Inter Press Service - October 5, 2000
Judith Achieng'

But at a conference being held in the Kenyan capital, both sides now seem prepared to bury their differences in the hope of finding common grounds for fighting the spread of the virus, which has devastated much of the developing world.

Donna Kabatesi, an expert who works with traditional herbal healers in HIV prevention and care in Uganda, says she has no quarrel with religious groups, even though she may not fully agree with their views.

"In Uganda, we have a culture of openness, and this includes accepting our differences in attitudes. The Catholics and Muslim are doing something about AIDS. Let us respect that," she told the three-day conference this week.

Uganda is the only African country, which has registered a decline in the rate of infection, a success largely attributed to a combination of political motivation and highly organised multi- sectoral campaign strategy.

The three-day meeting, organised by the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), brings together UN experts, religious leaders, and NGO representatives to discuss a cultural approach to HIV/AIDS.

Lessons from Uganda also include a culture of tolerance built between its scientific experts with religious and cultural groups in the search for solutions to the scourge.

The conference heard how traditional healers, who have superior knowledge of the environment and communication skills in rural areas, have been made a powerful tool in treatment of opportunistic infections and reduction of stigma associated with AIDS.

A research paper by UNESCO's Agathe Latre-Gato Lawson, however, blames much of the spread of HIV virus to negative cultural practices, especially those that relate to marriage, dowry, polygamy, which she says place women in vulnerable positions.

"Most HIV positive women have been infected by their husbands. This underlines the problem of the woman's self-protection: even if she knows her companion or husband has other sexual partners, she explains.

"Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, weddings, even today involve the payment of dowry, the size of which depends on the society but symbolic in relation to the family's standard of living," she notes in her paper: Women and AIDS in Africa; socio-cultural dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

"In patrilineal societies, the handing over of the dowry represents the transfer, from one family to another, of the rights of the reproductive and productive capacities of the woman."

Ugandan Muslim cleric volunteers, attending the conference insist, despite studies results showing the contrary, that the spread of the virus can be averted if polygamy is "legally" observed.

"Since man can't foretell what can happen in life, Allah allows us to marry more than one wife, three to four, to overcome some social, natural, economic problems," argues Sheikh Muhammad Bukenya, the Imam of the Riyaat Mosque in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

Islamic teachings accept polygamy, allowing a man to marry up to four women. Bukenya says this approach has helped change the sexual behaviour of up to 45 percent of the Muslim community in the country.

"The only problem we have so far is with those of our friends who take alcohol and loose control of themselves some times even into illegal and therefore dangerous sex," he says.

Jean Marie Mpendawatu, representing the Vatican Pontifical Council for Health and Pastoral Care, says although it opposes the use of condoms, the Catholic church remains the leading partner of governments in social interventions targeting behaviour change in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

According to a recent survey by the Pontifical council - in which people interviewed were asked to indicate the percentage of contribution made by certain public, private and churches - 42 countries showed that the Catholic institutions and Ngos are responsible for 25 percent of contributions towards HIV/AIDS.

These figure places the church only second to state sponsored social interventions, he says.

The Catholic church maintains a stand against the use of condoms in the prevention of HIV, and instead advocates fidelity in marriage and abstention for non-married people.

"The message which the church addresses to all men of good will with regard to AIDS is much broader than the discussion about the use of a condom or the kind of information which should be given to young people: it is a "yes" to life lived out responsibly and humanly with respect for one's own body and the bodies of other people," Mpendawatu told some 40 participants at the conference.

Others like Gamaliel Owuor, a retired University professor disagrees and claims that traditional practices, like polygamy and wife inheritance, have nothing to do with the spread of the virus.

"The real problem is values have been lost. Wife inheritance is not practised as it used to be. By blaming traditions, we are chasing a red herring here." he says.

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