ABSTRACT
One of the most exciting (and humbling) aspects of doing field research is the surprises it throws up. The last thing I expected to find on the wall of a slum brothel was poetry. The experience of seeing and reading the poem I have reproduced here opened my eyes to the deeper reality of people’s lives, beyond the rough of the wall, breathing between the reality of the lives of the people. Those simple lines sent out a powerful message of a voiceless marginalised and subculture community. Police swoops of prostitutes on Ugandan streets and various brothels are a relatively common occurrence that is often reported in the local media. In spite of being outlawed, this form of subversive sexuality has boldly endured across time and space shaped and reshaped by forces such as colonialism, racial and gender supremacy, capitalism and globalisation. The study described in this chapter sought to explore and analyse the link between sex work, gender and the law, and the nexus between labour, desire and female offending. Under Ugandan law, prostitution is illegal and has been penalised by the Criminal Law.2 The legal regime is based on the belief that effective law enforcement and repression can and should reduce prostitution. Section 138 of the Penal Code defines a prostitute and prostitution thus:
In this code a prostitute means a person who, in public or elsewhere, regularly or habitually holds himself or herself out as available for sexual intercourse or other sexual gratification for monetary or other material gain and ‘prostitution’ shall be construed accordingly.
