Claudia Chay
“The Sexual Life of Savages”:
Media misrepresentation and mystification of the facilitation of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.
The media coverage of the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic has often sought to
identify particular social groups as being at an increased risk of contracting and
transmitting the disease through behaviour that is, often stereotypically,
associated solely with those groups. This essay will explore ways in which the
newspaper media has constructed a harmfully consistent representation of the
facilitation of the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa as being related to
‘traditional’ or ‘cultural’ behaviour. In the following analysis of seven newspaper
articles from major Australian and international newspapers will identify the ways
in which articles focus on risky behaviour, which is related to supposed cultural
norms, while mystifying other more obvious and more important social
determinants of the spread of HIV such as poverty and lack of education. The
aim of this essay is not to argue that culture is irrelevant in the spread of
HIV/AIDS in Africa; but rather that it is overemphasised because the sexual life
and practices of the ‘other’ have historically and contemporarily been deemed
newsworthy.
Several dominant sub-textual themes are present in the framing of the articles to
be discussed. These themes involve the representation of the subjects of the

The title of this essay is borrowed from Bronislaw Malinowski’s anthropological monograph on
courtship and marriage in Melanesia (1932).
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articles as irrational, superstitious and quaint.
Furthermore, ‘traditional’
behaviour is strongly associated with misogyny and criminal or uncontrolled
behaviour.
Irrational, superstitious and quaint ideologies and practices feature prominently in
media representations of the reasons for the uncontrolled spread of HIV/AIDS.
The subtext of such representations involves the idea that HIV remains
uncontrolled because African officials and leaders are applying ineffective and
irrelevant traditional beliefs in their response to the problem. In a recent article,
published in the Sydney Morning Herald, entitled ‘King has a simple solution for
AIDS: forbid sex’, the King of Swaziland’s response to the epidemic is analysed.
According to the article:
The king of Swaziland has told the tiny, AIDS-afflicted country’s young women to
stop having sex for the next five years (Cauvin, 2001).
Furthermore,
Wherever they go, Swazi girls will be expected to wear a bundle of bright
traditional tassels, known as umcwasho, signifying celibacy…Breaking the ban
could cost each offender a cow, which is the country’s true currency’ (Cauvin,
2001).
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The clear subtext of the article is that the out-of-touch Swazi monarch, by
reviving his dormant culture in response to the AIDS epidemic, is endangering
efforts to stop the spread of the disease. Furthermore, the author reports that, it
is not the unrealistic ban on sex which would potentially make the King’s policy
redundant, but the ‘royal edict’s infringement on their [the young women’s] sense
of style.’ In other words, not only is Swaziland’s leader ignoring the realities of
the epidemic in favour of archaic culture, but the young women in question also
lack insight into the seriousness of the issue. While the King of Swaziland’s edict
is clearly misguided, the emphasis of the article mystifies the more important
issues associated with the spread of HIV/AIDS in his country, especially, the lack
of education and resources. Among female STD clinic patients in Swaziland,
HIV prevalence had reached 47 percent of women tested in urban areas in 1998
and 50 percent of women tested in remote areas. In 1992, four percent of
antenatal clinic patients tested in urban areas were HIV positive, as well as four
percent of the women tested in remote areas. By 1998, 30 percent of antenatal
clinic patients tested in urban areas and 32 percent tested in remote areas, were
HIV positive (WHO/UNAIDS, 2000b).
AIDS, therefore, is not spreading in
Swaziland because of a cultural revival being undertaken by an out of touch
monarch, but because the broader population, and especially expectant mothers,
lack the resources to combat the massive problem.
In an article published in the Wall Street Journal, similar subtexts of the
‘quaintness’ of African culture, and the irrationality of prevention techniques
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adopted by officials can be identified (Phillips, 2001). The article documents
attempts on the part of Tanzanian officials to fight culture with culture by cracking
down on ‘a wide variety of traditional social and sexual practices that had made
this area quite literally a breeding ground for HIV’ (Phillips, 2001). The opening
paragraph sets the scene:
Mwalinha, Tanzania – Asha Saidi’s tryst was supposed to go something like this:
At dusk she would meet the man at an abandoned hut on the edge of the village.
He’d bring four cans of Safari lager. They’d have sex.
