Posted on ComTalk October 2000
The 13th International Aids Conference, the largest to be held on the African continent which is also the hardest hit by the Aids scourge, has come and gone. The conference took place in Durban last month and was attended by more than 13 000 delegates.
Picking the theme of the conference, former president Nelson Mandela received standing ovation when he said in his closing address, “We need to break the silence, banish stigma and discrimination and ensure total inclusiveness within the struggle against Aids. We need bold initiatives to prevent new infections among young people and large-scale actions to prevent mother-to-child transmissions.”
In a comprehensive post conference review titled, The Silences That Nourish Aids in Africa, Dr Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala, a medical anthropologist and lecture at the University of Natal, outlines the clearly discernable patterns that emerge and shed light on the peculiarities of the African Aids pandemic. “We need to reflect with seriousness on what makes the African Aids problem so stubborn, so unrelenting and so smug in its silence.” Stigma and discrimination endured by Aids sufferers are the root causes of the silences and denials that hamper the fight against the disease. Knowledge of the facts about HIV/Aids and talking openly about the disease are essential steps towards the fight against the scourge.
Dr Leclerc-Madlala points out that research has shown that in the West, communities and nations devote ever more time and care to reducing the risk of death and deepening the conviction that avoidance of death and personal responsibility are linked. In Africa however, there is a social acceptance of death, that the cause and time of death are at least partly predetermined and highly affected by supernatural forces. This situation has resulted in, the message about the high priority Aids should be accorded not reaching a sufficiently receptive audience on the continent.
Further to this, “there is significant body of well-researched and well-documented social science studies that points to high levels of premarital sexual activity, extra-marital relations and sexual violence, making African societies exposed to both sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) and HIV/Aids than in other parts of the world.
In many communities, women can expect a beating, not only if they refuse sex, if they curtail a relationship, if they are found to have another partner or even if they are believed to be thinking about someone else. It is worth noting that African researchers have been principal investigators for many of these studies.”
The notion and practice of reciprocity and gift-giving is a pivotal feature of sexual relations that has also been documented in most parts of Africa. “Gift for sex is a practice that expresses itself most strongly in premarital and extramarital relationships,” observers Dr Leclerc-Madlala. Whereas in Europe gift-giving is bound up with the refinements of romanticism, in the African context, sex is viewed rather more objectively and instrumentally. Selling sex for money or other material benefits in the face of Africa’s entrenched poverty and women’s continued financial dependence on men is one form of transactional sex.
“There are layers of denial and silence that preclude a serious grappling with sexual cultures. African’s need to come to terms with the real sexual cultures of their societies. There are widespread beliefs that males are biologically programmed to need sexual relations regularly and with more than one woman and often concurrently. Such beliefs are logically consistent with societies that were traditionally polygamous. Research has shown that these beliefs are held almost as strongly by women as they are by men.”
The conclusion derived from Dr Leclerc-Madlala’s studies is that there is an urgent need to recognize and accept the nature and shape of contemporary sexual mores that have dire consequences in the wake of HIV/Aids. “By turning our collective attention to academic debates on the origins or existence of Aids, we are conveniently avoiding facing up to the sensitive issues around sexual culture. This points to the crux of the heavy silences that nourish Aids in Africa, including the silences and denials of the government. Government needs to foster the transformation of sexual attitudes and behaviors and our leaders need to speak out with vigour and determination against this high risk sexual culture and the silences that enshroud it.”
Given the catastrophic effects of this pandemic, Africa cannot afford to miss the precious opportunity presented by the conference to foster high morals, break the silence, embrace the ‘beyond awareness’ campaign and wage a ‘war against the disease to guarantee the rights of all people to good health.’
Africa must intensify her efforts to confront the HIV/Aids epidemic and governments must take all necessary steps to ensure that the partnership against HIV/Aids and the various public education campaigns actually result in change. This includes a change in behaviour patterns, increased support to Aids suffers and orphans and the provision of antiretroviral drugs to Aids suffers.
