SOCIAL RESPONS PÅ URBANISERINGENS EPIDEMIER: Aids-oplysning i det sydlige Zambia

Abstract

Hanne Overgaard Mogensen: A Social

Response to the Epidemics of Urbanization.

AIDS Information in Southern

Zambia

In Southern Zambia, Tonga people associate

AIDS with a locally defined disease called

kahungo which is said to be caused by

contact with symbolically polluted biood.

Before the arrival of AIDS, kahungo was

associated with TB and sexually transmitted

diseases. In Africa, epidemics of TB and

STDs were often related to colonization and

urbanization. Similar to AIDS, they spread

more rapidly than what was known in

Europe, and the colonial administration tried

to explain this with “problems of behaviour”,

thereby ignoring the miserable

conditions under which people lived. The

Tongas’ association of these diseases with

kahungo should be seen as a social response

to new epidemics. While the Europeans

talked about individual problems of adaptation

to modem life, kahungo concems the

collective responsibility to maintain order.

Kahungo, a disease of disorderly biood, has

become the symbol of the disorder of

urbanization and modemization.