Devils and plagues: the AIDS scourge in Uganda - Editorial

Christian Century, July 27, 1994 by James M. Wall

Surely the Devil is present here," observed a nun in Rwanda. But then the devil, in literal or surrogate form, has been present in Africa since the original fall. When the Portuguese landed in Angola in the 15th century they treated local tribes with respect for a time, but the lucrative slave trade soon emerged and led to one of history's worst mass crimes: about 12 million Africans were led to death or into permanent servitude. Other countries sought in other ways to exploit the resources of the continent and to assert political dominance, culminating in the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 in which European powers agreed to divide spheres of interest among themselves. That agreement held, with minor adjustments after World I, until the 1960s and 1970s. Historical cause and effect are difficult to trace, but it is not difficult to discern the presence of the demonic in the decision of Western nations to draw borders for their colonies which ignored tribal alignments and forced divisions and false unions that have contributed to wars and continued power struggles among postcolonial states.

Western influence has had its positive effects, of course, including the arrival of modem medicine, modern agricultural techniques, and an emphasis on clean water. Ironically, some medical historians argue that the sudden and disastrous proliferation of the AIDS virus might have been encouraged by the introduction of immunization, programs, which altered the mix of diseases and involved, in poor areas, the reusing of needles.

But it has largely been sexual promiscuity which has caused the rapid spread of AIDS in Africa. Mirko D. Grmek, author of the History of AIDS, writes: "Those who threw off the moral and material shackles of the old rural milieu and tribal customs now fell into the trap of a relentless new social system. One of the results of this release was a wildfire of classic sexually transmitted disease."

Kampala, the capital of Uganda, is a short drive northeast from Entebbe, a name familiar to Westerners as the site of Israel's daring commando raid to rescue a planeload of Israeli passengers held hostage by Idi Amin. Further west along Lake Victoria is the small village of Kasensero, in Uganda's Rakai district. The first cases of AIDS at Kasensero were reported in 1982, and it was not until 1985 that cases were reported in Kampala. Researchers surmise that the virus moved along the highway that begins in Tanzania, south of Lake Victoria, swings around the lake, through the Rakai district and then travels in a southeastern direction through Kampala, across the border to Nairobi, Kenya, to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Before the source and danger of the AIDS virus became apparent, and because so many traffic accidents occurred at night on the Mombasa highway the Kenyan government instructed all truck drivers to stop traveling at dusk. It is believed that this safety measure contributed to the rapid spread of the disease: with all those truck drivers stopping for the night along the Mombasa highway, the prostitution trade flourished.

AIDS continued to move through Central Africa, from fathers to mothers and then to newborn children. In keeping with an African tradition that a brother is expected to bring his brother's widow into his home, the disease then spread to additional male members of the same family. (A UN film is being distributed throughout Central Africa specifically to discourage this tradition.) The obvious contribution of promiscuity to the spread of AIDS initially embarrassed African government leaders, but the embarrassment in Africa has been set aside as the plague has grown.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni created a National Commission on AIDS to coordinate educational and medical programs to combat what the government describes as a "scourge." The street name for AIDS is more evocative: "slim." James Ameda, Uganda national director for the Christian Children's Fund, a charity based in Richmond, Virginia, told me during my recent trip to Uganda that one in eight children in a population of 18 million has lost one or both parents, either through war or AIDS. Seventeen cases of AIDS were recorded in Uganda in 1983; a decade later the figure was 43,875. The commission has estimated that at the end of 1993, 1,516,000 Ugandans were HIV-positive, and 165,000 actually had AIDS. Within five years these figures are projected to rise to 1,920,000 with HIV and 251,000 with AIDS. The (Anglican) Church of Uganda, headed by Archbishop Yona Okoth, has begun a joint campaign with the Christian Children's Fund to link Episcopal and Anglican parishes in the U.S. and the United Kingdom with parishes in Uganda in an effort to assist the 1.5 million children orphaned by either AIDS or war. Bishop Okoth, who has lost a grandson to AIDS, will soon retire from the post he assumed after he returned to Uganda following Amin's disastrous eight-year reign (1971-79). The bishop, who could not swim, was smuggled out of Uganda by a young boy who took him to a river and instructed him to jump in. He did - and now testifies about how a tree limb came along as an answer to prayer and carried him to safety. Bishop Okoth studied and worked in the U.S. before returning to Uganda, where he presides over a national church with 6 million members in 20,000 congregations.