Disco funerals or “Disco Matanga” in Swahili is a phenomenon observed in the Kisumu» municipality in Nyanza Province on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, East Africa. These parties are organised at night, bring together the family of the deceased, their relatives, and are an important place for young people to hang out.

The phenomenon is poorly documented but in an article published in AIDS, Carolyne Njue and colleagues conducted 44 in-depth interviews with male and female adolescents aged 15–20 years in Kisumu and observed six disco funerals. They concluded “In Kisumu, a town with a generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic, the high AIDS mortality leads to frequent disco funerals. Because many adolescents are having unprotected, transactional, or coerced sex at these occasions, disco funerals might contribute to the high HIV prevalence among youth, especially among adolescent girls.”

Disco Matanga are often held to raise the money needed to cover burial expenses. They are an occasion for young adolescent to have casual sex, mostly unprotected with multiple partners. Sex can be consensual, forced or for money. Drugs and drinks are common and contribute to unsafe practices.

A 19 years old boy described how Disco Matanga were a cheap form of entertainment and an occasion to meet the other sex, “You know death is rampant here. You will find that someone has died here, another one there and another one also there. It is in these funerals that boys and girls meet, in fact that is where they meet mostly. . . the funerals’.

Condoms are rarely used because the boys “are normally in a hurry and have no time to put on condoms”, or because boys find them uncomfortable or simply because they are not available. Some believe that because they are young and therefore not at risk. The researcher also reported sex with multiple partners both for girls and boys, “at times someone takes [a girl] at around 10 pm then returns her at midnight [. . .] somebody else also takes her at that very time. . . at times this person knows that so and so is going with her [having sex] but he also goes with her’ (18-year-old boy).”

Sex is not always consensual. On occasion, it can be forced, or a girl can be rape for refusing a boy’s advances. Gang rape was also reported after a boy had tricked a girl to his place where other boys will have sex with her or when boys wanted to punish an “arrogant” girl: ‘There is this new girl who has moved into the community, the boys kept on trying to win her but she was adamant. . . She was going to dance with her friends [at disco matanga] and the boys waylaid her on her way home. The boys seized her up and forced her to do sex with them. . . that happened here ” (19-year-old girl). The study reported occurrences of transactional sex with boys buying drinks for the girls or giving them money. Girls are sometimes auctioned by the DJ for a dance and possibly more.

The field workers also observed that, “Drugs and alcohol often facilitate unprotected, multiple-partner, coerced, and transactional sex.”

Overall, the research work indicated that disco funerals created a context for potential HIV/STI transmission among youths in Kisumu, though the researchers accepted the limitations of a study that focussed on a subgroup of youth who spontaneously mentioned Disco Matanga.

These findings need to be seen against the background of Luo culture. Luo are polygamous, parental control over children sexuality is lenient, premarital sex is allowed and sometimes encouraged, and control over women is a sign of masculinity. However, the role of drugs, alcohol, peer-pressure as well as AIDS-driven poverty should not be neglected. As noted by the researchers, young people meet sexual partner at discos and party all over the world» . “However, disco funerals differ regarding the duration and circumstances. They can last from several days to a fortnight and may bring together up to a hundred people, with some visitors needing local accommodation.”

Once more, sex is not the issue, neither is morality or culture; it is the circumstances in which it happens that matter when it comes to HIV transmission. As suggested by Njue and colleagues, Disco Matanga are also an opportunity for education of both parents and youths, for condoms distribution and for improving communication about sexual risky behaviour. In short “disco funerals can be used to promote safe sex practices” too.

This study is also commented by John Owur at Aidsmap.

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