International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue VIII, August 2021|ISSN 2454-6186 www.rsisinternational.org Page 109 Crazy Rush for Powdery Tobacco (Sunkho) among Younger Women and girls in Petauke and Chipata districts- Zambia: Is it cultural recovery or birth of a new lifestyle? Jordan Tembo 1 , Patricia Mambwe 2 1 Kalindawalo General Hospital, P.O.Box 560008, Petauke, Zambia 2 Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Rusangu University, Monze, Zambia Abstract: Sunkho (snuff) is a fine ground tobacco inhaled as dry powder or dipped in the lip/gum groove or cheek/gum vestibule for sucking as moist tobacco-mixture. In Zambia, culturally, sunkho was purely consumed by the elderly. In recent years however, sunkho has become very popular among younger women and girls. This study explored where users sourced sunkho, how they consumed sunkho and whether users were aware about health-related effects of sunkho. The study was conducted in Chipata and Petauke Districts of Zambia between March and June, 2021.A total of 25 user and non-user participants, broken down as 6 males and 19 females participated in the study. User participants were sampled through snowball sampling method. The study used an explorative research design with a qualitative approach. A single interview-per participant method was used for data collection. This study found that younger women dashed for sunkho to elevate their body temperature from ordinary-warm to unusual- warmer and for vaginal tightening so that a man enjoys memorable and satisfactory sexual pleasure. Some users consumed sunkho based on the underlying belief that sunkho helps to boost CD4 Count in HIV positive patients. This study also found that other younger female users consumed sunkho under the belief that it prevented them from acquiring COVID- 19 while others did so out of need for social conformity with the prevailing fashion. The study found low levels of awareness among participants on health-associated risks of sunkho. Since users are continuously inventing methods of consuming sunkho, exposing themselves further to tobacco-associated cancers, this study recommends that health workers conduct aggressive community sensitization campaigns on sunkho and other smokeless tobacco products on health. Institutions offering health-related training programmes to include the use of Smokeless tobacco in their curriculum as a new threat to the emergence of malignancies of unknown origin among users. Ministry of Education to take a critical step in creating awareness to all pupils and students on the dangers of using sunkho and other smokeless tobacco products. Key words: sunkho, sex, consumption, tobacco I. INTRODUCTION he use of fine dry to semi-moist ground tobacco (snuff) is an ancient social behaviour. Societies use local names to refer to ground powdery tobacco. In Britain and the United States of America it is known as snuff. Swedes call it snus (Leon et al., 2016). Indians call it Bajjar (Das, 2018). In North Africa they call it neffa or nufha (International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2004). In Sudan and Chad it is called toombak (Hassanin & Idris, 2017). Ghanaians and Nigerians call it Tawa and Taaba (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). On the Eastern part of Africa, Tanzanians call it ugoro (2018 Tanzania Global Adult Tobacco Survey Country Report, 2020). The Zulu of South Africa call it Intsu. In Zambia it is popularly known by the Nyanja term sunkho and the Bemba term insunkho. Sunkho belongs to the category of Smoke Less Tobacco (SLT) products. The Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSFC)(2010), describe sunkho-snuff as finely ground tobacco that can be dry or moist. Dry snuff often comes in powder form and can be inhaled through the nose while moist snuff, also called “dip” or “pinch”, is placed between the lip and gum and does not need to be chewed (PSFC, 2010). Smoke Less Tobacco products are consumed without burning. Scholars consider Smoke Less Tobacco to be any form of tobacco that is not smoked but is sniffed through the nose, sucked, chewed or dissolved in the mouth (CDC, 2019). Fine ground tobacco mixtures are inhaled into the nostrils or sucked. The World Health Organization (WHO) (2017) identify two types of sunkho- namely dry and moist snuff. Dry snuff is powdered tobacco that is inhaled through the nose and absorbed through the nasal mucosa or taken orally. Moist snuff is ground tobacco held and sucked. This snuff is held in the mouth between the cheek/lip and gum (WHO, 2017). Sunkho and other smokeless tobacco products are consumed by 356 million people worldwide (Sinha et al., 2018). According to the World Health Organization (2017),the consumption of sunkho has a long history even as early as before Christopher Columbus‟ voyage to the Americas with natives of South America being the first people known to use it. As colonizing European nations invaded and colonized the “New World,”- South America, explorers took note of the strange practice and brought knowledge of snuffing tobacco back to Europe (Mcglyn 2019:1). Sunkho has been used in T