When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa
Didier Fassin
Abstract
This book takes on the failure of the ANC government to stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. The book traces the deep roots of the AIDS crisis to apartheid and, before that, to the colonial period. One person in ten is infected with HIV in South Africa, and President Thabo Mbeki has initiated a global controversy by funding questionable medical research, casting doubt on the benefits of preventing mother-to-child transmission, and embracing dissidents who challenge the viral theory of AIDS. The book contextualizes Mbeki's position by exploring issues of race and genocide that su ... More
This book takes on the failure of the ANC government to stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. The book traces the deep roots of the AIDS crisis to apartheid and, before that, to the colonial period. One person in ten is infected with HIV in South Africa, and President Thabo Mbeki has initiated a global controversy by funding questionable medical research, casting doubt on the benefits of preventing mother-to-child transmission, and embracing dissidents who challenge the viral theory of AIDS. The book contextualizes Mbeki's position by exploring issues of race and genocide that surround this controversy. Basing the discussion on ethnographical data collected in the townships of Johannesburg, the book demonstrates that the unprecedented epidemiological crisis in South Africa is a demographic catastrophe as well as a human tragedy, one which cannot be understood without reference to the social history of the country, in particular to institutionalized racial inequality as the fundamental principle of government during the past century.
Keywords:
AIDS,
ANC government,
epidemic,
South Africa,
apartheid,
HIV,
Thabo Mbeki,
medical research,
dissidents,
viral theory
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520244672 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520244672.001.0001 |
