AIDS in Africa

I went to a lecture given by anthropologist Dr. Richard Lee on the social and political contexts of AIDS in Africa.

This would be my first introduction to issues surrounding AIDS and Africa. I am interested b/c we often hear criticism against people with AIDS, as if they take it upon themselves, this illness. Perhaps some people do, and therefore deserve no sympathy--none at all sic. For us, who think criticism like that is self-centred, incompassionate and ignorant, we must educate ourselves, and learn the social and political issues underlying AIDS.

1) Political Issues: Government and international aid agencies fund economic programs that are individual and private. Often, labour that is created disperses families. Not enough funding goes toward social and educational programs.

2) Social Issues: Hope lies in empowering women. There is much disparity between the rich and the poor, the independent and the dependent, the man and the woman (sound familiar?). Often times, women depend on a wealthy "boyfriend" to provide a basic and/or non-basic livelihood for her and/or her children. In these relationships, women do not have any sexual negotiation power. Sexual negotiation power is tantamount because...

Men feel the use of condoms a blow to their masculinity. Yeah, men are hopeless. Seriously, who's teaching men masculinity? So many men seem to have issues with their masculinity, as if their physical body (which is different only from women's) dictates and demands a certain way which they must behave and must be treated. We must understand, all of us, that the idea of masculinity is taught, created and unnatural. For those men who feel they need to be masculine, let me tell you, they are puppets of an idea. They are slaves to a social role which they enact. For, "real" men (and "real" women, too), we create our own individual identities. Let me tell you, i worry about men, especially the "masculine" ones. They give me headaches.