Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - October 17, 1998
HISTORY: Non-democratic governments often played down AIDS. South Africa's apartheid-era leaders ignored the disease in majority black population, housing black male workers in hostels and creating conditions for multiple sexual partners and spread back home. In Malawi, 30-year dictator Kamuzu Banda banned short skirts on women, long hair on men and most discussion of AIDS.
MIGRATION: South Africa's powerful economy lures migrant laborers from all over region, particularly miners for its gold lodes. Traveling back and forth between work and home villages can spread AIDS, as do truckers who frequent prostitutes on region's highways.
VIOLENCE: Warfare or political violence displace people and cause instability, leading to less caution in sexual relations. Presence of paramilitaries and troops raise risk of rape. KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, where factional clashes killed thousands over past decade, has country's highest infection rate.
CULTURE: Zulus, who dominate KwaZulu-Natal, do not practice circumcision, and studies show uncircumcised men transmit AIDS more easily, said Debbie Mathew, official of provincial AIDS foundation.
Multiple sex partners for men also are socially acceptable in some African societies. In some traditional cultures, brother of dead husband assumes responsibility for widow and has sex with her to cleanse her of her dead husband's spirit.
Some traditional healers in Zimbabwe have reportedly advised AIDS-infected men to cure themselves by having sex with younger women, said Rudo Kwaramba, director of Musasa, group that campaigns against violence against women.
IGNORANCE: AIDS often considered shameful disease, an affliction of promiscuous. Many people don't want to know about it. Studies show that nine out of 10 Africans infected with AIDS don't know it.
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