The Impact of Ethnicity and Class in the Fight against AIDS - Essay Example

of The Impact of Ethni and in the Fight against AIDS The importance of an analysis of the socio-economic backgrounds of people in understanding the reach and spread of HIV/AIDS cannot be emphasized too much. It is an important part of the fight against the virus and the disease. The importance of this can be seen in recent analyses that place people of lower income groups at a greater risk from the virus and the condition. There are other factors such as race and nationality too that are a part of this equation that denies the opportunity to gain awareness to certain people. This denial of knowledge may not always be conscious decisions taken by hegemonic groups but the by-product of other kinds of oppressions that take place in the world. This results in the further marginalization of these groups as a result of the stigma that is associated with people who are affected by this disease. They are thus, doubly oppressed as they have to face oppression as a result of their class and their medical condition. In some cases, the situation is complicated by issues of ethnicity. This paper shall look at such details as they are found in Unity Dow’s novel Far and Beyond and Beauty’s Gift by Sindiwe Magona. The paper shall look at how the issues of race and class influence and inform the analyses that these two writers make of the problem of HIV/AIDS. The sensitivity with which the issues of how the two problems interact, is handled, shall be looked at in the paper. The paper shall also look at the complex nature of this interaction. Unity Dow’s novel, Far and Beyond, looks at the condition of women in Botswana. It is the condition of such women who are indoctrinated into believing that they are inferior to men that the novel analyses. This position is complicated by the fact that the women of this community often have to fight against diseases and medical conditions on their own as well. The novel delves deep into the family of Mara where she and her children are faced with the burden of dealing with social marginalization and the problems that are a part of living with AIDS. What the novelist hints at is the fact that in such a society, it is difficult to deal with issues such as medical care when the main preoccupation of the people who are victims is to fight off poverty. In such situations, one also needs to analyse the fact of whether such conditions of poverty are not engendered by a lack of opportunities that are a chronic problem in countries such as Botswana. Such conditions of underdevelopment also lead to problems within the legal and social frameworks for the purpose of fighting against problems such as AIDS which requires a great deal of sensitivity and awareness regarding the sufferings of the patients, so as to proceed. Dow, who was the first woman judge of a high court in Botswana, speaks in this book of the problems that women in Botswana face as a result of the blindness of the legal system towards the oppression that is directed against women and people who are victims of HIV/AIDS (Dow). One of the main characters in the novel, Mosa, speaks eloquently against the abuses that are perpetrated against her family by the figures of authority that abound the novel such as the lawyer and Mr. Mitch. There is a constant assertion of her own individuality on the part of this character and this is used by the novelist to show how this is the only means for achieving a place in the history of a nation when figures of authority would look upon one as an unwanted element of disgust and embarrassment. Despite the death of the male characters of the novel, the others are able to lead a life of dignity, albeit in conditions of poverty and in constant struggle against the people who claim to be the protectors of the culture of the nation. Mosa, the daughter of the protagonist Mara, is able to fight against all the male characters in a show of challenge to the patriarchal social codes that one finds prevalent in the society of Botswana. This challenge, while unrealistic, opens up possibilities that may then be dreamt of at a social level. What the author does within this book, however, is to create a portrait of a family that would then justify the title. The female characters of the book withstand poverty and patriarchal social mores to think of a reality far and beyond what they are allowed to dream of. The author is able to show the differences in the approaches that need to be taken while talking of the struggles that a poor family with a majority of women have to face in their fight for survival while at the same time dealing with AIDS (Dow). Sindiwe Magona’s book, Beauty’s Gift talks about a situation that is slightly different. This novel talks about a group of friends who are forced to take a look at their lives and the ways in which they perceived it following the death of a character named Beauty. She makes them promise her that they would not let their lives end the way hers did. This promise leads the reader to look at the reasons for the death of Beauty and this is where one sees how it was due to the irresponsible actions of her husband. This, for the author, is evidence of how even people who belong to the middle classes in African countries need to wake up to the realities of HIV/AIDS and the problems that are associated with the practice of unprotected sex. Her novel is able to analyse how the bulk of the problem is imposed upon women who often have no means of protecting themselves from such diseases. The need for specialized action on the part of governments and organizations that work in this area is what the author advocates as a part of the policy of tackling the menace of HIV/AIDS (Magona). What Magona seeks to do as a part of the project of her novel is to unwrap the very issue of sex and AIDS from the closet where it is closed into in many parts of Africa. The main characters in the novel, through their insistence on checking their own conditions and through their refusal to have unprotected sex with their husbands, take a radical route to fighting AIDS and assert the existence of problems that even middle class women have to face as a part of their everyday lives. This ubiquity of the problem is what Magona seeks to direct the attention of the readers to and this can be seen in her insistence throughout the book on the need for women to articulate their own problems in an assertive manner (Magona). AIDS is a phenomenon that has the power to both unite and divide the people on this planet. This is one of the aspects of the twenty first century that needs to be tackled so that other issues of race, caste and gender are not consolidated and divisions deepened. This may lead to the disintegration of bonds that have been formed between dispossessed communities. Dow’s and Magona’s works of fiction are efforts at addressing this issue and demonstrating how such problems need to be tackled. This is necessary for the sustenance of a society that is peaceful and harmonious. Works Cited Dow, Unity. Far and Beyond. Johannesburg: Spinifex, 2001. Print. Magona, Sindiwe. Beauty’s Gift. Harare: Kwela, 2008. Print. Read More