HIV/AIDSThe Politics of Disease

and Culture in Africa

What is culture?

a system of interrelated values active enough to influence and condition perception, judgment, communication, and behavior in a given society

Why is it Important?

• Culture and society play a role in sickness and healing

• Language plays an important role in the understanding of illness concepts

• One’s cultural belief system influences one’s social roles and relationships when one is ill

• Medical practice is a cultural production, particularly with respect to the focus on the body rather than the contexts that define and shape the body

Culture and African contexts of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support

The Trouble with the ABC Approach

How it works

• Abstain from Sex

• Be Faithful to one uninfected partner

• Condom use

shortcomings

• relationships and expectations

• cultural identity

• cultural empowerment

• A failure to recognize the role of the collective rather than that of the individual in health behavior

Relationships and expectations

How do African cultures define theroles of persons and their expectations in family and community relationships?

Personal actions are examined as functions of broader social cultural contexts.

Cultural empowerment

• “Culture” is often represented as a barrier and “empowerment” as strength.

• Culture as an instrument of empowerment?• Goal of cultural empowerment: Ensure that an

intervention is developed with the idea of not only the bad in mind, but to also to promote the good and recognize the unique or even indifferent aspects of culture.

Cultural Identity

The cultural identity domain helps determine the point of entry

Some Success Stories

TASO• THE AIDS SUPPORT

ORGANIZATION

TASO founders

reach

ed very

few

people,

but for e

ach of th

e ones

they

reach

ed, th

ey m

ade a

differe

nce in

their liv

es.

TASO, HIV/AIDS and Poverty

High levels of unemployment and an inadequate welfare system have led to widespread poverty, which renders people more vulnerable to contracting HIV

Major Factors

• The daily struggle for survival overrides any concerns people living in poverty might have about HIV.

• Strategies adopted by people made desperate by poverty, e.g. migration in search of work and “survival” sex-work, are conducive to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

• People living in deprived communities where death through violence or disease is commonplace tend to become fatalistic

• Poverty is generally associated with low levels of formal education and literacy. Knowledge about HIV and how to prevent it, is subsequently low in poor communities.

A vicious cyclefor poor people

Poverty deepens

Ability to protect against further economic losses decreases

THE CYCLE OF POVERTY AND ILLNESS

Vulnerability to disease increases

A vicious cyclefor poor people

Poverty deepens

Ability to protect against further economic losses decreases

How TASO Helps BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY

Vulnerability to disease increases

Medical CarePsychosocial Support

Education