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Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
AIDS In Africa - Uganda Still An Example To The World
September 26th, 2007
The story of Uganda and it’s response to AIDS is one of tragedy and triumph.
According to PETER MUGYENYI, M.D., Joint Clinical Research Center, “by mid-1980s, Uganda had the highest incidence of HIV in the world, way and above any other country in Africa or any other country in the world.”
HIV having spread there undiagnosed for at least a decade; was starting to mature. I ask the question, but have not yet come by an answer to why no one noticed this epidemic until white men in the United States began to die from it. It seems that it was written off by the world health community when it was just Blacks in West-Central Africa. But that’s another issue to explore for another day.
When testing did come to that part of the continent, it was alarming. Infection rates were already creeping into the double digits. While many countries in Africa and throughout the world, including the United States, played a game of Tabo, denial and stigmatize, Uganda went to work to combat the disease – champion by Norriene Kaleeba.
The Frontline documentary The Age of AIDS captures the story. The whole program can be seen online, and to see the part about Uganda, go down to Part One - Chapter 6.
Kaleeba states in The Age of AIDS, “I had read that the World Health Organization has appointed a man, Jonathan Mann, to lead the first global program on AIDS. And this man was in Geneva, and my interpretation of that was that he must have a cure if he was within WHO…He told me that my husband was probably going to die because at the time, there was no cure. But he also said, “There is prejudice that is attached to this disease that we have to fight. And will you help me fight it?”
She did. As it says in the film “Noerine found a powerful ally in Uganda’s new president, Yoweri Museveni.”
From the Age of Aids:
YOWERI MUSEVENI, President of Uganda: On the other hand, it is not so dangerous because it does not infect easily.
NARRATOR: Museveni preached tolerance and told his people they should not be afraid.
YOWERI MUSEVENI: You can greet somebody with AIDS, it will not catch you. You can sit next to somebody with AIDS, it will not catch you. You will only get AIDS if you go and look for it where it is hiding itself.
They came up with a model, ABC. An Excerpt from this article describes it:
“FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Uganda had Africa’s earliest campaigns to urge love and support for those in need. In the 1980s, when most African governments seemed in denial, Ugandans readily acknowledged the AIDS epidemic and encouraged programs to deal with it, including a network of community support groups called TASO [The AIDS Support Organization].
Through dance and drama groups, TASO taught how HIV is and is not spread. They also helped launch a unique prevention campaign called ABC. It was described in this 1995 interview by TASO’s founder, Noerine Kaleeba.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Acting Health Minister Dr. Samuel Okware says ABC made no value judgments. It just offered options for everyone, whether they were ready to abstain, be faithful, or use condoms.”
Noriene Kaleeba says “this has been one of the key successes of the Ugandan response to HIV- positive people, families who have been affected, who share their experience and exude hope because hope is a key ingredient to survival.”
This is not only a triumph against AIDS, this is a triumph in African leaderships. It shows what Africa can do if it were to rid itself of the Western interlopers and the corrupt African thugs running so many of the continents countries.
They have no vast amount of money, no significant technology, and not much in the way of fancy drugs. Yet, with a sensible program, a commitment to saving lives, a little compassion for people; they have decreased AIDS rates in different demographics by 66 to 75 percent in the early 90s to the beginning of this decade.
Uganda is an example to the world, not just to the rest of Africa. It even has many lessons for high-tech, higher education America. Education and prevention is the greatest key to stopping something like AIDS and other sexual and drug related diseases. Yet, even 35 years since its identification, and with millions of Americans dead; there are some in America that continue to play moral politics with prevention techniques such as needle exchange and the dissemination of information.
Also, Brazil has a Model Response To Aids; including being the first to simple guarantee AIDS treatment to everyone: www.pbs.org/newshour/health/aids/brazil/
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9 Responses to “AIDS In Africa - Uganda Still An Example To The World”
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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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It’s very important laying emphasis on the positive things coming from Africa,especially from a poor country like Uganda.It should be propagated and suported internationally by the world ruling bodies who care much about their bellies and less to the needy and meriting masses.
I think it is very important to get the positives out there as well, that’s why though I planned to post this over a week ago, I kept putting it off until I had time to do it right.
The maring of Africa and Africans leads to a negative self-image
for blacks in the Diaspora because they think they came from savages;
and it damages how people see Africans in the world. That’s why they can’t get any help in DArfur, they’re barely considered human.
Here’s a digg link. If everyone that comes through diggs it, the story will get front page exposure:
digg.com/world_news/AIDS_In_Africa_Uganda_Still_An_Example_To_The_World
Ah, thank you so much.
I need to go ahead and finally get one of those accounts.
Welcome ^_^
It could come in handy considering your readership and the necessary topics you report.
You may need to remind folks to digg the topics that need increased visibility, but eventually it could become a habit and alot of necessary info can circulate with high exposure.
Wow. I came to this blog because of seeing a comment you left somewhere else; what a beautiful thing for me to get to read today. Thank you for spreading some truth about Africa, this is a great post.
Thank you, and thanks for stopping by.
And please watch the Age of Aids video, and spread it to others.
From Schmtiz Blitz: schmitzblitz.wordpress.com
It seems now that since the nexus of Christianity is shifting from the global north to the south, we’re getting more church leaders saying outrageously extreme things. I’ve written before about the down right hateful comments made by Bishop Issaac Orama (which are under dispute).
Now there’s Archbishop Francisco Chimoio of Mozambique, who is now resorting to scare tactics in order to push the Catholic church’s position on abstinence only for AIDS prevention. He said:
I know of two countries in Europe who are making condoms with (the) virus on purpose, they want to finish with African people as part of their program to colonize the continent… People must choose what they want between death and I propose to them that (abstinence) is the best way to fight HIV/AIDS.
Apart from his paranoid delusion of a grand condom conspiracy, Bishop Chimoio’s words words have potentially deadly consequences. Married women are one of the most at risk groups for contracting HIV in Africa because they already face pressure from their husbands not to use condoms, and now they have a Man of God working against them as well.