Tribal Customs and the Spread of Aids

At last someone has managed to hit the nail on the head (Why AIDS cases are so high in Africa – Mukaronda). A great deal of hot air and paper have been expended on various campaigns which hope to do something to arrest the spread of this terrible virus, and so far without success. It is heartening to read that someone has indeed tried to tell us that one of the main reasons these campaigns have failed is because African men are supposed to enjoy more than one partner at a time and that the use of condoms is strictly against cultural principles.

So now we have the main reason that these campaigns have failed; we have the cause but seem to be far away from any kind of solution. If you look back in history you will see just how short-sighted and foolish many of these customs are (the story of Nongause is a perfect example) and how they are at total odds with life as it is today. However, changing the beliefs and mindset of an entire continent is going to be very difficult indeed.

We have been regaled on a daily basis with the events of the Zuma rape trial and, while I have no axe to grind for either side, the incredible ignorance of both Zuma and the complainant is staggering. The judge has tried to apply European thinking to both parties, but I feel this is wrong. The complainant was probably utterly unaware that unprotected sex with any partner could expose her to a fresh infection because there are many forms of the virus; she probably thought that, once infected, she had nothing further to lose; Zuma’s attempt at hiding within cultural norms and thinking is also completely foolish, although he would not be at such risk as the complainant, unless the activity in which he indulged was so strenuous as to cause him injury. In any case, he had the good sense to shower afterwards! Ho hum!

In a country where the erstwhile Minister of Health advocated a diet of beetroot and African potato in preference to anti-retrovirals, despite the fact that the latter have been proven to be beneficial in lengthening the life-span of those infected with the virus, while the former is nothing more than a home remedy, speaks for itself.

We Europeans have learned, over many centuries, that certain behaviour is not only highly dangerous but also total anathema to today’s way of life. Once upon a time we also engaged in sacrifices and believed in appeasing our ancestors; the ancient Egyptians were always buried with their most treasured possessions and they even had food in their sarcophagi in the belief that they would need it to sustain them on their journey to the afterlife. We have come a long way, but it has taken us thousands of years to do so, and to believe that a people who were not exposed to the same history as ourselves could change their customs literally overnight is absurd.

As with the people who followed Nongause’s advice and slaughtered their cattle, bringing upon themselves terrible consequences, so with tribal custom and modern medicine. The one simply serves to negate the other and will continue to do so until a sufficient number of people have died, the race is decimated and people begin to wake up and see that perhaps a change in custom and behaviour is necessary in order to solve the problem.

Hopefully, Mukaronda can show the way and start to effect the changes in thinking that are long overdue. Only when one has had the misfortune to watch someone close die of this terrible syndrome can you begin to urge the living to do something positive to save themselves, and that something, unfortunately, consists of a great deal more than merely resorting to home remedies and ‘boereraat’. There is no place for ignorance in these enlightened times of 2006.