Politics and the Pandemic: HIV/AIDS, Africa, and the Discourse of Disability
Main Article Content
Keywords
HIV/AIDS, Africa, Disability
Abstract
In 2004, Africa News filed a report on then12-year old William Msechu, a young African who lost both of his parents to AIDS in 1999. He, too, was HIV positive. Msechu is characterized as a “very bright boy,” although, the article reports, he is “yet to come to terms with his HIV status.” “’I was told that I have tuberculosis and I am getting better,’” the article quotes William as saying to journalists (“HIV-AIDS and STDs,” 2004). William Msechu’s disbelief at having contracted HIV is unremarkable; persons diagnosed with severe diseases, including HIV/AIDS, often work through denial and incredulity. Just as unremarkable, however, is Msechu’s contention that he had not tested positive for HIV, but rather, had contracted tuberculosis, another widespread disease but not nearly as stigmatizing as HIV/AIDS. Substituting “tuberculosis” for “HIV” may be an affirming measure for Msechu, but it also provides one more example of the rhetorical slipperiness that historically, and still continues to accompany, the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
References
Altman, D. (2003). AIDS and security. International Relations, 17(4), 417-427.
Austin, S. B. (1989-1990). AIDS and Africa: United States media and racist fantasy. Cultural Critique, 14, 129-152.
Baker, P. (2006, March 16). Bush to restate terror strategy: 2002 doctrine of preemptive war to be reaffirmed. The Washington Post.
Baynton, D. (2001). Disability and the justification of inequality in American history. In P. K. Longmore & L. Umansky (Eds.), The New Disability History: American Perspectives (pp. 33-57). Albany: New York University Press.
Black, D. (1985). The plague years: A chronicle of AIDS, the epidemic of our times. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Brandt, A. (1988). AIDS: From social history to social policy. In E. Fee and D.M. Fox (Eds.), AIDS: The burden of history (pp. 147-171). Berkeley: University of California Press.
(2003). “Congressional Testimony,” Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, March 27.
Elbe, S. (2005). AIDS, security, and biopolitics. International Relations, 19(1), 403-419.
Fleischman, J. (2004, June 29). Beyond ‘ABC’: Helping women fight AIDS. The Washington Post, A23.
Fleischman, J., & Cravero, K. (2004, March 8). A focus on women and AIDS. Boston Globe, A15.
(2003). “George W. Bush Delivers Remarks at Signing of U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act.” FDCH Political Transcripts, May 27.
Haraway, D. J. (1979, Spring-Summer). The biological enterprise: Sex, mind, and profit from human engineering to sociobiology. Radical History Review, 20, 206-237.
HIV-AIDS and STDs; heavy toll on Africa’s economy. (2004, November 21). Africa News.
HIV-AIDS and STDs; gender policy key in fighting HIV/AIDS. (2005, October 19). Africa News.
Hunter, R. (2005, March 10). Moralizing doesn’t fight AIDS. Badger Herald.
Jarosz, L. (1992). Constructing the dark continent: Metaphor as geographic representation of Africa. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, 74(2), 105-115.
Lugar statement on HIV/AIDS Bill. (2003, May 15). Congressional press releases.
Malan, R. (2003, December 13). Africa isn’t dying of AIDS. The Spectator.
More than humanitarianism: A strategic U.S. approach toward Africa. (2006). Council on Foreign Relations.
Nagel, J. (2003). Race, ethnicity, and sexuality: Intimate intersections, forbidden frontiers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Official report of the proceedings of the thirty-fifth Republican National Convention. (1992). Houston, Texas.
On-the-record-briefing on the president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief. (2006, February 8). State Department Documents and Publications.
PanAfrica: daily HIV/AIDS report. (2004). Africa News.
Patton, C. (1994). Last served?: Gendering the HIV pandemic. London: Taylor & Francis.
President and Mrs. Bush discuss HIV/AIDS initiatives on World AIDS Day. (2005, December 1). FDCH Federal Department and Agency Documents.
President urges Congress to act quickly on global HIV/AIDS initiative. (2003, April 29). Regulatory Intelligence Data.
Rice, C. (2006, February 8). Remarks on the release of the second annual report to Congress on the President’s emergency plan for AIDS relief. Washington, D.C.: State Department Documents and Publications.
Secretary of State speaks to Kenyan students on HIV/AIDS. (2005, January 8). U.S. Federal News.
Selvin, J. (2005, November 11). U2’s Bono makes fiery case for rocking the world with ambitious mission to eradicate global misery. San Francisco Chronicle.
Sherry, M. S. (1993). The language of war in AIDS discourse. In T. F. Murphy & S. Poirier (Eds.), Writing AIDS: gay literature, language, and analysis (pp. 39-53). New York: Columbia University Press.
Stamp, P. (1995). Mothers of invention: Women’s agency in the Kenyan state. In J. Kegan Gardiner (Ed.), Provoking agents: Gender and agency in theory and practice (pp. 69-92). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Treichler, P. (1988). AIDS, homophobia, and biomedical discourse: An epidemic of signification. In D. Crimp (Ed.), AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism (pp. 31-70). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Treichler, P. (1991). AIDS, Africa, and Cultural Theory. Transition, 51, 86-103.
United States, Canada and Africa: fighting global AIDS epidemic a U.S. foreign-policy priority. (2005, February 17). U.S. Department of State Press Release.
U.S. First Lady defends abstinence approach to AIDS in Africa. (2006, January 21). Agence France Presse--English.
Vesperini, H. (2005, December 7). Women more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection than men, less apt to cope. Agence France Presse--English.
Wallman, S. (1998). Ordinary women and shapes of knowledge: Perspectives on the context of STD and AIDS. Public Understanding of Science, 7, 169-185.
Watney, S. (1989). Missionary positions: AIDS, Africa, and Race. Critical Quarterly, 31(3), 45-62.
Weiss, M. (1997). Signifying the pandemics: Metaphors of AIDS, cancer, and heart disease. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 11(4), 456-476.
Wilson, T. (1997). Engendering AIDS: Deconstructing sex, text and epidemic. London: SAGE Publications.
Yankah, K. (2004). Narrative in times of crisis: AIDS stories in Ghana. Journal of Folklore Research, 41(2/3), 181-198.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
RDS Journal is an open-access journal, create a free account to read full articles and to submit a proposal. For visual arts and multimedia, submission will be considered evidence that you are offering RDS the right to display your work without penalty, compensation or royalties.
Laura L. Behling, Gustavus Adolphus College
Laura L. Behling teaches American literature and culture, with a particular interest in medicine and literature, at Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota). Her publications include, The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935 (2001), and Hospital Transports: An Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in 1863 (2005), as well as articles in the Journal of Medical Humanities, Women’s Studies, College English, and the Journal of Modern Literature.