Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T21:59:15.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Historiography of HIV and AIDS in Uganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Jan Kuhanen
Jan Kuhanen*
Affiliation:
University of Joensuu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Uganda has been in the world headlines since the mid-1980s, first as a nation severely hit by HIV and AIDS, and later, from the late 1990s onwards, as the first country in sub-Saharan Africa that has managed to reverse a generalised HIV epidemic. Countless newspaper articles, television and radio documentaries and broadcasts, papers, books, and films have been produced about AIDS in Uganda, making the epidemic one of the most thoroughly researched and documented in the world. Medical doctors, virologists, epidemiologists and social and behavioral scientists, both Ugandan and expatriate, have produced massive amounts of scientific information about it since the early 1980s, in addition to which there have been policy papers, evaluation reports, and action plans produced by various government ministries, international donor agencies, and national and international NGOs and relief organizations which document the epidemic from administrative, developmental, and humanitarian perspectives.

Uganda's AIDS epidemic has been publicized worldwide through the news media and various international agencies. It is being constantly monitored not only by national authorities and international health experts, but by myriads of Ugandan and international organizations, media, academics, and concerned members of the public using modern means of communication. Some of these national and international bodies not only monitor, report and educate, but demand their say in how the epidemic should be managed. Uganda has become a testing ground for medical and behavioral interventions, as exemplified by AIDS vaccination trials, the social marketing of condoms, antiretroviral treatment, and, recently, by the male circumcision trial. Positive results have then been marketed to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa as successful AIDS prevention strategies.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 35 , January 2008 , pp. 301 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See Uganda AIDS Commission, Annual Report 1996 (Kampala)Google Scholar; Parkhurst, Justin O., “HIV Prevention Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Ugandan Experience” (Ph.D)., University of Oxford, 2000)Google Scholar.

2 Kasasira, Risdel, “Govt Runs Out of Money to Buy ARVs,” The Monitor (Kampala) 4 April 2007Google Scholar.

3 Muyiyi, Susan K., “HIV/AIDS Ignorance High among Youths,” The Monitor 17 January 2008;Google ScholarNyanzi, Peter and Acen, Sarah, “Wabudeya Warns on Antiretroviral Treatment,” The Monitor 28 June 2006Google Scholar.

4 HIV/AIDS, Illness, and African Well-Being, ed. Falola, Toyin and Heaton, Matthew M. (Rochester, 2007)Google Scholar; The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa in a Historical Perspective, ed. Denis, Philippe and Becker, Charles (Online edition, 2007) (www.refer.sn/rds/IMG/pdf/AIDSHISTORYALL.pdf, accessed 1 February 2008)Google Scholar; Iliffe, John, The African AIDS Epidemic: a History (Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar.

5 Tuck, Michael, “Syphilis, Sexuality and Social Control: a History of Venereal Disease in Colonial Uganda” (PhD., Northwestern, 1997), 325–26Google Scholar.

6 Marks, Shula with Ellison, George T. H., “Postscript: Reflections on HIV/AIDS and History” in Learning from HIV and AIDS, ed. Ellison, George, Parker, Melissa, and Campbell, Catherine (Cambridge 2003), 268–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Histories of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. Setel, Philip W., Lewis, Milton, and Lyons, Maryinez (Westport, 1999)Google Scholar.

7 Bond, George C. and Vincent, Joan, “AIDS in Uganda: the First Decade” in AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, ed. Kreniske, John, Susser, Ida and Vincent, Joan (Boulder 1997), 85–97Google Scholar.

8 Museveni, Yoweri K., What Is Africa's Problem? (Minneapolis, 2000), 251Google Scholar.

9 Packard, Randall M. and Epstein, Paul, “Medical Research on AIDS in Africa: a Historical Perspective” in AIDS: the Making of a Chronic Disease, ed. Fee, Elizabeth and Fox, Daniel M. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1992), 346–76Google Scholar; Marks/Ellison, “Postscript.”

