Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Race & Class
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wang, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

AIDS denialism and 'The humanisation of the African'

Joy Wang

Oxford University

The AIDS denialism of South African President Thabo Mbeki's government is analysed through close examination of a representative monograph circulated throughout the ANC in 2002, referred to here as `The humanisation of the African'. Particular attention is drawn to the document's anti-colonial rhetoric and its indictment of AIDS activism as an instance of western neocolonial intervention. Although the anti-colonial stance of this document is problematic, the expressed resistance to pharmaceutical industries and racism needs to be regarded seriously. Fanon's essay `Medicine and colonialism' establishes useful parameters for historicising the impasse between scientists and Mbeki's government. Understanding Mbeki's AIDS denialism within the context of apartheid and colonialism is crucial in enabling us to read the tragic mismanagement of the epidemic beyond the most frequently employed explanations of South African racial paranoia, pathological despotism and/or scientific illiteracy. A closer examination of AIDS denialism has broader ramifications for a critical understanding of the relationship between medical intervention, postcolonial studies and human rights.

Key Words: anti-colonialism • anti-retrovirals • health policy • HIV • neo-colonialism • pharmaceutical companies • South Africa • Thabo Mbeki

Race & Class, Vol. 49, No. 3, 1-18 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0306396807085898
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?