Approximately 25 DU students attended the global health lecture on the AIDS epidemic last week at the Graduate School for International Studies.
Susan Watkins, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, presented many facts and dispelled numerous misconceptions about the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
First, Watkins polled the audience on the percentage of people who are infected with the AIDS virus in sub-Sahara Africa.
Audience members replied with numbers ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent, but Watkins said the answer was approximately 10 percent.
“We all tend to overestimate the prevalence of [the AIDS epidemic],” Watkins said.
Watkins explained that contrary to popular belief, Africans are not in denial of the AIDS epidemic, and they are not fatalistic in their opinions about AIDS.
“The [Malawi] community is not very different from other communities; the people can do a lot on their own,” Watkins said, adding that many men and women have been very innovative in their precautionary measures against the AIDS epidemic.
Watkins’ research showed that approximately 61 percent of women surveyed and 52 percent of men surveyed are deeply worried about the AIDS virus.
Watkins’ findings are based on data from her research in the southeastern African country of Malawi.
Watkins’ study was conducted in three rural areas of Malawi, in which sample sizes were approximately 4,000 people.
The majority of Watkins’ research was conducted through ethnographic studies.
She assigned a small number of local men and women who lived in the villages to be her “eyes and ears, and to listen to people when they were talking about AIDS and then write their observances in an ethnographic field journal.”
Some 900 ethnographic field journals have been written since 1999, said Watkins.
The local men and women’s opinions of the AIDS epidemic surfaced in these ethnographic journals, where it was evident that people talked about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases on a daily basis.
Watkins read one journal entry, which illustrated a woman’s hesitation to divorce her unfaithful husband who was HIV positive, for fear of being unable to support herself alone.
“There’s clearly no denial [among the village people] that AIDS is prevalent. In 1998, people were attending more than four funerals a month due to AIDS,” said Watkins.
Watkins said there are three fundamental strategies of prevention against the AIDS virus, known as the “ABC’s of prevention – abstinence, be faithful, condoms.”
Such strategies may work for some, but local men and women have developed an original approach that seems to be working well, Watkins said.
This tactic encourages local men and women to join a support group for fidelity, led by congregation leaders and members.
According to the Malawi people, men and women can be “born again” in their religious denomination, and the support group will urge them to be faithful to their wives and husbands in order to prevent the contraction of AIDS.
Divorce is also a popular option for a person whose spouse has contracted AIDS from being unfaithful, said Watkins.
Sometimes people will even hire “nkhoswes,” who are traditional marriage counselors, for relationship advice.
“These strategies are likely to be effective in reducing the epidemic,” said Watkins.