10 Parkhurst, Justin O., and Lush, Louisiana, “The Political Environment of HIV: Lessons from a Comparison of Uganda and South Africa,” Social Science and Medicine 59(2004), 1913–1924CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Muriisa, Roberts Kabeba, “The AIDS Pandemic in Uganda: Social Capital and the Role of NGOs in Alleviating the Impact of HIV/AIDS” (Dr. Polit., University of Bergen, 2006)Google Scholar; Behrend, Heike, “The Rise of Occult Powers. AIDS and the Roman Catholic Church in Western Uganda,” Journal of Religion in Africa 37(2007), 41–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Barnett, Tony/Whiteside, Alan, AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalization (Basingstoke, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunter, Susan, Black Death. AIDS in Africa (New York, 2003)Google Scholar.

11 Ankrah, E. Marine with Ouma, Steven O. A., AIDS in Uganda. Social and Behavioural Dimensions of the Epidemic (Kampala, 1989)Google Scholar; Stewart, Kearsley, “Toward a Historical Perspective on Sexuality in Uganda: the Reproductive Lifeline Technique for Grand-mothers and Their Daughters,” Africa Today 47(2000), 123–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davis, Paula Jean, “On the Sexuality of ‘Town Women’ in Kampala,” Africa Today 47(2000), 29–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Fee, Elizabeth and Cox, Daniel M., “Introduction: the Contemporary Historiography of AIDS” in AIDS. Making A Chronic Disease, 5Google Scholar.

13 UNAIDS, A Measure of Success in Uganda: the Value of Monitoring Both HIV Prevalence and Sexual Behaviour (Geneva, 1998)Google Scholar; USAID, The “ABCs” of HIV Prevention: Report of a USAID Technical Meeting on Behavior Change Approaches to Primary Prevention of HIV/AIDS (Washington, 2003) (http://www.usaid.gov/pop_health/aids/TechAreas/prevention/abc.pdf, accessed 4 February 2007)Google Scholar.

14 Grmek, Mirko D., History of AIDS. Emergence and Origin of a Modern Pandemic, trans. Maulitz, R.C. and Duffin, Jacalyn (Princeton, 1990)Google Scholar; See as well Iliffe, , African AIDS Epidemic, 22-26, 71-72, 128–30Google Scholar.

15 Garrett, Laurie, The Coming Plague. Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance (New York, 1995), 334–89Google Scholar.

16 Hooper, Edward, The River. A Journey to the Sources of HIV and AIDS (Boston, 1999)Google Scholar.

17 Kaleeba, Noerine, Kadowe, Joyde Namulondo, Kalinaki, Daniel, and Williams, Glen, Open Secret: People Facing up to HIV and AIDS in Uganda (London, 2000)Google Scholar.

18 Uganda AIDS Commission, …And Banana Trees Provided the Shade: the Story of AIDS in Uganda (Kampala, 2004)Google Scholar.

19 Uganda AIDS Commission, Macro International, Uganda Ministry of Health, AIDS in Africa during the Nineties: Uganda. Review and Analysis of Surveys and Research Studies (2003) (http://www.aidsuganda.org/pdf/ugandatrends.pdf, accessed 9 September 2007)Google Scholar.

20 Shoumatoff, Alex, African Madness (New York, 1986)Google Scholar. Further editions appeared in the following years.

21 Ed Hooper, , Slim: a Reporter's Own Story of AIDS in East Africa (London, 1990)Google Scholar.

22 Ed Hooper, , “AIDS in Uganda,” African Affairs 86(1988), 469–77Google Scholar; idem., “African Village Staggers under the Assault of AIDS,” New York Times (30 September 1986); see also Altman, Lawrence, “AIDS in Africa: a Pattern of Mystery,” New York Times (8 November 1985)Google Scholar.

23 Kisekka, M. N., “AIDS in Uganda as a Gender Issue” in Women's Mental Health in Africa, ed. Rothblum, Eshter D. and Cole, Ellen (New York, 1990), 35–53Google Scholar.

24 Hunter, Susan S., “Orphans as a Window on the AIDS Epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa: Initial Results and Implications of a Study in Uganda,” Social Science and Medicine 36(1990), 681–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Bond, George C. and Vincent, Joan, “Living on the Edge: Changing Social Structures in the Context of AIDS” in Changing Uganda, ed. Hansen, Holger Bernt and Twaddle, Michael (London, 1991), 113–29Google Scholar; Barnett, Tony and Blaikie, Piers, AIDS in Africa. Its Present and Future Impact (New York, 1992)Google Scholar.

