They (my family) thought I had a spiritual challenge,” said Amina. “The more my family took me to prophets and traditional healers, the more gay I became. Spiritual healers were engaged in a desperate bid to change him and his sexuality. It was in 2011 when his secret came out, after Amina’s father caught his son and then-lover together at a party. At first I thought I was alone, but my other friends gave me a clear picture of who really I was – gay,” Amina said.
“I have always known that I was different, but I didn’t really know that I was gay at the age of 11, that’s when I knew that I was attracted to other boys. “At times, I get violent clients who refuse to pay me after giving them services, and others insist on unprotected sex, but I have learnt to let such clients go because I have to live on.”Īmina was born in Kadoma, a mining town in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland west province, and knew as a young boy that he was attracted to other boys. On a good day, Amina said he makes $150, with most of his clients employed as business and legal executives.Īmina said he was forced to take up sex work as Zimbabwe’s fractured economy had rendered so many young men jobless. He also chairs Male Sex Workers in Zimbabwe, a lobby group with 300 members that helps economically disadvantaged gay men.Īmina has no such need as he boasts a huge customer base and says he does not need to visit nightclubs or roam the streets for work his clients simply phone him when they want sex. ”I‘m a single father of three and a male sex worker,” Amina told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.