The Culture of AIDS in Africa

The Culture of AIDS in Africa enters into the many worlds of expression brought forth across this vast continent by the ravaging presence of HIV/AIDS. Africans and non-Africans, physicians and social scientists, journalists and documentarians share here a common and essential interest in understanding creative expression in crushing and uncertain times. They investigate and engage the social networks, power relationships, and cultural structures that enable the arts to convey messages of hope and healing, and of knowledge and good counsel to the wider community. And from Africa to the wider world, they bring intimate, inspiring portraits of the performers, artists, communities, and organizations that have shared with them their insights and the sense they have made of their lives and actions from deep within this devastating epidemic. Covering the wide expanse of the African continent, the 30 chapters include explorations of, for example, the use of music to cope with AIDS; the relationship between music, HIV/AIDS, and social change; visual approaches to HIV literacy; radio and television as tools for "edutainment;" several individual artists' confrontations with HIV/AIDS; various performance groups' response to the epidemic; combating HIV/AIDS with local cultural performance; and more. Source material, such as song lyrics and interviews, weaves throughout the collection, and contributions by editors Gregory Barz and Judah M. Cohen bookend the whole, to bring together a vast array of perspectives and sources into a nuanced and profoundly affective portrayal of the intricate relationship between HIV/AIDS and the arts in Africa.

Gregory Barz is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, Graduate Dept. of Religion, and African American Studies at Vanderbilt University. His publications include Singing for Life: Music and HIV/AIDS in Uganda (Routledge, 2005); Performing Religion: Negotiating Past and Present in Kwaya Music of Tanzania (Rodopi, 2003), and Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Second Edition (co-editor with Timothy Cooley, OUP, 2008). Judah M. Cohen is the Lou and Sybil Mervis Professor of Jewish Culture and Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He is the author of Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (Brandeis/University Press of New England, 2004).

Introduction1. The Culture of AIDS: Hope and Healing Through the Arts in Africa Gregory Barz and Judah Cohen
Interlude2. Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda, CD liner notes Gregory Barz
Part 1 - Reports from the Field3. Born in Africa - Transcript John Zaritsky
4. Tears Run Dry: Coping with AIDS through Music in Zimbabwe Ric Alviso
5. Singing in the Shadow of Death: African Musicians Respond to a Pandemic with Songs of Sorrow, Resistance, Advocacy, and Hope Jonah Eller-Isaacs
6. Music, HIV/AIDS, and Social Change in Nairobi, Kenya Kathleen Van Buren
Interlude7. Song Lyrics from Nyimbo za Edzi [Songs about AIDS] Jack Allison
Part 2 - HIV/AIDS and the Arts: First Person8. Using Music to Combat AIDS and Other Public Health Issues in Malawi E. Jackson Allison, Jr., Lawrence H. Brown III, Susan E. Wilson
9. Visual Approaches to HIV Literacy in South Africa Annabelle Wienand
10. Ngoma Dialogue Circles (Ngoma-DiCe): Combating HIV/AIDS Using Local Cultural Performance in Kenya Leonard Mjomba
Interlude11. To Sing of AIDS in Uganda Judah Cohen
Part 3 - HIV/AIDS and the Arts: Campaigns and Responses12. AIDS Poster Campaigns in Malawi Eckhard Breitinger
13. Contemporary Usses of the Musical Arts in Botswana's HIV/AIDS Health Education Initiatives Abimbola Cole
14. "We are the Loudmouthed HIV-Positive People": "Siyayinqoba/Beat It!" On South African Television Rebecca Hodes
15. "C'est le Wake Up! Africa": Two Cases of International HIV/AIDS Edutainment Campaigns in Francophone Africa Dnaiel B. Reed
16. Singing Songs of AIDS in Venda, South Africa: Performance, Pollution, and Ethnomusicology in a Neo-Liberal Setting Deborah James and Fraser McNeill
Interlude17. "Let's Get Together" (Namirembe Post-Test Club)
Part 4 - Case Studies: Single Works and Artists18. Aesthetics and Activism: Gideon Mendel and the Politics of Photographing the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in South Africa Michael Godby
19. A Lady Who is an Akadongo Player: Singing Traditionally to Overturn Traditional Authority Rebekah Emanuel
20. "What Shall We Do?": Oliver Mtukudzi's Songs about HIV/AIDS Jennifer W. Kyker
21. Swahili AIDS Plays: A Challenge to the Aristotelian Theory on Tragedy Aldin Mutembei
22. Confronting AIDS Through Popular Music Cultures in Kenya Mellitus Wanyama and Joseph Basil Okong'o
Interlude23. Grassroots Organizing and Celebrity Campaigns: The Arts and AIDS Activism in Morocco Jeffrey Callen
Part 5 - Case Studies: Performance Groups24. Siphithemba - We Give Hope: Song and Resilience in a South African Zulu HIV/AIDS Struggle Austin Chinagorom Okigbo
25. Young and Wise in Ghana: A Musical Response to AIDS Angela Scharfenberger
26. Singing as Social Order: The Expressive Economy of AIDS in Mbarara, Uganda Judah Cohen
27. "I'm a Rich Man, How Can I Die?": Circus Performances as a Means of HIV/AIDS Education in Ethiopia Leah Niederstadt
Interlude28. Interview with VOLSET Youth Drama Group
Part 6 - Popular Media and Politics29. Kwaito and the Culture of AIDS in South Africa Gavin Steingo
30. Positive Disturbance: Tafash, Twig, HIV/AIDS, and Hip Hop in Uganda Gregory Barz and Gerald C. Liu
31. "Edzi ndi dolo" ("AIDS in Mighty"): Singing HIV/AIDS in Malawi, 1980-2008 John Chipembere Lwanda
32. Representing HIV/AIDS in Africa: Pluralist Photography and Local Empowerment Roland Bleiker and Amy Kay
Interlude33. "Interlude" Patricia Tang
About the AuthorsReferencesIndex