A survey of 120 Togolese respondents attempted to reveal what are Togolese people’s attitudes towards sex and sexuality.

Respondents were asked to indicate whether they thought that 1) virginity is important, 2) virginity is important when one gets married, 3) it is acceptable for women to cheat on their husbands/partners and 4) it is acceptable for me to cheat on their wives/partners. Respondents were also asked to indicate the age at which they lost their virginity.

The results are rather interesting in especially two respects. First, while an overwhelming majority of respondents said that virginity is important (78.4 %), the percentage of respondents who thought that it is important to be virgin when getting married was considerably lower (52.7%). Furthermore, the analysis of the responses reveals that while respondents value virginity (in general and for marriage), the age at which the respondents lost their virginity was rather low (18.6).

The second aspect which is rather interesting is that there is some kind of a gender bias in the attitudes towards cheating and infidelity. In fact, while all of the respondents made clear that they believe that it is unacceptable for women to cheat on their husbands/partners, 25.6 per cent of the respondents -including several female respondents – indicated that it is acceptable for men to engage in extramarital sex or cheat on their spouse/partner.

These attitudes towards sex and sexuality are in some ways related to the traditional mindset of the respondents. Respondents who claim to know people who believe in traditional religions are much more likely to regard virginity as important ( r = .229). Respondents who claim to have witnessed an exorcism or the spirits being driven out of a person are even more likely to regard virginity as important ( r =.313). Interestingly respondents who claim to have witnessed an exorcism are less likely to regard as acceptable a man’ s (sexual) infidelity (r = -.201). Finally respondents who seek help from traditional/religious healers are less likely to consider virginity to be important when one gets married (r = -.258)