African Women & AIDS
 

The current news out of Africa about AIDS darkens almost daily, with specters of growing numbers of orphans left behind by dying parents, and large percentages of the workforce found infected in many countries.

The newest twist on the story is the realization that due to long-established gender-based discrimination and some dangerous new myths, women and girls are being victimized far out of proportion to their numbers. In some countries, such as South Africa and neighboring Namibia, it is becoming clear that infected girls aged 15-19 outnumber infected boys in the same age group by a factor of six to eight. One reason appears to be a dramatic increase in rape of young girls by men who believe that sex with a virgin cures AIDS.

A less discussed reason is the cultural practice of "lobola," a system enabling men to purchase wives through payment of a dowry in the form of cash or livestock.  According to Mark Mathabane, (Sunday Times, April 2), quoting from African Women: Three Generations, a book by his sister, Florah, even though women enjoy certain rights under new South African laws, they do not want to risk the stigma of complaining about philandering husbands. Mathabane stated that apartheid courts do not want to interfere with traditional practices, and therefore men are still free to visit the cities, bring AIDS home to their wives and girlfriends, who then infect their children. Due to another belief (not restricted to Africa) that condoms somehow impinge upon masculinity, neither wives nor girlfriends will introduce the topic, and, thus one man with AIDS can be responsible for a number of infections.

A recent meeting of the International Labor Organization in Namibia that examined these topics caused Mary Chinery-Hesse, Executive Director of the Social Protection Section, to state: "Any new strategy for combating HIV/AIDS must include elements addressing gender as a critical issue...Women need voice, women need choice. Only then can we help to stop AIDS."

The ILO meeting also noted that an increasing number of African households are headed by women, girls and orphans as a result of the deaths of spouses and adults due to AIDS. (ILO periodical, World of Work, No.32 1999)