Then he’d give her
10,000 Tanzanian shillings – roughly $13 – to help feed her five children (Phillips,
2001).
Clearly the issues here are not cultural, but are directly related to poverty and
lack of awareness. However, as with Cauvin’s article, issues of poverty and
education are mystified by the inclusion of ‘ethnographic detail’ which diverts
attention from the more overarching and obvious causes of the spread of the
epidemic, and instead creates a fascination with curious and newsworthy cultural
practices. As Phillips’ article continues, the use of the word ‘coupling’ instead of
‘sex’ adds an almost animal quality to the described behaviour:
The village of Itubili…recently banned a particularly hazardous harvest rite called
chagulaga, meaning ‘choose’, which involves men chasing unmarried women
into the bush and coupling for the night. Another village, Nyakaboja, even made
it a crime to flirt, punishable with the payment of a chicken.
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The article goes on to describe the ‘grassroots transformation of culture’ being
undertaken by village leaders, in attempt to stamp out the practices ‘responsible’
for the continuing spread of the HIV epidemic. Such a grassroots transformation
of culture involves the use of ‘club-wielding militiamen’, who ‘swept in an arrested
them [Asha Saidi and her partner] for violating a new rule banning nocturnal visits
to huts’ (Phillips, 2001). The message conveyed in the subtext of the article is
clearly that not only are Tanzanian villagers endangering themselves and each
other through the continued, ignorant and stubborn practice of their dangerous
cultural rituals, but that Tanzanian officials are also endangering the public with
brutal and unrealistic interventions. While important issues are alluded to in the
article, they are overshadowed by a more dominant fascination with the details of
risky behaviours undertaken in the name of tradition.
The theme of the irrationality of leaders and officials is continued in another
article, recently published in the Sydney Morning Herald, in which the irrational
beliefs of the Catholic Church in Africa in relation to condoms are reported
(O’loughlin, 2001a). The article quotes a statement released by a conference of
Bishops from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland which asserts that condoms
are fuelling the spread of HIV by contributing to “‘the breakdown of self control
and mutual respect’” (O’loughlin, 2001a).
While the issue of the Catholic
Church’s stance on condoms has global currency, the article nevertheless makes
no link between the Church’s policy in Africa, and the overarching policies
disseminated from the Vatican. Again, the subtext of the article is that African
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leaders and officials, in clinging to irrational beliefs, are endangering attempts to
control the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Amateur anthropology on the part of journalists has been successful in attracting
attention to ‘culture’ as facilitating the continued spread of HIV/AIDS. In other
articles, links are also made between African ‘tradition’ and misogyny and abuse.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Ed O’loughlin reports on the increasing sexual
violence in South African schools where ‘the teachers and fellow pupils
responsible are seldom punished’ (2001b). The issue is framed as one of crime
and punishment; however, O’loughlin implies that the practice is widespread
because it is culturally accepted:
In some schools, sexual relationships between pupils and teachers were more or
less openly tolerated, although a recent government decision to outlaw teacherpupil sex was driving the practice underground (2001b).
To add emphasis to the implication that this is a common cultural practice,
O’loughlin links the story with recent media attention to another form of supposed
culturally condoned abuse, even though it has little to do with his story:
Researchers believe that and increasing number of African Children are being
raped by men who hold the superstitious belief that sleeping with a virgin can
cure them of HIV/AIDS (2001b).
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While the issue of sexual abuse is undoubtedly a serious one, the attribution of
violent and criminal practice to cultural norms is counterproductive.
Another
story, published in the Guardian Weekly, makes a similar association (2001).
The article documents the rising trend in the transmission of HIV between
teachers and pupils. One ‘source’ is quoted as saying that ‘we are still at the
stage in the CAR (Central African Republic) where the majority of people think
AIDS is caused by evil spirits’ (Jones, 2001).
HIV transmission, which occurs as a result of sexual abuse, is a serious and
disturbing issue. It is, however, impossible to know exactly how much of the
epidemic can be attributed to the problem in Africa.
