The purpose of this chapter is to unpack an African perspective on HIV/AIDS. How it is understood in the African context, how the Africans have responded to it, and how their responses have impacted on its prevalence on the education system will be the focus of this chapter. The focus is specifically on a Southern African country called Lesotho. This chapter unpacks Basotho perceptions about HIV/AIDS and explore some roles in their culture and tradition that could have shaped their understanding (or lack thereof) of this concept. Furthermore, the chapter provides discussions on other factors, such as the church, health centres, culture, and tradition that could have also played a major role in HIV/AIDS understanding and the situation of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho. It is worth mentioning that the indigenous practices in Lesotho may be similar to other African practices or may add to the existing indigenous practices world-wide.
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Kimaryo, Okpaku, Githuku-Shongwe and Feeney (2004, pp 67) have argued that the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) situation in Lesotho resembles that in the Southern African region. These authors have asserted that “the dynamics of the [HIV/AIDS] epidemic in Lesotho are similar to the dynamics of HIV/AIDS in the [Southern Africa] region”.. To date, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. However, certain drugs (for example, antiretrovirals - ARVs) delay the onset of AIDS after infection with HIV. The early symptoms of HIV infection include fever, sore throat, skin rash, tiredness, muscle pain, swollen lymph glands and fatigue. On the other hand, the onset of AIDS can be recognised by weight loss, chronic diarrhoea, night sweats, fatigue and recurrent infections. HIV can spread through transfusion of contaminated blood and semen. Thus, if no protection is used, serodiscordant couples can ultimately transfer HIV to the other partner. HIV spread can be promoted by sharing injections, needles, toothbrushes, and by having unprotected sexual intercourse.
It is uncertain how HIV/AIDS started, but it is believed to have originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo almost a century ago. Over the years it has been spreading across the entire world, killing most of its victims. It is now considered a global pandemic, having infected over 76 million people worldwide (about two-thirds of the infections coming from the African continent). Sub-Saharan Africa appears to be the most affected by HIV/AIDS, as it accounts for about 70% of total world cases and about a similar percentage of HIV/AIDS related deaths has been recorded as coming from Sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS, 2019). Table 1 shows the statistics for HIV/AIDS in East and Southern Africa in 2019.
Table 1.
HIV/AIDS statistics: East and Southern Africa (2019)
| People living with HIV |
20.7m |
| Adult HIV prevalence (ages 15-49) |
6.7% |
| New HIV infections |
730, 000 |
| AIDS related deaths |
300, 000 |
| Adults on antiretroviral treatment |
73% |
| Children on antiretroviral treatment |
58% |
(UNAIDS, 2020)
For many years, HIV/AIDS has been associated with gays, drug addicts and prostitutes. UNAIDS (2019) has established that men who have sex with other men have accounted for 4% of HIV transmission in East and Southern Africa in 2018. On the other hand, it is estimated that 55% of sex workers (90% of which are female) are living with HIV. Consequently, individuals who dissociated themselves from these groups of people have always thought that they were safe from HIV/AIDS infection, and as a result, they did very little to protect themselves from HIV infection.