Gender, Violence and the Spread of HIV/AIDS

Abstract

HIV/AIDS has spread across much of Africa with chilling speed. In this respect, gender inequality is the proverbial elephant in the room. As with so many issues calling complex cultural norms into question, the very linkage of HIV/AIDS with the realities of African gender relations is emotive and disquieting; analysis is fraught with difficulty on a number of levels. At the same time, it is a fact that heterosexual transmission is, epidemiologically, at the heart of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and African women appear to be disproportionately vulnerable to infection. It is therefore critical to consider very seriously the association between gender inequality and HIV/AIDS. There is no doubt that gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in much of sub-Saharan Africa can be said to be almost symbiotic; the two strands tend to be mutually reinforcing. However, while Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, described AIDS in Africa as having ‘a woman’s face’ (Annan 2002), debates about gender hierarchies, sexual and physical violence, cultural norms and human rights all sit rather uncomfortably beneath this particular rubric. Gender-based analysis of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly studies conducted by ‘outside’ NGOs and agencies, has provoked a backlash from African leaders like Thabo Mbeki (2004), who equate perceived criticisms of African norms and values by bodies like the New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (1995, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004) with cultural imperialism.