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March 29, 2005
Heart of Darkness
One thing I keep noticing here is how often the arguments about how abstinence education won't work or the difficulties of changing behavior rest on the notion that these people, Mozambicans, are savages. It happened twice just yesterday. First a freelance do-gooder from the United States told me that people here just haven't learned to control their bodies the way we have. "If they want to go to the bathroom, they just find a piece of grass and they go." [This is true for some people.] "If they want to have sex, they just have sex." Later some Zimbabweans -- black Zimbabweans, mind -- told me much the same story. "They are very uncivilized, Mozambicans," one said. I get this line from non-governmental groups, from aid workers and even from Mozambican health officials.
So why does AIDS spread like wildfire here, unlike in developed lands? It's easier to explain as a cultural difference: People have different views toward relationships and sex, for one thing. For another, lack of basic nutrition, sanitation and health care makes the disease far more communicable, and far more deadly. Josh Benton explains. (Scroll down to Jan. 18.)
Update: The latest to join this chorus is the opposition party, Renamo. "The allegedly voracious sexual habits of the Mozambican public" is a well-turned phrase. Check it out.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at March 29, 2005 05:13 PM