provided insight and perspective on HIV/AIDS health edu-
cation and communication, based on gender.
We also conducted group discussions with male adults in
ajua playing localities which women were not allowed to
frequent. Initially, the research personnel acted as external
facilitators, initiating discussions on a range of topics, such
as the reasons behind the spread of HIV/AIDS, how best to
curb the spread, and why men prefer unprotected sex to
the use of condoms. After about six months the players had
internalised the topics of such debates and often initiated
HIV/AIDS discussions without external facilitation.
Other methods of data collection involved interviews and
making spot-check visits to experience social encounters.
Spot-check visits entailed meeting and talking with people
from different socio-cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Results
Striking are the uniform rules of ajua, the game’s termino-
logy (even though mixing different languages) and its
sexual/gender undertones, despite play in different physical
settings (urban and rural, lakeshore and village) and among
 African Journal of AIDS Research 2005, 4(2): 91–98
different cultural and ethnic backgrounds (e.g., Luo, Bagan-
da, Sukuma, Baluhyia). Spot checks revealed that all the
lakeshore fishing settlements we visited had ajua boards as
the most dominant and attractive game for the immigrants
and the local people. The game is also played in all the
trading centres and towns that were visited.
Ajua provides a social setting and audience where people
talk not only about recent developments in social and political
circles, but diseases threatening collective health as well.
Before the emergence of HIV/AIDS one of the greatest
health concerns talked about during play was nyach
(referring to both syphilis and gonorrhoea), and the most
dreaded ajua players nicknamed themselves nyach.
Expressions such as nyach omako meru (‘syphilis has
infected your mother’), which referred to how a feared player
outmanoeuvres his opponent, were later replaced by expres-
sions such as ayaki omako meru (‘AIDS has infected your
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mother’). Local expressions on reproductive health and with
gender undertones remain widely used during play, but have
been modified within the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Even though ajua is a male-dominated game, there was
no resistance when the research team introduced and
enrolled some females in ajua clubs, although they com-
plained of ‘addiction and time consumption.’ Yet significant
gender bias did occur — as most women preferred playing
against male players and not female players. In part, this
was because play was an opportunity to ‘answer back,’ as
women players could now use the game’s sexual under-
tones against male chauvinism. When we introduced semi-
informal talk about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, the
response was encouraging. Both men and women talked
freely and openly about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, suspec-
ted HIV/AIDS cases in their locality, and possible HIV/AIDS
preventive mechanisms such as condom use — all in the
guise of popular expressions used during the ajua game
(e.g., ngozi kwa ngozi meaning ‘skin on skin’ and dhiang’
tho gi lum edhoge for ‘a cow dies while chewing the cud,’
referring to preference for unprotected sex rather than use
of condoms). The female players noted that the non-exis-
tence of women’s groups could be compensated for by ajua
clubs as well as the deliberate inclusion of women in
HIV/AIDS advocacy. After about one year, gender bias was
significantly reduced, with the inclusion of women players at
some of the clubs as registered members, who played
against men on a day-to-day basis, thus demonstrating that
cultural beliefs and practices are subject to change through
mediation and contestation.
During the initial stages, the research personnel acted as
external facilitators, initiating discussions on topics such as
the reasons behind the spread of HIV/AIDS, how best to
curb the spread, and why men prefer unprotected sex to
use of condoms. After about six months, the players had
internalised such debates, and often initiated HIV/AIDS
discussions without external facilitation. The results were
encouraging, as men and women, young and elderly
people talked freely and openly about sex and sexuality,
something they would not do outside the ajua playing locali-
ties. After about two years, many players became open
enough to talk in public about their personal experiences
with HIV/AIDS, such as being caregivers to the sick or to
95
orphaned children. After about five years, the number of
community-based organisations providing psycho-social
support to those affected by HIV/AIDS (including orphans)
more than trebled. To some degree, this may have been
attributable to communication advocacy surrounding the
ajua game, as well as to influences from other civil organi-
sations. However, the composition of community-based
support organisations emanating from the ‘ajua club’ was
probably significant, since the groups now consisted of both
men and women as opposed to being ‘traditional’ female-
dominated organisations.
