Love, money, and HIV: Becoming a modern African woman in the age of AIDS

How do modern women in developing countries experience sexuality and love? Drawing on a rich variety of interview, ethnographic and survey data from her native country of Kenya, Sanyu Mojola examines how young African women, who suffer disproportionate rates of HIV infection compared to young African men, navigate their relationships, schooling, employment and financial access in the context of a devastating HIV epidemic and economic inequality. Writing from a unique outsider-insider perspective, Mojola argues that the entanglement of love, money, and the production and transformation of girls into “consuming women” lies at the heart of women’s health and coming-of-age crises. Engaging in themes of gender, consumption, and the transition to adulthood, this text is an incisive analysis of gender, sexuality, and health in Africa.