By Tigele Mokobi
University of Fort Hare
Eastern Cape
The 13th International Aids Conference, the largest to be held on the African continent which is also the hardest hit by the Aids scourge, has come and gone. The conference took place in Durban last month and was attended by more than 13 000 delegates.
Picking the theme of the conference, former president Nelson Mandela received standing ovation when he said in his closing address, “We need to break the silence, banish stigma and discrimination and ensure total inclusiveness within the struggle against Aids. We need bold initiatives to prevent new infections among young people and large-scale actions to prevent mother-to-child transmissions.”
In a comprehensive post conference review titled, The Silences That Nourish Aids in Africa, Dr Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala, a medical anthropologist and lecture at the University of Natal, outlines the clearly discernable patterns that emerge and shed light on the peculiarities of the African Aids pandemic. “We need to reflect with seriousness on what makes the African Aids problem so stubborn, so unrelenting and so smug in its silence.” Stigma and discrimination endured by Aids sufferers are the root causes of the silences and denials that hamper the fight against the disease. Knowledge of the facts about HIV/Aids and talking openly about the disease are essential steps towards the fight against the scourge.
Dr Leclerc-Madlala points out that research has shown that in the West, communities and nations devote ever more time and care to reducing the risk of death and deepening the conviction that avoidance of death and personal responsibility are linked. In Africa however, there is a social acceptance of death, that the cause and time of death are at least partly predetermined and highly affected by supernatural forces. This situation has resulted in, the message about the high priority Aids should be accorded not reaching a sufficiently receptive audience on the continent.
Further to this, “there is significant body of well-researched and well-documented social science studies that points to high levels of premarital sexual activity, extra-marital relations and sexual violence, making African societies exposed to both sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) and HIV/Aids than in other parts of the world.
In many communities, women can expect a beating, not only if they refuse sex, if they curtail a relationship, if they are found to have another partner or even if they are believed to be thinking about someone else. It is worth noting that African researchers have been principal investigators for many of these studies.”
The notion and practice of reciprocity and gift-giving is a pivotal feature of sexual relations that has also been documented in most parts of Africa. “Gift for sex is a practice that expresses itself most strongly in premarital and extramarital relationships,” observers Dr Leclerc-Madlala. Whereas in Europe gift-giving is bound up with the refinements of romanticism, in the African context, sex is viewed rather more objectively and instrumentally. Selling sex for money or other material benefits in the face of Africa’s entrenched poverty and women’s continued financial dependence on men is one form of transactional sex.
“There are layers of denial and silence that preclude a serious grappling with sexual cultures. African’s need to come to terms with the real sexual cultures of their societies. There are widespread beliefs that males are biologically programmed to need sexual relations regularly and with more than one woman and often concurrently. Such beliefs are logically consistent with societies that were traditionally polygamous. Research has shown that these beliefs are held almost as strongly by women as they are by men.”
The conclusion derived from Dr Leclerc-Madlala’s studies is that there is an urgent need to recognize and accept the nature and shape of contemporary sexual mores that have dire consequences in the wake of HIV/Aids. “By turning our collective attention to academic debates on the origins or existence of Aids, we are conveniently avoiding facing up to the sensitive issues around sexual culture. This points to the crux of the heavy silences that nourish Aids in Africa, including the silences and denials of the government. Government needs to foster the transformation of sexual attitudes and behaviors and our leaders need to speak out with vigour and determination against this high risk sexual culture and the silences that enshroud it.”
Given the catastrophic effects of this pandemic, Africa cannot afford to miss the precious opportunity presented by the conference to foster high morals, break the silence, embrace the ‘beyond awareness’ campaign and wage a ‘war against the disease to guarantee the rights of all people to good health.’
Africa must intensify her efforts to confront the HIV/Aids epidemic and governments must take all necessary steps to ensure that the partnership against HIV/Aids and the various public education campaigns actually result in change. This includes a change in behaviour patterns, increased support to Aids suffers and orphans and the provision of antiretroviral drugs to Aids suffers.
By Tigele Mokobi
University of Fort Hare
Eastern Cape
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