Chirimuuta, R. C. & Harrison-Chirimuuta, R. J. (1997) AIDS in
Africa and the Caribbean. Westview P.
This is a brief introduction to chapter twelve: AIDS in Africa: A Case
of
Racism Vs. Science:
Western scientists have promoted the hypothesis that the AIDS epidemic
began in Africa, arguing that AIDS had existed for many years in an
African "lost tribe" or that a retrovirus crossed the species barrier
from
monkey to man. The scientific evidence in support of this hypothesis
has
included AIDS-like cases from Africa that predated the epidemic in
the
West, seroepidemiological evidence for early American infection, and
the
isolation of retroviruses from African monkeys considered similar to
the
human immunodeficiency virus. Yet when the scientific literature
supporting an African origin is examined it is found to be contradictory,
insubstantial or unsound, whilst the possibility that AIDS was introduced
to Africa from the West has not been seriously investigated. The belief
that the AIDS epidemic originated in Africa has also distorted Western
perceptions of the scale and mode of spread of the epidemic in Africa,
and
it would seem that much of the research into AIDS and Africa has been
influenced by racism and not science.
AIDS was first diagnosed as a clinical entity in 1981 in the U.S. and
although the majority of cases even today have been reported from the
U.S., the Western scientific community has convinced the world that
it is
primarily an African disease and an African problem. Because there
seemed
to be a racist motivation for the "science" that was arguing for AIDS
from
Africa, research into the scientific literature surrounding this idea
was
published in this book. When questioning the African hypothesis, it
became
clear that the racist preconceptions of the researchers led them to
conclusions that had no scientific foundation.
Submitted by Jaya Hards
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