26 Obbo, Christine, “HIV Transmission: Men Are the Solution,” Population and Environment 14(1993), 211–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem., “HIV Transmission through Social and Geographical Networks in Uganda,” Social Science and Medicine 36(1993), 949-55.

27 Lyons, Maryinez, “Medicine and Morality: a Review of Responses to Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Uganda in the Twentieth Century” in Setel, et al., Histories, 98Google Scholar.

28 Ibid.

29 Tuck, Michael W., “Venereal Disease, Sexuality and Society in Uganda” in Sex, Sin and Suffering. Venereal Disease and European Society since 1870, ed. Davidson, Roger and Hall, Lesley A. (London, 2001), 191–204Google Scholar.

30 Kisekka, “AIDS in Uganda.”

31 Bond/Vincent, “AIDS in Uganda;” Bond, George C. and Vincent, Joan, “Community Based Organizations in Uganda: a Youth Initiative” in Bond, et al., AIDS in Africa, 99–130Google Scholar; Lyons, Maryinez, “The Point of View: Perspectives on AIDS in Uganda” in Bond, et al., AIDS in Africa, 131–46Google Scholar.

32 Bond, /Vincent, , “AIDS in Uganda,” 88Google Scholar.

33 Bond, /Vincent, , “Community Based Organizations,” 108–09Google Scholar.

34 Ibid.

35 Lyons, , “Point of View,” 132Google Scholar.

36 Ibid., 133.

37 See, e.g., Asiimwe-Okiror, Godwilet al., “Change in Sexual Behaviour and Decline in HTV Infection among Young Pregnant Women in Urban Uganda,” AIDS 11(1997), 1757–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 O'Manique, Colleen, Neoliberalism and AIDS Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Globalization's Pandemic (Basingstoke, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Government of Uganda/ Ministry of Health & ORC Macro, Uganda HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioural Survey 2004-05 (Kampala, 2006)Google Scholar.

40 Konde-Lule, Joseph K., “The Declining HIV Seroprevalence in Uganda: What Evidence?” Health Transition Review 5 Supplement(1995), 27–33Google Scholar; Weis, P.et al., “Assessing Trends of the HTV Epidemic in Western Uganda,” Int. Conf. AIDS 1994, 10:280 (Abstract no. PC0041)Google Scholar; Mulder, Daanet al., “Decreasing HIV-1 Seroprevalence in Young Adults in a Rural Ugandan Cohort,” British Medical Journal 311(1995), 833–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Asiimwe-Okiror et al. “Change in Sexual Behaviour;” Konde-Lule, J. K.et al., “Condom Use in Young Adults in Rural Uganda,” Int. Conf. AIDS 1994 10:282 (Abstract no. PC0505)Google Scholar; Konde-Lule, J. K.et al., “Adolescents, Sexual Behaviour and HIV-1 in Rural Rakai District, Uganda,” AIDS 11(1997), 791–99CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

42 Kilian, Albertet al. “Reductions in Risk Behaviour Provide the Most Consistent Explanation for Declining HTV-1 Prevalence in Uganda,” AIDS 13(1999), 391–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kamali, Anatoliet al., “Seven-Year Trends in HIV-1 Infection Rates, and Changes in Sexual Behaviour among Adults in Rural Uganda,” AIDS 14(2000), 427–34CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Mbulaiteye, S.Met al., “Declining HIV-1 Incidence and Associated Prevalence over 10 Years in a Rural Population in South-West Uganda: a Cohort Study,” Lancet 360(2002), 41–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 What Happened in Uganda? Declining HIV Prevalence, Behavior Change, and the National Response, ed. Hogle, Janice (Washington, 2002)Google Scholar; Stoneburner, Rand, “Analyses of HIV Trend and Behavioral Data in Uganda, Kenya, and Zambia: Prevalence Declines in Uganda Relate More to Reduction in Sex Partners than Condom Use,” Intl Conf AIDS 2000 13 (Abstract no. ThOrC721)Google Scholar; Green, Edward C., Rethinking AIDS Prevention. Learning from Successes in Developing Countries (Westport, 2003)Google Scholar; Green, Edward C., “Testimony before the African Subcommittee, U.S. Senate, 19 May 2003,” online document (www.senate.gov/~foreign/testimony/2003/GreenTestimony030519.pdf, accessed 10 October 2006)Google Scholar; Low-Beer, Daniel and Stoneburner, Rand, “Uganda and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS” in The Political Economy of AIDS in Africa, ed. Poku, Nana K. and Whiteside, Alan (Aldershot, 2004), 165–90Google Scholar.

