It is 6pm at Zalewa, a lively trading centre in Nemo District which is forked between Malawi’s most prominent cross-border transport corridors that also fuel infectious illnesses.
Traffic on the busy roads flash past, moving people and goods across the landlocked country and the rest of southern Africa.
However, Mercy, a sex worker who migrated from Nsanje District in 2022, fixes her eyes firmly on the tarmac from Mwanza Border Post, a gateway to Mozambique located 63 kilometres away.
“I’m waiting for my man, who is driving a petroleum tanker from Beira [Port] in Mozambique. I’ve been drinking from 3pm. He’ll be here soon,” she brags.
The expected one is no ordinary hookup, but everything sex workers call wa visa—a partner with all clear access.
“He’s my number one. He gives me good money for my needs that nightstands cannot meet. I will do anything to please him and no condom can get between us,” she asserts, flagging off a random admirer.
Welcome to the hotspot where cross-border drivers neatly park their longish trucks to hedge the nightspot where they party to their safe arrival.
From a verandah, Mercy’s eyes sizes up each truck arriving, awaiting the driver bringing her charcoal, cooking oil, spaghettis, ciders and peace of mind.
“I can’t wait,” she says. “When he arrives, I leave everything to attend to him and him alone.”
She likens him to a debit card, an international payment chip issued by banks that operates on a global payment network.
“When I need money, he doesn’t grumble, but gives it to me like an automated teller machine. Who wraps an ATM card in a plastic when swiping or slotting it in?” she asks.
Dying for love?
Wa visa is a widely used catchphrase across Malawi and it ranges from short-term clients willing to pay more for unprotected sex and long-timers sex workers stick by.
In this give-and-take entanglement, Mercy charges at least K20 000 for a nightstand, but doubles the price for unprotected sex.
Memory, who plies at Culture Club along the popular Kamuzu Road in Salima, charges thrice her normal price tag when clients reject condoms.
“Wa visa is someone who gives you money worth dying for, a partner who will take care of me on a bad day, even without asking for it. Every sex worker needs one,” she says.
Memory’s favourite is a soldier in the vibrant town along the shoreline of Lake Malawi.
Sex workers randomly interviewed in Karonga, Mzuzu, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Salima, Balaka, Neno, Blantyre, Mangochi and Nsanje say they prefer married men, who are perceived as financially and emotionally grounded.
“You need maturity and stability, not a crybaby who will further depress you with endless whining and excuses when you need help. With a married man, it’s a win-win deal. He helps you out financially and you satisfy their emotional needs that their permanent partners cannot,” said 24-year-old Mable in Nkhotakota.
Risky sex web
The young woman ventured into sex work in 2022 when the National Aids Commission (NAC)reported that nearly half of female sex workers—49.9 percent—were living with HIV. This was seven times the national prevalence, then estimated at 7.1 percent by the regulators of the national response to HIV and Aids.
A man Mable terms her wa visa says the cobweb of unsafe sex thrives more on trust and shared gains than low perception of HIV risk and drunkenness.
“The sex worker could be doing this for money and daily needs, but men need companionship, adventure and understanding from someone who’ll help them forget the agonies they face in their stable relationship,” said the married man.
Unaware of who their loved ones are sleeping with, wa visa’s stable sexual partner could be the main losers.
In 2010, NAC ranked married women among the most-infected groups only surpassed by female sex workers and policewomen.
Female Sex Workers Association (FSWA) calls wa visa an entrenched practice that spreads HIV beyond the tricky world of sex work
“The association trains and encourages our members to insist on safe sex, but it’s not easy to tackle this risky practice. Our game is played in secrecy and we all want money. Everyone charges according to their needs and worth. There is no time to know each other’s status. You have bills to pay,” FSWA president Zinenani Majawa says.
To roll back HIV infections, service providers are putting condoms and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in trained sex workers’ hands to discreetly share with their colleagues.
One love, shared risk
However, a One Love regional study conducted in 10 countries showed that multiple and concurrent sexual partnership fuel widespread HIV rates in southern Africa. From their models, the researchers said many people get trapped in a sex web like insects in a spider’s web because they unknowingly share sexual partners.
This expansive web of sexually interconnected Malawians extends from confined populations like Likoma and Chizumulu islands to the mainland, increasing the risk of catching HIV if one is infected.
However, wa visa is just one of the enablers—a normalised bridge of infection