Discussion
One of the most troubling and vaguely understood issues in
HIV/AIDS behaviour-change education and communication is
the sometimes seemingly inverse relationship between
message transmission and positive behaviour change. It has,
for example, been difficult to correlate the reason for a high
level of HIV/AIDS awareness and, correspondingly, the grow-
ing presence of the condition in the same community. Pertinent
in behaviour-change education are the issues of communica-
tion channelling, message acceptance and cultural compatibi-
lity. Often there is a communication barrier both at the sender
and receiver levels, especially when the target audience
doubts the credibility of the message source; this negatively
influences message uptake for the desired impact.
Several communication theories and models have been
forged in the field of HIV/AIDS communication intervention.
Examples are provided by community media such as songs
and puppet theatre. Reliance on a number of different
communication approaches is a result of the realisation that
different communication channels each have limitations in
regard to effectiveness, compatibility or appropriateness
and sustainability. Mass media (radio, television, newspa-
pers, etc.) forms an important communication medium, but
also has limits as to the extent of its audience. Thus, two
important considerations stand out: namely, that most
strategies are not informed by scientific research, and that it
has become necessary to consider implementing strategies
that aim not only at changing people, but are more down-to-
earth in the sense of incorporating people and communities
as agents in changing their own lives. All this provides a
rationale for modelling socio-cultural constructs like tradi-
tional games as communication and change agents.
Role-plays, games, social groups and clubs are important
mediums for initiating and entrenching HIV/AIDS interven-
tion strategies. Women’s groups, for example, have high
relevance and potential for HIV/AIDS advocacy work and
effective group mobilisation. There is an interesting resur-
gence of organised traditional games in western Kenya,
where bullfights and cockfights are once again becoming
popular, with organised seasonal tournaments often attract-
ing large cheering crowds. While traditional games offer a
captive audience for effective advocacy of positive beha-
viour change, the traditional game ajua, with its many
characteristic sexual/gender undertones, is especially
appealling for this purpose.
HIV/AIDS prevention education involves socio-cultural
intervention that characteristically addresses salient issues
 96
such as female subordination and discrimination, social
dominance and collective bargaining in decision-making,
and the cultural construction of these well-regulated beliefs
and practices. In practice, dominance, dependence and
gender discrimination are fortified by and reinforced through
social rules of conduct — similarly reflected in game rules.
However, social institutions are subject to change, and
instances of gender dominance and dependence are not
continuous over time and space. As Giddens (1984, p. 16)
points out, “…all forms of dependence offer some resour-
ces whereby those who are subordinate can influence the
activities of their superiors,” what he refers to as the “dialec-
tical control in social systems.”
Among the Luo there is a strong metaphoric association
of women with ‘ajua houses.’ Traditionally, women are
described as the makers of houses while men are the
makers of homes. This partly explains why men hurry to
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inherit houses, as tradition upholds the notion that the
more houses a man owns, the wealthier and more socially
respected he becomes. Like the winner in a game of ajua,
an inheritor often feels authoritative (commanding many
widows) and powerful. Importantly, in ajua play the oppo-
nents start with an equal number of houses (eight each).
But if an opponent conquers a ‘house,’ or even several of
them, and celebrates this as a form of authority, owner-
ship, power and victory, it is similar to the sense of owner-
ship, power, authority and celebration in the widespread
levirate marriages which are often linked to AIDS deaths.
The ‘ajua house’ is referred to as ‘my girl’. The associa-
tion here is interesting because this is not a child–parent
relationship. More akin to the English ‘my baby,’ a ‘girl’
connotes an image of a youthful woman to love and cohabit
with. Like in everyday life, the single ‘girl’ is brought into
conjugal relationship with a man (the ajua player). As the
play progresses, the two, representing couples, increase
with successive coupling — much as if children were born
to them. The metaphoric association of ajua ‘houses’ with
femaleness is an indicator of cultural expectations in male-
female relationships: according to traditional understanding
a successful woman must be fertile enough to give birth to
many children.
In a traditional Luo setting, a ‘man entering a woman’s
house’ may mean inheriting her or engaging in some form
of levirate union. People are knowledgeable of the possi-
bility and consequences of contracting HIV in the circum-
stances of wife inheritance, yet they continue to celebrate
this cultural practice. The ‘So what?’ rhetoric that people
often posited regarding the danger of contracting HIV
gives a clue about their philosophy of death: that every-
body will die at some date, therefore there should be no
fear of dying, even from AIDS.
