Are We All Prostitutes, Purveyors of Sex?

Recently, as I was moving on the streets of Kampala, I came across old copies of a weekly tabloid newspaper called The Onion. This enterprising guy had collected all old copies was selling them for a fifth (Shs. 300) of the cover price (Shs. 1,500). The Onion mostly covers the sex, scandals and local celebrities....and also features several pages of photographs of different young attractive girls as models.

I bought this particular edition of Friday, December 12-18, 2008 because of the cover story on a famous singer/songwriter Sylver who has hitherto been known as Mr Clean. It was about how this recently married musician had been nabbed by his wife Jalia in bed with another female singer Prisca. For the love of a story of the ‘holy’ falling to the temptations of the flesh, I couldn’t resist. I devoured this with relish...another story that caught my imagination was an interview with a prostitute.

Below is an excerpt reproduced verbatim. It was an interesting one but the question that jumped at me is—are we all prostitutes (especially women) or purveyors of sex (especially men) in one way or another? My comments are in parentheses. Read on...

“I don’t regard myself as someone of a low level just because I sell myself; all women sell themselves at one time in life. Some detooth [obtaining favours from men with promise of sex and not delivering on it]; others sell their bodies to their boyfriends to get money from them. It is very difficult for a man to give you money if you don’t give him sex. Other women sell sex to get jobs in offices, while others offer sex to men to get things like phones, clothes, cars etc.

Even most women who go abroad to Dubai, Japan, America, go to sell their bodies and they make a lot of money which they come and invest here in Uganda. For instance, most successful business women in Kikuubo, Katwe and Kisekka market [these are some of the busiest business centres in Kampala] are expensive prostitutes who have benefitted from the lucrative sex business.

I also hope to invest my savings from this business someday such that when I grow old and have to retire from the business, I shall have something else to earn from. My dream is to have my own business like a bar or lodge” [Ultimately, this is what we dream of irrespective of the professions and occupations from which we make our livelihoods].