Colonial rule, political upheavals and AIDS pandemic in Malawi: A retrospective analysis​

AUTHORS

• JACQUINEAU AZETSOP
• COSMAS KASZOMBE
• SYLVESTRE OMGBA ESSOMBA

ABSTRACT

The study of AIDS crisis in Malawi shows how historical processes—the British colonial rule and political bricolage under Kamuzu Banda—and the violence of everyday life often spread through cultural politics have shaped macro-social factors which, in turn, have structured risks for infection by the HIV virus. As an analytic tool and hermeneutic key, the theory of structural violence is used to show Malawi became an AIDS-producing 48 society. The HIV and AIDS epidemic in Malawi is not a mere biological event but also a social process whose spread is not only propelled by poor behavior but also structural factors. The war against HIV not only concerns the fight against a virus but also the fight against pathogenic practices and structures that exercise their power on the human body.