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Sex Terrorist

People tend to toss the terrorism word around casually these days, but when Kenyan women speak of the threat to their autonomy posed by their sex cleanser, one should take it seriously: "His breath fumes with the local alcoholic brew. Greasy food droppings hang off his mustache and stain his oily pants and torn shirt...He's too skinny and has, as the women point out, terrible taste in clothes. His latest hat is a visor styled from shabby paper stolen off a local cigarette billboard...But for all of his undesirable traits, Akacha has a surprisingly desirable job: He's paid to have sexual relations with the widows and unmarried women of this village. He's known as "the cleanser," one of hundreds of thousands of men in rural villages across Africa who sleep with women after their husbands die to dispel what villagers believe are evil spirits...

Posted by chris at August 18, 2003 11:10 PM