AIDS cut a wide swath through Uganda in the late 1980s. Newspapers were replete with notices advising
death “after a short illness,” but everyone knew the
code. The disease struck down those in
the prime of life, many from the burgeoning middle class. Despite the presence of dozens of
medical researchers from around the globe focusing on the malady, no cure was
available and there was little knowledge on how to retard the inevitably lethal
progress of the disease. There was,
however, knowledge about how AIDS was hetro-sexually transmitted and a growing
conviction that if peoples’ sexual practices changed then the rate of infection
in society at large could be diminished. To that end President Yoweri Museveni and his government team undertook to
campaign publically about the ravages of AIDS.
They promoted condom use - there was a television clip of the minister
of health in the city market demonstrating condom use by putting one on a
banana. The slogan “zero grazing”
resonated with the populace who understood the metaphor of a cow tied to a post
who could then only eat in a circle, a zero. The cow-to-post linkage symbolized
connection to a single partner while the zero reienforced the idea of not
straying into other pastures. There were
many other efforts to deal honestly and effectively with the scourge and a
growing network of counseling centers for those infected and their
families. Indeed, part of Uganda’s successful
endeavor to curtail the spread of AIDS was to diminish the shame attached to
its sexually transmitted origins.
Still against this backdrop AIDS continued to take a
toll. Local employees of the U.S.
government convinced the embassy administrative officer to rework their
benefits package so that upon the death of an employee his male relatives (in
accordance with tribal custom) could not seize remittances to the detriment of
his spouse and children. This change was
unfortunately necessary as during the last three years of the 1980s, at least
seven FSNs died along with a dozen local guards. All organizations were hard
hit. The colonel in charge of training
for the army confided to me that he had to have ten soldiers tested for AIDS in
order to find two non-infected and thus eligible for US training.
While he was on leave, however, a subordinate falsified records and
subsequently two Ugandan soldiers died of the disease while in the states. Along with several embassy personnel I joined
the Mountain Club of Uganda that grouped rock climbing and hiking enthusiasts. We mounted expeditions to nearby rock faces
and to the Mountains of the Moon. Over half of the members were
twenty-something Makerere University graduate students. Sadly, over the next decade virtually all of
them died from AIDS.
Yet hope always flourished.
East African newspapers made much of the discovery of an AIDS cure
dubbed Kenron by a Kenyan scientist and took the opportunity to proudly proclaim
that Africa too was in the forefront of science. Because further trials proved the remedy
marginally useful, the story faded away.
Similarly one day Kampala’s New Vision newspaper headlined that a woman
in Masaka - about sixty miles south of Kampala - had found that eating the clay
from her backyard had cured her daughter of “slims.” Thus began a rush to the site, hundreds of
persons converged and shortly turned her yard into a deep pit. I asked several well placed, well educated
contacts about the allegation and expected to find them skeptical, but they too
were believers. “Eating it might work
and if not, it’s just dirt. I am going this afternoon.” Of course, it did not work and that story
soon faded away as well.
What did work, however, was the effort to teach about AIDS,
removal of the sexual stigma, the use of condoms and changed sexual
behavior. Combined, these approaches
reduced the infection rate and held the line until anti-retroviral medicines
were available. Today Uganda remains
afflicted by AIDS, but in the context of thirty years experience is coping with
the scourge. Now Ugandan society is
thriving and its economy prospering.
Thinking back makes you wonder what might have been if those tens of
thousands of citizens had not been struck down early in life?
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