This essay will attempt to discuss the understanding of HIV/AIDS in African countries which

is influenced by Western ideas in studying the spread of the pandemic in Africa. The
discussion will be based on ‘African culture’ and ‘African cultural practices’ that are deemed
to be harmful and taken as the main factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS. This essay will discuss
other factors that are hidden by the focus of research and preventions programs towards the
spread of the virus being shifted and based to ‘African cultural practices which impose blame
on Africans. This essay will show how past policies that involve African countries and
Western countries have placed the structure in African communities that disadvantage them
economically, socially, politically, and environmentally which create vulnerability that may
contribute in the engagement of cultural practices that seem to offer survival which expose
them in the HIV transmission. This essay will reference Makwara (2018) article and other
relevant material that question African culture and practices in the spread of HIV/AIDS in
Africa.

According to World Health organization (2016) HIV/AIDS have existed approximately forty
years in the whole world. The recognition of the pandemic was merely influenced by medical
experts especially from the Western countries. There are many theories of how the virus
came into the existence in the world but most that seem to dominate the biological
perspectives of those that prove the virus came through the species of chimpanzee that
existed in Sub-Saharan hunted by Africans. According to Oluduro (2007) some of the African
experts in tradition believe that HIV/AIDS was developed by Western countries as weapon
towards Africa. These theories dominate and to some extent influence the policies and
strategies towards fighting the HIV transmission in the context of the global community. The
most prevalence understanding of the HIV/AIDS has been much driven by research agenda
that focus on individual behavior which seem to drive some interventions preventions
programs. To be HIV/AIDS positive in the world eyes seems to be more of the individual
responsibility which creates the space of blame, discrimination, and marginalized position
that the pandemic put individual into the world. According to WHO (2017) African countries
especially those in poorer communities the rate of HIV/AIDS remain high and infectious
continue to spread in the communities. Poor communities relay on culture and practices to
overcome the challenges of poverty that they face in everyday lives. Therefore culture
become associated with super spirits that may bless the community with offer to live again
and this is possible through cultural practices that may lead in the constraint of HIV
transmission.

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The understanding of HIV/AIDS in Africa has been much driven by preventions
interventions that focus on the behavior of individuals in Africa. The focus has been based on
African sexuality behavior that contribute to the spread of HIV transmission in African
countries. The prevention programs and interventions towards the fight against HIV/AIDS
globally have been dominated and funded by Western countries. This due to the economy
instability in most of African countries while they are paying unending debt to the Western
countries that have manufacture and extract mineral resources of African countries. The
ironic of policies between African countries and Western countries seem to continue to shape
and reshape the inequality relationship of the countries that continue to disadvantage Africa
whether economically, politically, environmentally, and socially. This is seem to influence
the spread of the pandemic in the continent because this inequality create power for the
Western countries and dependency to African countries which also drive approaches of
researchers towards African culture. Much of the research is driven by this power which
influence the understanding of the HIV transmission in African communities that suffer most
vulnerability from policies that are deemed to help actually further the suffering of the
pandemic by focusing on some cultural practices and ignore other factors such as poverty.

The approaches used by social researchers, medical experts and global health community in
general are influence by different agenda to gain rather than create help which is the ideology
of Western countries. The study of HIV transmission in Africa is due to higher rate of the
pandemic in the continent which place more attention on sexuality because HIV/AIDS most
of the times require sexual contact of individuals. Since much of HIV/AIDS understanding is
based on sexuality this influence and in some extent drive the research towards ‘African
culture and ‘African cultural practices’ because some of their rituals that involve sex during
the ceremony which create attention that something is wrong with African. According to
Makwara (2018) this focus ‘African culture creates a room for constructs such as blame,
promiscuity and ‘other’ which signify impure sexuality. For example in “Nigeria religious
leaders humiliated people living with HIV/AIDS in front of the congregation by saying their
status which created terms such as pure and impure inside the church” (Oluduro, 2007 p.156).
These are common constructs around the understanding of HIV/AIDS in African
communities although much of the research has increase awareness and educate people in
hope to change their behavior which seem to be not enough in fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.

