Prevention In Africa Research Articles

Traditional African1 Beliefs and Customs: Implications for AIDS Education and Prevention in Africa

Many Western-based AIDS education and prevention programmes have failed dismally in Africa and they may only succeed if traditional African beliefs and customs are taken into account. This article discusses relevant aspects of the traditional African worldview by explaining what health, sickness and sexuality mean in traditional Africa. Traditional African perceptions of causes of illness (including AIDS), perceptions of sexuality, and cultural beliefs inhibiting the usage of condoms are described in terms of the influence of the macro-cosmos (the ancestors), the meso-cosmos (witches and sorcerers) and the micro-cosmos (everyday life). The implications for AIDS education and prevention in Africa are discussed and suggestions are offered for the development of such programs.

Preventing conflicts in Africa: Reality, empty dream or just difficult?

This article undertakes a comparative study of conflict prevention in Africa by examining the regional efforts in preventing conflict in the Central African Republic vis‐a‐vis the UN/international community failure in Rwanda. The article examines the roles played by three explanatory variables: timing, actors, and instruments on the outcome of these conflicts. The central argument of the article is that prevention is more likely if there is a strong local involvement and a strong collaboration between the UN/international community and local actors. In fact, while the West has an important role to play, the primary responsibility for preventing conflicts in Africa rests on the shoulders of Africans.

AIDS and cultural practices in Africa: the case of the Tonga (Zambia)

The fight against AIDS in Africa is often presented as a fight against “cultural barriers” that are seen as promoting the spread of the HIV virus. This attitude is based on a long history of Western prejudices about sexuality in Africa, which focus on its exotic aspects only (polygamy, adultery, wife-exchange, circumcision, dry sex, levirate, sexual pollution, sexual cleansing, various beliefs and taboos, etc.). The article argues that those cultural aspects are a wrong target of AIDS prevention programs because they are not incompatible with a safer behavior, and because their eradication would not ensure the protection of people. To fight against them might alienate the people whose cooperation is necessary if one wants to prevent the spread of AIDS. The major problems of AIDS prevention in Africa are not specifically African, but are similar to the problems existing in Europe or America. Therefore, anti-AIDS projects should not fight against one local African culture in order to impose another (Western), but should rather try to make behavior and practises safer in a way that is culturally acceptable to people.

Emergence of Western diseases in the tropical world: the experience with chronic cardiovascular diseases.

Our knowledge of the disease burden components of tropical populations is fragmentary. Historically, the infectious diseases have been emphasized but, as some populations have undergone socio-economic changes, vital statistics have described a change in the pattern of disease. The picture is of a decline in infectious and a rise in chronic non-communicable disease. We focus here on the emergence of chronic cardiovascular diseases, and use hypertension as the paradigmic example. Early blood pressure surveys showed a virtual absence of hypertension among rural Africans and moderate prevalences in the Caribbean. Prevalence was highest among US and UK blacks. In a recent comparative study of blood pressure and its determinants in Nigeria, Jamaica and the US there was a steep gradient in prevalence from 15% through 26% to 33%. Body mass index and salt intake were the major determinants, accounting for 70% of the variance in hypertension prevalence. Additional information on mechanism comes from the exploration of the renin-angiotensin system across these populations. Angiotensinogen levels rise steadily from Africa to the US and are modestly associated with body mass index (BMI), and even more modestly with polymorphisms of the angiotensinogen gene. 30% of the variation in angiotensin-converting enzyme levels is attributable to the insertion/deletion polymorphism, and angiotensin-converting enzyme levels are modestly related to BMI and blood pressure. Thus, the steep gradient in prevalence is not attributable to the genetics as manifested in the renin-angiotensin system. The usefulness of these and other data on cardiovascular diseases include planning for primordial prevention in Africa and amelioration of existing epidemics in the Caribbean, the US and the UK. Additional long term surveillance data to define the burden and distribution of causes are necessary in Africa. Lastly, education and advocacy to transfer the information to policy makers and planners is required.

Culture and sexual risk: anthropological perspectives on AIDS

PART I - CULTURE AND BEYOND- THE WIDER CONTEXT OF SEXUAL RISK: Culture, Poverty, and the Dynamics of HIV transmission in rural Haiti Culture, Sex Research and AIDS prevention in Africa. PART II - CONTEXTUALISING SEXUAL RISK : Gender, Age and Class - Discourses on HIV Transmission and Control in Uganda Sexuality, AIDS and Gender Norms among Brazilian Teenagers. PART III - SEXUAL RISK AMONG WESTERN GAY MEN : Risk in Context - The Use of Sexual Diary Data to Analyse Homosexual Risk Behaviour PART IV -THE STUDY OF CULTURE AND SEXUAL RISK : Rethinking Anthropology: The Study of AIDS

Famine Prevention in Africa, a Conference/Workshop held in Kinshasa, Zaire, by the Centre National de Planification de Nutrition Humaine, 6-11 January 1980

Famine Prevention in Africa, a Conference/Workshop held in Kinshasa, Zaire, by the Centre National de Planification de Nutrition Humaine, 6-11 January 1980