Margaret Culhane, University of Notre Dame
“Culture and ‘ Progress’: Problems with HIV Sensitization in Rural Lesotho and Rural Gambia”
Bio: Maggie Culhane is a senior dual degree candidate, at the University of Notre Dame, with majors in the Program of Liberal Studies and Biological Sciences. As illustrated by her majors, the interplay of science and the liberal arts interests her greatly. She hopes to examine the human condition, especially in the face of terminal diseases, and the questions raised by the great books throughout her life. She plans to continue with academic research and international humanitarian work but, beyond that, does not want to think about the future. She tells her parents this is called "living in the moment."
Abstract: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is African in origin, but the AIDS pandemic is surely western: partial globalization provided the medium for transmission without the infrastructure to cope with its consequences. Where local governments remain inactive, individuals suffer. International intercession relies upon education campaigns that employ western artifacts—the classroom, the billboard, the radio—and are colored by western notions of 'Progress' and 'Science.' At the basis of our intellectual and even religious history is a blueprint that encourages scrutiny, because we believe analysis culminates in progress. Information is part of this progress, knowledge empowers us. In many regions of Africa, information's only role pertains to money and the western world—things desired for their external value but not their implicit value, or knowledge qua knowledge. In these circumstances, "knowing your HIV status" is an inappropriate slogan, as it asks people to entrust systems and organizations utterly alien to their reality. This is not to say that our common human experiences do not bind us together; however, these and other conversations cannot be cloaked in our own cultural jargon, or others cannot access them. In both The Gambia and Lesotho it is "easier not to know;" the Mandinkas and the Basotho do not believe they have control over their destiny. We must confront this reality when planning HIV sensitization campaigns. If we want to fulfill the MDG target to combat HIV/AIDS and enable human development by alleviating this suffering, it is incumbent upon us to re-examine the biases present in our intellectual tradition and absent in others'. If we desire to lift the afflicted from the sands of suffering to the firm rock of human dignity, we must address them in their own terms.
