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.
AhlbergB.M. (1994). Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell. Africa, 64 (2), 220–241.
2.
AirhihenbuwaC.O. (1989). Perspectives on AIDS in Africa: Strategies for prevention and control. AIDS Education and Prevention, 1 (1), 57–69.
3.
BeusterJ. (1997). Psychopathology from a traditional Southern African perspective. UNISA Psychologia, 24 (2), 4–16.
4.
BoaheneK. (1996). The IXth International Conference on AIDS and STD in Africa. AIDS Care, 8 (5), 609–616.
5.
BodibeR.C. (1992). Traditional healing: An indigenous approach to mental health problems. In UysJ. (Ed.), Psychological counselling in the South African context (pp. 149–165). Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.
6.
BondG. (1993). Death, dysentery and drought: Coping capacities of households in Chiawa. Paper presented at the Institute of Africa Studies, Lusaka, Zambia.
7.
CampbellT.KellyM. (1995). Women and AIDS in Zambia: A review of the psychosocial factors implicated in the transmission of HIV. AIDS Care, 7 (3), 365–373.
8.
ChipfakachaV.G. (1997). STD/HIV/AIDS knowledge, beliefs and practices of traditional healers in Botswana. AIDS Care, 9 (4), 417–425.
9.
FelhaberT. (Ed.) (1997). South African traditional healers' primary health care handbook. Cape Town: Kagiso.
10.
GarrettL. (1995). The coming plague: Newly emerging diseases in a world out of balance. New York: Penguin.
11.
GreenE.C. (1994). AIDS and STD's in Africa. Bridging the Gap between Traditional Healing and Modern Medicine. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
12.
GreenE.C.JurgA.DgedgeA. (1993). Sexually-Transmitted Diseases, AIDS and traditional healers in Mozambique. Medical Anthropology, 15, 261–281.
13.
GreenE.C.ZokweB.DupreeJ.D. (1995). The experience of an AIDS prevention program focussed on South African traditional healers. Social Science and Medicine, 40 (4), 503–515.
14.
GyekeK. (1987). An Essay on African philosophical thought: The Akan conceptual scheme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Hammond-TookeD. (1989). Rituals and medicines. Johannesburg: AD. Donker.
16.
HealdS. (1995). The power of sex: Some reflections on the Caldwells' African sexuality thesis. Africa, 65 (4), 489–505.
17.
HerselmanS. (1997). A multicultural perspective on health care. In BouwerM.DreyerM.HerselmanS.LockM.ZeelieS. (Eds.), Contemporary Trends in Community Nursing (pp. 28–53). Johannesburg: Thomson.
18.
HicksonJ.MokhoboD. (1992). Combatting AIDS in Africa: Cultural barriers to effective prevention and treatment. Journal of Multicultural Counselling and Development, 20 (1), 11–22.
19.
LieG.T.BiswaloP.M. (1994). Perceptions of the appropriate HIV/AIDS counsellor in Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania: Implications for hospital counselling. AIDS Care, 6 (2), 139–151.
20.
MbitiJ.S. (1969). African religions and philosophy. London: Heinemann.
21.
McCallJ.C. (1995). Rethinking ancestors in Africa. Africa, 65 (2), 256–270.
22.
MosesS.PlummerF.A. (1994). Health education, counselling and the underlying causes of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS Care, 6 (2), 123–127.
23.
NgubaneH.S. (1977). Body and mind in Zulu medicine. London: Academic Press.
24.
OkwuA. (1978, November). Dying, death, reincarnation and traditional healing in Africa. Paper presented at the Twenty-first Annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Baltimore, Maryland.
25.
RungangaA.O.KasuleJ. (1995). The vaginal use of herbs/substances: An HIV transmission facilitatory factor?. AIDS Care, 7 (5), 639–645.
26.
SchoepfB.G. (1992). AIDS, sex and condoms: African healers and the reinvention of tradition in Zaire. Medical Anthropology, 14, 225–242.
27.
ScottS.J.MercerM.A. (1994). Understanding cultural obstacles to HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa. AIDS Education and Prevention, 6 (1), 81–89.
28.
SeeleyJ.WagnerU.MulemwaJ.Kengeya-KayondoJ.MulderD. (1991). The development of a community-based HIV/AIDS counselling service in a rural area in Uganda. AIDS Care, 3 (2), 207–217.
29.
SowI. (1980). Anthropological structures of madness in Black Africa. New York: International Universities press.
30.
TaylorC.C. (1990). Condoms and cosmology: The ‘fractal’ person and sexual risk in Rwanda. Social Science and Medicine, 31 (9), 1023–1028.
31.
Van DykA.C. (1991). Voorkoming van VIGS: Psigo-sosiale voorspellers van houdings, gedrag en gedragsverandering. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of South Africa, Pretoria.
32.
Van DykA.C. (1999). AIDS Care and Counselling. Johannesburg: Maskew Miller Longman.
33.
ViljoenH.G. (1997). Eastern and African perspectives. In MeyerW. F.MooreC.ViljoenH.G. (Eds.), Personology: From individual to ecosystem (pp. 591–627). Johannesburg: Heinemann.
34.
YambaC.B. (1997). Cosmologies in turmoil: Witchfinding and AIDS in Chiawa, Zambia. Africa, 67 (2), 200–223.
35.
ZazayokweM. (1989). Some barriers to education about AIDS in the black community. Paper presented at an AIDS training course of the South African Institute for Medical Research, Johannesburg.
