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Everyday Violence in the Time of AIDS 107 “Some People Are Eaten and Some People Are Eaters” Juma had many things to say about the events of his life and his experiences on the streets. In July 2006, just three weeks before his death, we sat together on the rocks overlooking Lake Victoria—as we had […]

AIDS, Risk, and the Impossible Horizon Juma was aware of HIV/AIDS and had heard of the disease on many occasions. While many of the city’s street boys had one or more parents die of the disease, they rarely spoke of HIV/AIDS in this context. Most references to HIV/AIDS by street boys centered on the immorality

The Death of Another Street Boy Late one night in August 2006, Juma was caught sleeping on the rooftop of a downtown shop by a group of sungu sungu. He had many prior encounters with the sungu sungu, most of which resulted in violent beatings and possibly several days in jail. This time proved to

The Spatial Grounding of Life on the Streets Space was an important structuring feature of Juma’s survival on the streets as a Nyenga Dog. His gang was strongly identified with several blocks adjacent to the downtown center (which was itself a neutral territory where all street boys roamed). As Juma discussed on numerous occasions, his

Everyday Violence in the Time of AIDS 103 Many boys in my age group washed cars during the day. Older boys didn’t do that. But they [older boys] took our money. If we didn’t give them our money they would beat us. Sometimes other boys would try to steal our business . . . then

Sex, Survival, and the Process of Becoming a Nyenga Dog Juma’s mother had only one contact in Mwanza: a male cousin with whom she had a relatively close relationship. While he was making preparations to move to Dar es Salaam when Juma, his mother, and his two sisters arrived in town, the cousin managed to

Mwanza and Sukumaland Mwanza is located on the shores of Lake Victoria in the northwest corner of Tanzania. It is the second-largest city in the country with an approximate pop- ulation of 411,900 (Mwanza Municipal Council 1997). With an annual growth rate around 11 percent (8 percent of which is through migration), it has been

Situating the Present Study The present study contributes to ethnographic approaches to violence and, as in the above-mentioned body of work, conceptualizes violence as operating on a con- tinuum from the physical to the symbolic and structural. Like Farmer, it situates Everyday Violence in the Time of AIDS 97 violence and AIDS in a materialist

Ethnographic Approaches to Violence: Some Critical Issues The fundamental feature of ethnographic approaches to violence involves a more comprehensive definition of the concept that moves beyond direct acts of physical force and the “ethnographically visible” (Farmer 2004) to include those processes that contribute to social oppression and assaults on human rights and dignity (Bour- gois

Chris Lockhart Round River Conservation Studies Utah State University The Life and Death of a Street Boy in East Africa Everyday Violence in the Time of AIDS This article focuses on the life history of a single street boy in northwestern Tanzania, whom I name Juma. I suggest that Juma’s experiences and the life trajectory