About the Book

One in six adults in sub-Saharan Africa will die in their prime of AIDS. It is a stunning cataclysm, plunging life expectancy to pre-modern levels and orphaning millions of children. Yet political trauma does not grip Africa. People living with AIDS are not rioting in the streets or overthrowing governments. In fact, democratic governance is spreading. Contrary to fearful predictions, the social fabric is not being ripped apart by bands of unsocialized orphan children.

AIDS and Power explains why social and political life in Africa goes on in a remarkably normal way, and how political leaders have successfully managed the AIDS epidemic so as to overcome any threats to their power. Partly because of pervasive denial, AIDS is not a political priority for electorates, and therefore not for democratic leaders either. AIDS activists have not directly challenged the political order, instead using international networks to promote a rights-based approach to tackling the epidemic. African political systems have proven resilient in the face of AIDS's stresses, and rulers have learned to co-opt international AIDS efforts to their own political ends.

In contrast with these successes, African governments and international agencies have a sorry record of tackling the epidemic itself. AIDS and Power concludes without political incentives for HIV prevention, this failure will persist.

New! Read the Aids and Power Blog hosted by the Social Science Research Council here.

Contents

1. A Manageable Catastrophe
2. Denial and How it is Overcome
3. AIDS Activists: Reformers and Revolutionaries
4. How African Democracies Withstand AIDS
5. The Political Benefits of AIDS
6. Power, Choices and Survival

About the Author

Alex de Waal is a writer and activist on African issues. He is a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative, Harvard; Director of the Social Science Research Council program on AIDS and social transformation; and a director of Justice Africa in London. In his twenty-year career, he has studied the social, political and health dimensions of famine, war, genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. He has been at the forefront of mobilizing African and international responses to these problems. His books include, 'Famine that Kills: Darfur Sudan,' (Oxford, first edition 1989, revised 2004), 'Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa,' (James Currey 1997), 'Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa,' (Hurst, 2004) and (with Julie Flint) 'Darfur: A Short History of a Long War' (Zed Books, 2005).

Academic Adoption Information

This book is used for teaching at the following institutions:

Brunel University

School of Oriental And African Studies

University of central Lancashire

University College London