The nickname of a dreaded ajua player as ukimwi or
ayaki (AIDS) is a clear indication of the people’s aware-
ness about the dangers posed by HIV/AIDS. Like AIDS,
the player is a ‘killer’ and a ‘destroyer.’ When a player
states that ‘he is old enough to be named,’ and therefore
has no fear of the potentially fatal consequences of unpro-
tected sexual intercourse, he is expressing in a more
collective term the people’s philosophy about dying and
death itself. In the context of concepts of time, the player
Ogoye-Ndegwa
views death as unavoidable with ageing, and dying as a
fulfilment. He envisages a cyclic process of living, having
been named and reincarnated in a newborn baby. In the
Luo conception of time the body is conceived of as perish-
able, prone to eventual distortion and destruction.
The Luo are largely Christian, though a few remain tradi-
tional. Luo people divide linear time in three categories: the
beginning when the world was ordered, the present with a
myriad of earthly problems, and the end with the promise of
‘teeth gritting’ for non-believers and joy for believers. In the
Catholic catechism leading to baptism and the warning
against sinning: ‘the nail burns for years and years without
end.’ In the traditional Luo setting, time is symbolic and
cyclic. The end is not much talked about, and the reincarna-
tion process reinforces permanence on earth, therefore the
end is conceived in terms of timelessness.
The longevity of HIV/AIDS and people’s numerous shifts in
health-seeking behaviour can be seen in terms of a time-
space process. It is this lapse in time that often shapes the
Luos’ attitude about dying from HIV/AIDS. People do not
bemoan it as a pandemic, but retort that ‘it has stayed with
us,’ hence the ‘so what’ attitude they generally present. An
urgency for action and a dread of death are mystified and at
the same time helplessly embraced: ‘it is like any other
death.’ Although HIV/AIDS is not seen purely in temporal
terms, the know-ledge that some years are to be spent living
with it allows some people to either ignore or disregard its
fatalness.
Behaviour and practice change over time, and this under-
lies the significance of time and space in the conception of
modelling a traditional game as an agent of behaviour
change. Macy (1998, p. 3) notes: “The rules that secure
social order emerge not from the shadow of the future but
from lessons of the past.” However, the past, present and
future can be understood and conceived both as process
and structurally, noting that the future, with its unpredictabil-
ity is deeply involved in much of the agonistic activities of
everyday life — perhaps including behaviour that is predis-
posing to HIV infection risk, and accounting for a lessened
fear of death among the rural poor.
The process of modelling a traditional game as a
behaviour-change agent entails recognising the time-space
relation as an important consideration. Since behaviour
change is process oriented, the time needed to influence
behaviour may not be linear but cyclic, as in the health-
seeking behaviour of a person living with HIV/AIDS. We
should note the importance of time and space in understand-
ing behaviour-change mechanisms because of the numerous
observable shifts in health-seeking among HIV/AIDS
patients, even through the longevity of the condition and in
anticipation of death. Time-space relations can be linked to
rhythmic changes in the world and hence to the lives of
human beings. This is not mere positioning of questions
about change against structure and process, past event and
the experience of memory. For the sick, time expands and
shrinks beyond the bounds of a normal regularised accoun-
ting of time, as his/her conditions shifts, until death.
The significance of understanding living with HIV/AIDS
against temporality is borne out in different views and
attitudes about the past, present and future, and this is
 African Journal of AIDS Research 2005, 4(2): 91–98
reinforced by people’s view of time in terms of distortions.
These are exemplified in Luo expressions used during the
ajua game, such as ‘who cares about tomorrow,’ ‘a cow
dies chewing the cud’ (meaning therefore he will continue to
have unprotected sex), ‘I have lived long enough to be
named’ (thus one is worthy of dying) and ‘HIV/AIDS has
been with us and therefore [it is] like any other disease.’ In
discussing time in relation to techno-science advancement,
Redfield (1998) argues that “the past is stripped of futures it
once held, even as their material legacy melts into the
present.” The Luo conceive of the body as perishable rot,
destined for inevitable distortion and destruction. In the
context of their conception of time, death is unavoidable,
and dying is a fulfilment.
