PLE a] How Aids became an ‘epidemic’ in Africa lexander Jones’ confession opens upa sniole Pandora’ Box of other questions, many long suppressed ba which have not ne aay These questions ae ucom fertable not only in terms ofthe South African players but also of other powers that were involved, directly or indirectly in the propagation of this dreadful disease and the cover-up aswell a, Justaseulpaby, in pointing the hngerof blame at the victims, Tealso raises the question of how and why Aids was Labelled an epidemic in fica when the et did noe suppor this blanket label and in doing so condemned checontinent and ts people to yearsofdenigration and role amon nolalcharacer cana of African people, Lec us no forget that athe height 0 the Aids pani virtually ery African Was suspected of beinga caricrand was shunned. (Ofcourse the sock reaction in che West o lexan de Joned recone erelsong. aad any ochesaerapt ae show char Aids became an epidemic in Aiea because chere was something mote ister to tis met with shou of conspiracy theory. Bur consprtcy theory’ according to Prof. LD. Konotey Ah (the UX based Ghanaian medical ane ann pan African writer) becomes conspiracy acts Joss femove the wrapping fom the way the worlds sealant he Weems Conspiracy theories exse because the explanations provided do oc Fllyaccord with the elie ofthe sr or heeds deere is, Indeed as history shows, many conspiracy theories en ‘nee Be conspiracy ice srhen revelaricn are finally made, or declasied documents are made pli NNoc tisicd withthe Aideepdemicine Africa theories then sweeping che wold, Prof Konotey Ahuht Ss the firs African ro fave paid ont oFhis on pocket to goon a medical journey in the late 1980s to Arca co inva thewsaled IVAN emi when "What hes on the ground across he continent befuddled him ~ieran totally course 0 what the Western-based Attsorthodoxy was eling the word Andhe recounted iellinhis Book, Wes ids? Since then, Prof Kenotey-Aul has become sone sman-band fighting fon and defending, Affican incrests inehemsial word fom hi bein the UK where hasbeen urging Africans to open their jes towhat is happening around them becuse che dismissive charges 22 NEW AFRICAN MARCH 2019 Right: Sixteen eitonandola galvanised the Sori to take up theft against ADS, activists attended a march InDurban called ‘Keep the Promise 2016 aimed at feataang the ale against the disease of conspiracy theory” actually mean ‘conspiracy fa Was it the epidemic it was made out to be While there is no douibethac Aids devastated part Southern and East Africa, was. really on the scale Biblical epidemics ithas been made out to be? Also why did Africa buck the trend in that most ofthe i tions were among heterosexuals, rather than homo alsasdbewher? r. : From the very beginning of the HIV/Aids stor in 1980, even hoogh the spndrome had fst been ‘identified in the gay community in San Francisco i the US (and ie was infact originally called Gay Rel: Immune Deficiency, GRID), the orthodoxy insise that in Africa the major mode of transmission was heterosexual encounters. “This was regardless ofthe face thaeiin the West, HIV/Aids remained in what was described as ‘ati oups’~ i, homosexuals, intravenous drug users, feablensofeopaminaicdpasma.en ‘Africas ‘epidemic’ was blamed on the African’s so-called unbridled sexuality, as ifthe African was cy one who had sexual urges in the world. This w shereeyclingof shamefal trope about the charact the African which went back eo the days of slavery colonisation. In order co justify che brutality and inhumanity both these phenomena while sil trying to mainta “Christian values’ which expressly forbade them, it rnccessaty to dehumanise the African, to cast him a child of nature, a creature ofinstinet and wild appe tites,a dangerous savage who needed to be ‘cvilise and disciplined. ‘These ropes, popularised in adventure novels a countless films, persis co this day. So it did not tak ‘much imagination to ascribe che prevalence of he sexual Aids in Africa tothe unbridled sexually’ the African. “Unbridled” means ‘out of control ~ a inremissible urge peculiar only co Africans, Baralis was efor the cue! theif eid that indicates that Africans on the whole indulge is more sexual activity with more partners than anyor anywhere else in the world. IFanything, Africans, ‘of whom are either Church going Christians or str Muslims, tend to be far more conservative in sexual maser chan nthe more permisive West ideas of seal freedom unleashed an ers of pre enced sexual permissiveness in the West = che like