44 Hogle, , What Happened in Uganda?, 2Google Scholar.

45 Mulanga, Claireet al., “Political and Socioeconomic Instability: How Does it Affect HIV? A Case Study in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” AIDS 18(2004), 832–34CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Lugalla, Joeet al., “Social, Cultural, and Sexual Behavioral Determinants of Observed Decline in HIV Infection Trends: Lessons from the Kagera Region, Tanzania,” Social Science and Medicine 59(2004), 185–98CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Kayirangwa, E.et al., “Current Trends in Rwanda's HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” Sexually Transmitted Infections 82 (Suppl I) (2006), 27–31CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

46 Bessinger, R.E.et al., “Trends in AIDS Prevention Behaviour in Uganda during the Nineties.” Intl. Conf AIDS 2002 14 (Abstract no. TuOrC1227)Google Scholar.

47 Kirungi, W. L.et al., “Trends in Antenatal HIV Prevalence in Urban Uganda Associated with Uptake of Preventive Sexual Behaviour,” Sexually Transmitted Infections 82(2006), 36–41CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

48 Green, , “Testimony,” 6Google Scholar.

49 Uganda AIDS Commission, AIDS Control in Uganda. The Multi-Sectoral Strategy. Revision 1, February 1992 (Kampala, 1992)Google Scholar.

50 Silberschmidt, M., “Masculinities, Sexuality, and Socio-Economic Change in Rural and Urban East Africa” in Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa, ed. Arnfred, Signe (Uppsala, 2004), 233–48Google Scholar; Iliffe, John, Honour in African History (Cambridge, 2005), 360–65Google Scholar.

51 Kisekka, , “AIDS in Uganda,” 41–42Google Scholar; Hooper, , Slim, 26Google Scholar; Obbo, , “HIV Transmission,” 218Google Scholar.

52 Parkhurst, Justin O., “The Ugandan Success Story? Evidence and Claims of HIV-1 Prevention,” Lancet 360(2002), 78–80CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; idem., “The Crisis of AIDS and the Politics of Response: the Case of Uganda,” International Relations 15(2001), 69-87.

53 Parkhurst, , “Crisis of AIDS,” 77Google Scholar.

54 Human Rights Watch, The Less They Know, the Better: Abstinence-Only HIV/AIDS Programs in Uganda (n.p., 2005) (www.hrw.org/reports/2005/uganda0305/uganda0305.pdf, accessed 10.8.2006)Google Scholar.

55 Ibid., 70.

56 Allen, Tim, “AIDS and Evidence: Interrogating Some Ugandan Myths,” Journal of Biosocial Science 38(2006), 7–28CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

57 Ibid., 10.

58 Allen, Tim and Heald, Suzette, “HIV/AIDS Policy in Africa: What Has Worked in Uganda and What Has Failed in Botswana?” Journal of International Development 16(2004), 1141–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 See Allen, , “AIDS and Evidence,” 22Google Scholar; Allen, /Heald, , “HIV/AIDS Policy,” 1150–51Google Scholar.

60 Museveni, , Africa's Problem, 253Google Scholar.

61 Uganda AIDS Commission (2008) (www.aidsuganda.org, accessed 17 January 2008).

62 Uganda ADDS Commission, Banana Trees, 7Google Scholar; Kaleeba, , Open Secret, 9–10Google Scholar.

63 Putzel, James, “The Politics of Action on AIDS: a Case Study of Uganda,” Public Administration and Development 24(2004), 19–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also de Waal, Alex, “A Disaster with No Name: the HIV/AIDS Pandemic and the Limits of Governance” in Learning from HIV and AIDS, 238–67Google Scholar.

64 See, e.g., New Vision 15 May 1990; New Vision, 6 November 2007.

65 Parkhurst, “Crisis of AIDS.”

66 de Waal, Alex, AIDS and Power. Why There Is No Political Crisis—Yet (London, 2006)Google Scholar.

67 Parkhurst, , “Crisis of AIDS,” 77Google Scholar.

68 Waal, De, AIDS and Power, 98–105Google Scholar.