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HIV transmission continue to disrupt every part of the continent in Africa especially in those
poor countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Sierra Leone and other countries that have
communities living in extreme poverty. The focus of the research scholars in Africa towards
HIV/AIDS has been based on ‘African culture’ allows certain practices that are deemed to be
harmful and taken as key to the spread of HIV transmission in Africa. ‘African culture allows
and in some extent demand some cultural practices such as widow inheritance, polygamy,
sexual cleansing, female genital mutilation, and other rituals that involve sexual activity that
signify culture in terms of some African countries. ‘African culture’ is dynamic and varied to
all communities in some extent even different to one community to another even within same
ethnicity. The focus of research has contributed to the understanding of culture impacts
towards the vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The most important in this understanding is the
position of women and how each practices customs put women in the oppressed position and
neglected their sexuality which expose them into the constraint of HIV/AIDS. The African
social research programs has contributed to the interventions from the Western ideas on how
to curb and dealt with the pandemic.

Social research has contributed by delivering some of the insider perspectives on some
cultural practices for example; Ayivukwi et al (2008) investigated social cleansing on Kenya
among two communities which such practices has become the survival strategy for those
participating in them. Women engage in such practices to overcome conditions imposed in
them by the struggle they face of being marginalized especially in harsh economic conditions.
This is result in globally interventions being based on ‘African culture’ to be changed which
creates sense that ‘African culture’ allows sexuality that have risky behavior for African
which is taken as key driver in constants increase rate of HIV/AIDS in Africa. According to
Thornton (2007) the understanding of HIV/AIDS in Africa thorough culture has created false
and to some extent unempirical claims of ‘African culture’. The HIV transmission in African
countries continue to increase although interventions preventions programs, awareness,
education, ABC interventions are in place and dominate the sector in fight against HIV/AIDS
globally. This is due to that “HIV/AIDS in Africa is about colonialism, poverty, economics,
poor infrastructure” (Makwara, 2018 p.257) and the conditions that creates the structure that
left communities with no much of the choice but to partake in prostitution, transactional sex,
and other cultural practices that may level up their social standard of living within the
communities to the world.

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The focus of African research social programs on HIV/AIDS in culture divert such attention
on such factors that people face and contribute to certain type behavior that may contribute to
the engagement of survival cultural practices that seem to promise a chance to live again for
tomorrow and to some extent the promising future. The interventions policy makers form the
Western countries influence divert their attention on such factors due to that it oppose their
creation of African culture as key driver towards the spread of HIV/AIDS and such factors
are the consequences of past policies interventions from politics between Western and
African countries. According to Thornton (2007) Western countries dominate the globally
sector towards the fight against HIV epidemic which in return benefit them because medical
and biological understanding of HIV/AIDS are concentrated in Western scholars ideas.
African countries pay billions of dollars to Western for their distribution of the antiretroviral
drugs. The global fight against HIV/AIDS especially towards Africa need to be
contextualized and require a carefully anthropological holistic approach that will study local
understanding of the pandemic.

Therefore interventions should change policies that benefit Western countries which drive
research agenda towards solely African culture and other factors should be integrated. The
focus of interventions should be on how cultural practices favored by culture satisfy others
while marginalized some especially women. ‘African culture should be challenged to uplift
women position in order to create safer cultural practices rather than taking them as key
driver. In conclusion HIV/AIDS in African countries should be investigated through the
approach that involve both intervention policy makers that are intended to implement
programs to help, local communities and people living with HIV/AIDS. Such involvement
should create a room for other factors that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. It
is time for interventions and effort against HIV transmission that change mind set in youth
not solely their behavior that is influenced by culture norms that are problematic in itself and
create challenges and may contribute in engagement of people with cultural practices that
may spread HIV/AIDS IN African countries.

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References

Bibliography

Ayikukwei, Rose, Ngare, Duncan, Sidle, John, Ayuku, David, Baliddawa, Joyce and Greene,
James (2008) 'HIV/AIDS and cultural practices in western Kenya: the impact of sexual
cleansing rituals on sexual behaviours', Culture, Health & Sexuality, 10:6, 587 — 599
Makwara T. (2018). The African culture narrative in HIV/AIDS is wrong. Now is time for a
realistic paradigm. Western Cape: University of Stellenbosch.
O. Oluduro (2007) ‘The Role of Religious Leaders in curbing the spread of HIV/Aids in’
Nigeria, Adekunle Ajasin University. Pg. 157.
R. Thornton, (2007) ‘Towards an Ecology of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa’ Anthropology1,
University of Witwatersrand.
World Health Organization. (2003).The spread of HIV/ADS in African countries. (WHO
Technical Report series 916).