None of the articles
analysed in this essay have provided any data that would indicate that the
particular behaviours they are describing are contributing significant amounts of
new cases to the epidemic. In focusing on the curious details of a few risky
behaviours the authors of the articles analysed above have diverted attention
from the truly terrifying details of the epidemic, for example the transmission of
HIV from mother to child. In South Africa HIV prevalence among antenatal clinic
attendees tested increased from less than 1 percent in 1990 to a median of 19
percent in 1998 (WHO/UNAIDS, 2000). In 1998 HIV prevalence amongst
antenatal attendees in South Africa ranged from 5 to 33 percent (WHO/UNAIDS,
2000).
The articles analysed above also mystify they ways in which the
HIV/AIDS epidemic is related to socio-economic factors. Poverty and lack of
education are key risk factors in the spread of HIV. In South Africa, President
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George Bush’s ban on aid to international agencies that perform or promote
abortions, despite their important role in anti-HIV health promotion, has added to
an already unoptimistic situation (Murphy, 2001).
The stigmatisation of African ‘culture’, real or imagined, in media representations
of the causes of the spread of the HIV epidemic can be compared to the
stigmatisation of homosexual behaviours and culture, which occurred during the
early stages of the epidemic in developed countries.
Brown has analysed the
way in which discourses of the disease in developed countries initially focused
exclusively on those ‘at risk’; and malign assumptions were made about
individuals who found themselves in that category (Brown, 2000: 1273).
Similarly, the emphasis in the articles analysed in this essay is on the spread of a
killer virus through dangerous behaviour, not the experience of actual disease by
those who are affected by it. Furthermore, as HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted
disease, the way in which it is transmitted attracts similar stigmas associated with
other sexually transmitted diseases, including ‘notions if
indiscriminate
promiscuity, pollution, and uncleanliness’ (Kippax, 1996: 1371). In the case of
media reporting on the epidemic in Africa, indiscriminate promiscuity, pollution
and uncleanliness are construed as cultural norms, and therefore, blame is not
only attributed to individuals, but to entire ethnic groups.
The major implication for public health practice of the way that this issue has
been framed is that a step backwards in the advocacy process for people at risk
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of, and living with, HIV/AIDS in developing countries is occurring. Social stigmas
and incorrect assumptions associated with the spread of the disease amongst
homosexual men in developed countries were met with highly organised and
effective gay rights campaigns, which were instigated by well-educated people.
The epidemiology of the disease in Africa is quite different. It primarily affects the
uneducated and poor, that is, those least likely to have the knowledge or
resources to defend their culture and refute patronising and misleading media
misrepresentation.
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Brown, T., ‘AIDS, risk and social governance’, Social Science and Medicine, 50,
2000, 1273 - 1284
Cauvin, H., ‘King has a simple solution for AIDS: forbid sex’, Sydney Morning
Herald, October 1, 2001
Jones, L., ‘Teachers blamed for Aids Crisis in Schools’, Guardian Weekly,
August 30 – September 5, 2001
Kippax, S., ‘Dirty, Diseased and Undeserving: The Positioning of HIV positive
Women’, Social Science and Medicine, 43(9), 1996, 1371-1377
Malinowski, B., The sexual life of savages in North-Western Melanesia : an
ethnographic account of courtship, marriage and family life among the natives of
the Trobriand Islands, British New Guinea, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London,
1932.
Murphy, J., ‘US Ban on Abortion Aid Threatens Sex Education for Young South
Africans’, Sydney Morning Herald, March 15, 2001
O’loughlin, E., ‘Dismay at Church’s Stance on Condoms’, Sydney Morning
Herald, August 1, 2001(a)
O’loughlin, E., ‘Sexual Violence Turns Schools into Terror Zones’, Sydney
Morning Herald, March 28, 2001(b)
Phillips, M., ‘New Taboos: To Help Fight AIDS, Tanzanian Villages Ban Risky
Traditions – Bawdy Dances, Night Trysts, Even Flirting Outlawed; A Model for
Prevention? – ‘It’s Survival of the Smartest’, The Wall Street Journal, January 12,
2001
World Health Organization and UNAIDS, Epidemiological Fact Sheets on
HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections: South Africa, 2000
www.who.int/emc-hiv/fact_sheets/pdfs/Southafrica_EN.pdf
World Health Organization and UNAIDS, Epidemiological Fact Sheets on
HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections: Swaziland, 2000b
http://www.who.int/emc-hiv/fact_sheets/pdfs/Swaziland_EN.pdf
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