Ahhh, Senegal, a land of blended influences -- France and the Middle East poured in to its West African mix. Foot-stomping music, awe-inspiring lush forests, great beaches, manic nightlife, phenomenal cultural scene, wonderful shopping and sex for sale? It has been reported that women, especially Caucasian women (typically Europeans), are flocking to country to hire Senegalese boys and men for more than just taking them on tours of the country.This whole sex-tourism thing isn't new by any stretch of the imagination, nor is the white female/black male dynamic.[1] This isn't really that much different that black men doing to Brazil for vacation to enjoy their, uhhhh, exotic fare. And my clueless a$$ was thinking one of my ex-coworkers was going there every year for Carnivale. Negro please.
The Senegalese tourism sector has received some negative press lately, which focused on the growing trend of sex and foreign visitors to the country. Due to the wave of bad press regarding "love tourism," the country has experienced a decrease in visitors.
With male prostitution on the rise, according to UNICEF, the children of both sexes are harassing tourists in a bid to lure clients. Sex tourism does not only stop in Senegal, it is also especially a problem in Gambia, where a sizable influx of European women are seeking sex with underage boys, so called bombstars or beachboys.
According to UNICEF, the sex-for-hire victims are usually from poor families or are from the streets. They are also typically uneducated. The men are also usually unemployed. The unemployment rate in Senegal is at 30 percent and the average worker earns a mere $3 per day, according to the World Bank.
Many of the hirees argue that the services they provide are innocent. They often see themselves as tour guides who offer "extra services on the side." There are others, though, who contend that the sexual tourism hustle exploits both parties and has tarnished the country as a whole.
Many of the women who engage in this type of bi-coastal sexual lifestyle see it as mere companionship with benefits. Many of these women make more than a few trips every year to see a regular "boyfriend" or to simply "knock boots" with their pick of the litter.
One 31-year-old dreadlocked drum player, who had been dating tourists for seven years, told Global Travel News that he has no qualms with what he does. He has received countless gifts from his trysts with tourists: CDs, USB drives, a guitar, an MP3 player and a DVD player. "I don't ask for money," he said. "We go out. They pay for everything. We have sex. Before they leave, they give me a bit cash to help me out. It's a question of survival. Life is hard. If I didn't have these women, I'd be struggling."
It does, however, raise an interesting question: Why do women have to pay for it?[2]
I mean, come on, ladies: getting a man to marry you and getting one to "do the do" don't exactly require the same level of difficulty. Sure, I'm certain many of these women are flying to the Motherland for the sake of confidentiality, but how hard would it be for these women to just pick up some random guy at a bar in the first place? Flying to a foreign land, and spending good money to get banged out by some dude who might have STD's that haven't even been discovered yet just strikes me as terribly stupid, and probably a bit dangerous to boot.
Let's face it, ladies: unless you're totally and completely tore down from the floor down, there's prolly some dude who'll hit that. Maybe not the guy you personally prefer, but some guy nonetheless, provided you look hard enough.
I'm not saying I understand men paying to play either, but considering the fact that women more or less hold the cards when it comes to sex, flying halfway around the world to get your back blown out when you could probably get the same thing at home just seems a bit silly.
What ya'll think?
Question: Do ladies really have to pay to play, or are these women just mixing in a different type of extracurricular activity with their vacation?
Female Tourists Go to Senegal for Sex-a-Thon [AOLBlackVoices]
[1] There was a movie about this I saw on cable a few years back. It was about a middle-aged British woman who came to the Caribbean and "dated" a teenager. Anyone remember the name of this movie?
[2] Yeah, I know. The accompanying photo doesn't really match this post. Sorry, I wan't gonna go that deep on Google Image Search. This'll have to work.
