A Place In Lagos State Where The Use Of Condom Is Strange..

The use of condoms is strange to men in Makoko, a densely populated slum town in Lagos where majority live in wooden shacks built on water. Like Huese, many Egun people in Makoko, as well as Oko-Agbon and Ago-Egun communities in Yaba Local Council Development Area, Lagos, do not like using condóms due to their long held traditional belief in the old practice of coitus interruptus, also known as the withdrawal or pull-out method during séxual intercourse.

Many of the men who spoke to our correspondent in the community expressed their aversion to the use of condoms during séxual intercourse and were insistent that their women enjoyed it that way.

Twenty-five-year-old Bernadette Sato, who has two children, agreed. She does not like condóm. “We don’t like using condóm. But if we don’t want to get pregnant, we know how to do it by ourselves; it pays us more that way, because we don’t like using condóm. I was told in a hospital in Cotonou, Benin Republic, where I gave birth to my first child, that people who don’t want to get pregnant can use condóm. Sometimes, I use a family planning drug before and after séx with my husband to prevent pregnancy,” she said, noting that many of her friends also don’t like condóms, while some claimed it could bring about disease. “I don’t know the type of disease, but I just don’t like condóm during séx,” she added.

However, she pointed out that the withdrawal method may not necessarily be effective in preventing pregnancies and STDs. “This is because the pre-ejaculation fluid from a man’s man-hood may contain sperm, which means that the man may still have enough sperm to make a woman pregnant,” she said, noting that the women were less conservative about family planning than the men.

With an increasing population, especially of women and children, poverty, poor living conditions, lack of education and basic infrastructure and services, the increasing rate of unprotected séx in Makoko communities is a worrying trend, especially as the general dislike for cóndoms hasn’t changed much with the younger generation.

“They live in a kind of cocoon. For them, it’s a way of life. The men go for fishing; the women go to the market and come back. From what I have observed, there are no special values being handed over. So, it goes on like a cycle. The young boys grow up to impregnate their women and it just goes on and on”.