Conclusion
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Ajua playing localities, particularly along the lakeshore
settlements of Lake Victoria, are important areas for tar-
geted HIV/AIDS intervention and implementation pro-
grammes. Marked as high-risk spots, the localities where
ajua is fervently played provide a captive audience for
behaviour-change education. Since ajua is dominant and
immensely popular in such spots, HIV/AIDS message
channelling can be immediate and socially rooted.
With its HIV/AIDS and gendered undertones, ajua can be
clearly used in communicating HIV/AIDS information.
During play, the game language is socially accommodated,
and presents communication opportunities that otherwise
would not be acceptable in daily life. During play people of
different ages and gender often talk freely of engaging in
sexual relationships, and about their reproductive health,
HIV/AIDS, and their philosophy of death and dying. The
result is communication channelling that transcends
barriers imposed by cultural observances, such as those
that prohibit young adults from talking where the elderly are,
and more significantly, talking about sexual and reproduc-
tive health and especially the dangers of unprotected sex.
In sum, the game bridges the cultural barriers to communi-
cation between generations and genders since the young
freely engage the elderly in discussions, especially when
both males and females openly talk about sexual matters.
The inclusion of female players in an otherwise male-
dominated activity demonstrates that cultural beliefs, atti-
tudes and practices can be changed through mediation
and contestation. It is worth noting that gender discrimina-
tion in health service delivery and utilisation is a significant
bottleneck in achieving gender parity in decision-making
and action-taking, including in health-seeking practices.
The fact that no males complained about females play-
ing against them, despite the fact that ajua has been
traditionally an all-male game, underscores two points:
that the seemingly most entrenched cultural beliefs and
practices can be transformed or discarded provided ano-
ther worthwhile approach is sought; and that gender
stereotyping can sometimes be straightforwardly tackled,
in this case by empowering women in terms of decision-
making and action-taking.
Targeting behaviour-change through communication in
the game ajua is client-centred and cost-effective, and
97
allows the message recipients (players) to make informed
choices about their own behaviour and actions in regard to
HIV-risk. In terms of social-change communication, the
game facilitates an environment for change via debate and
dialogue among persons in the affected population, allow-
ing them to become agents of their own change. Pertinent
undertones of the game’s language, such as gender parity,
can factor into elements of community and gender empow-
erment. Playing ajua offers an environment where sex and
sexuality can be publicly and freely discussed. At the level
of advocacy communication, observing the game helps one
understand the public perceptions of social norms (as
exemplified in the game’s rules), and hence intervention in
the guise of the game can be applied to bringing about
social change in specific communities.
The importance of the game ajua as an intervention
strategy in HIV/AIDS prevention is through the game’s
potential to construct and naturalise social order through
creation of an egalitarian social set-up. Ajua offers a simple,
cross-cultural model for possible HIV/AIDS health commu-
nication and education because of its characteristic multi-
ethnic applicability and reproducibility.
Notes
1
Although this research was conducted among different ethnic
communities and locales, I focus on the Luo with whom most of
my research time was spent. This is important for coherency,
clarity and focus. In other communities I visited, my focus was
more on examining cross-cultural ethnic generalisability for data
validation. Also, because the players in towns and trading
centres were from different ethnic communities, it was difficult to
refer to an ethnic community.
2
The practise of a widow marrying the brother or male relative of
her deceased husband.
Acknowledgments — I am thankful to the Danish Bilharziasis
Laboratory (DBL) for providing funding for a horticulture project and
food and nutrition study during which time I was able to engage in
research for this study. I also thank the Kenyan-Danish Health
Research (KEDAHR) project for providing the framework from
within which this fieldwork was conducted. I am most indebted to
the Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi, for offering its
affiliation.
The author — Charles Ogoye-Ndegwa (BA, MA Medical Anthro-
pology, Diploma in Health Education and Promotion) is currently a
research officer with the Kenya School Improvement Project
(KENSIP), Aga Khan Education Service (an agency of the Aga
Khan Foundation). He was formerly a research scientist with the
Kenyan-Danish Health Research (KEDAHR) project and a
research officer with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute’s
Trypanosomiasis research centre.
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