This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wang, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

AIDS denialism and 'The humanisation of the African'

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

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?