The Importance of Placing South African Crises in Historical Context: A Comprehensive Study

The prevalence of both HIV and AIDS in South Africa has created a pandemic of sorts in many countries with the continent. However, while the direct cause of these diseases is well-known, there are a number of indirect factors that have caused this outbreak, and could, potentially, be contributing to further outbreaks of disease within South Africa. In order to put a stop to the spread of HIV and AIDS in South Africa, it is necessary to understand these diseases, their causes, and their effects by examining them within a historical context. In doing so, other issues that contribute to the rise of HIV and AIDS, as well as entirely separate issues, such as inequality, will arise.

As it turns out, many attribute the rise of HIV and AIDS in South Africa to intimacy, or, as Mark Hunter, author of the book Love in the Time of AIDS: Inequality, Gender, and Rights in South Africa refers to it, the "materiality of everyday sex." Essentially, this means that there are a number of social, economic, and political issues at work in South Africa and, because of these issues, physical intimacy, including sex, has been increasing, leading to higher and higher rates of HIV and AIDS1. One of the most immediate causes of increased intimacy and, thus, HIV and AIDS prevalence is the rising unemployment problem in South Africa. In just 2005, 72 percent of women and 58 percent of men between the ages of 15 and 24 were unemployed1. This has also caused a reduction in marriage rates in South Africa and has become almost exclusively, as the author calls it, a "middle-class institution"1. Closely related to the concept of marriage is the concept of gender and how this term has been rapidly changing, especially within the social sphere of South Africa. Women make up approximately 60 percent of all of the HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, so it is logical to assume that money off these women acts as progenitors for the continuing spread of the disease, although, of course, the blame cannot be placed solely, or even largely, on one gender 1. This is because one of the largest direct factors leading to the spread of HIV and AIDS is rape, which has become a pandemic of its own in sub-Saharan Africa, where about 68 percent of all 33.4 million global infections exist1.

While discussing the exact economical issues that are affecting South Africa could fill a library, the point is that these economical issues are having effects that trickle down and lead to further increases in the infection rate of HIV and AIDS. The first of these economic effects are simple: degradation of the common household and family values in general1. The most likely explanation for this, as is common with nations suffering from economic crises, is that the economic hardships put a strain on the providers of the household, causing stress, strain, arguments, and, eventually, breakup or divorce. This then leads to promiscuity in both parties, and a continued spread of HIV and AIDS. This is exacerbated by the increase in prostitution that also develops when nations suffer from deteriorating economic conditions, which naturally increases the rate of all STDs for citizens. However, it should be noted that these infections are not, strictly speaking, evenly distributed along the landscape of South Africa. One of South Africa's nine provinces, called KwaZulu-Natal, is a veritable breeding ground for HIV, which leads to AIDS1. Historically, this province has been the victim of a large amount of industrialization, which, in the 1970s and 1980s, created a cultural and physical rift between whites and blacks in the province, with many blacks being left out of jobs in the province.1 The incidence of HIV only increased when the KwaZulu homeland merged with the Natal province in 1994 to form the province today, which contains 9.4 million of the country's 44.9 million people1. This led two struggling areas, which were similar already but at least distinct in terms of geography, to be merged, leading to further intermingling of the largely infected population there, further cementing the province as one of the largest breeding grounds for HIV and AIDS in South Africa. 1

The inequality of gender within South Africa is another serious factor in the spread of AIDS and HIV within the South African ethnography. For starters, the prevailing culture in South Africa largely favors the male. One famous court cases cited involve a popular politician, named Jacob Zuma, who was accused of rape, and had a large amount of evidence presented against him, and yet was acquitted nonetheless1. While his influence as a political figure no doubt had some bearing on the case, the fact of the matter is that situations such as this are not at all unusual in South Africa, where men are able to get away with rape much more easily simply because of the way the law is structured in South Africa, and popular court cases where an obvious rapist is allowed to get off scot-free merely reinforces this1. While rape, in its own right, is a terrible crime, the prevalence of HIV and AIDS within South Africa only serves to make rape that much more of a heinous crime, and an even bigger tragedy that it is so easy to get away within South Africa.

While the factors that have led up to the massive problem with HIV and AIDS are varied, the fact of the matter is that these issues can be boiled down to social inadequacies, such as household deterioration, rapes, gender inequality, and political instability. The historical context for these issues is difficult to pin down simply because these causes and effects are so consistent. That is to say, the cycle of males having power, economic deterioration, and other social problems are nothing new. Obviously, if South Africa wants to rid itself of the HIV and AIDS problem, it should first focus on helping to reinvent many of the preconceived notions about male status, rape, sexual promiscuity, and safe sex. Since AIDS is, at present, incurable, the best strategies for keeping rates low lie with the prevention, rather than amelioration after the fact. In doing so, South Africa will be able to get back on its feet and continue being a productive nation.

Bibliography

Hunter, Mark. Love in the time of AIDS: inequality, gender, and rights in South Africa. Indiana University Press, 2010. 4-36.