‘Bifurcations and Contestations’ An analysis of the Political discourse around HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe between 1985 and 2000

George H Karekwaivanane

Department of Economic History,

University of Zimbabwe, Harare

(Zimbabwe)

Soon after the first case of AIDS was officially reported in Zimbabwe in late 1985 the Government implemented a number of programmes to combat the epidemic.  These programmes were largely expert led and based on the biomedical model.   This biomedical response however, masked a complex and contested terrain in which HIV and AIDS were culturally defined.   An analysis of the political discourse concerning HIV and AIDS, as contained in public pronouncements and parliamentary debates, reveals the ideological contestation between tradition African culture and western ‘modernity’. This contestation became especially apparent in perceptions of the origins of the epidemic and the appropriate responses.  

Early representations of HIV and AIDS were significantly influenced by cultural perceptions of what constituted acceptable sexual morality.  These perceptions were characterized by bifurcations rooted in the two apparent opposites of illness and health.  AIDS was constructed as being the result of sexual immorality.   Sexual immorality was in turn seen as a departure from traditional African culture and the adoption of morally bankrupt western values.  Illness was thus equated with cultural alienation, guilt and punishment.   Health was not interrogated and was assumed to denote moral rectitude.   It was generally held that health would be guaranteed by the observance of cultural mores.   With the heightened panic of extermination of the early days these perceptions of illness and health had an important significance with regard to the responses to the epidemic.  The need to protect the healthy led the ill to be viewed at times as villains, particularly in discussions on issues of willful infection.  Responses to the epidemic were thus articulated along the lines of protecting the healthy and punishing those who threatened the well being of the healthy.  This saw moves in parliament to pass laws that provided for the punishment of those who willfully infect others.  

This bifurcation was soon challenged however, as it began to emerge that earlier constructions of illness and health were too simplistic.  It increasingly became clear that not all that were ill were immoral.   Practices that were viewed as consistent with moral rectitude in African culture, such as polygamy, were also challenged.   At the same time those who were healthy but engaged in practices that were viewed as sexually immoral also began to be seen as constituting a threat to the well being of the healthy.   With the stigma and discrimination based on HIV status and the growing strength in human rights perspectives on the epidemic there was growing awareness that even those who were HIV positive required protection.   As such the question of who to protect and from who became more problematic than earlier.  Through the 1990’s it became increasingly clear that simplistic bifurcations of ill/ healthy, immoral/moral and villain/victim were untenable.   Despite these new trends traditional views of the ill remained firmly rooted.  By the year 2000 what prevailed was a complex terrain in which the AIDS was viewed differently depending on who had it, how they acquired it and how they were treated by those around them and above all who the viewer was.