AIDS In Africa - South African Denalism Has Meant Death To Millions

September 11th, 2007

At BlackPerspective.net I’ve been doing a series called AIDS In Africa. Some reports are bad news, some are good. The following is a situation that went from bad to good.

I choose to put this one report in the series here, because of realizing the repercussions of denialism, or just plain inattentiveness.

At the African Woman’s Blog the recent story of faulty condoms being recalled due to government bribery is noted. Also the writer there gives analysis that it’s not a lack of use of condoms but that they don’t work. Certainly faulty condoms can have contributed to the ridiculous AIDS rates there, on the fringes; but if you think this is the primary reason for South African AIDS rates, then you cannot see the forest for the trees that you are overly concentrating on.

South African denialism has lead to large swaths of the populace not believing AIDS was serious for a long time in the early years, to them believing misconceptions about AIDS, then to antiretroviral drugs and other drugs being BANNED in government hospitals so that sick people could not even receive treatment, including, where mothers could have been kept from passing AIDS on to their unborn children.

Working condoms do nothing in these situations, as they simply do not apply.

You can read South African Judge Edwin Cameron speech on The Dark Hand of Denalism. It’s a little bit down the page, after the dotted line.

Judge Cameron also appeared in the great Frontline documentary The Age of AIDS. It can be viewed online, here.

The video is broken into a number of 10 to 15 minute clips, by Chapter. The coverage of South Africa starts in Part Two, Chapter 1. The examination of South Africa’s denialism by its government, all the way into this decade, is covered in earnest in Part Two, Chapter 3. I implore that you watch this film. You can watch in parts over time if need be.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki
Former S. African Pres.Thabo Mbeki

The regrettable inaction during the administration of our hero Nelson Mandela, and the outright denialism of President Mbeki, who followed Mandela; has lead many more to become infected and die, that didn’t have to.

But things are looking up now. As documented in this PBS article, it appears the South African government is ready to take direct action on AIDS.

But in recent weeks, the South African government has placed its deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in the forefront of this AIDS effort, and she seems to be turning around negative perceptions of the government’s performance. She’s called for intensification of the fight against the disease, imploring all sectors of the society to get on board.

Moreover, with the minister of health ailing, the deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, has moved in an unprecedented way, publicly acknowledging the government’s confusing messages on HIV and criticizing the emphasis on traditional medicine touted by the ministers, saying, “It is absolutely irresponsible to say to people who are desperate and want to live, ‘Oh, go to your traditional healer if you want,’ because which traditional healers do we know who know how to treat AIDS? I don’t know of any in my country.”

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One Response to “AIDS In Africa - South African Denalism Has Meant Death To Millions”

  1. Kayla on September 21st, 2007 4:04 am | link

    this article is full of ignorance the person who published it does’nt even know that thabo mbeki is still the president of south africa.its also ignorant of you to completely undermine and discredit traditional medicine you fat a** are benefitting from hoodia guess who discovered that?

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  • D. Yobachi Boswell

  • Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.

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