What is it about?
How the ANC, an organisation fighting a war of liberation against the repressive apartheid regime, provided health care to its members living in exile at the start of the AIDS epidemic. The article considers the gendered nature of responsibilities for sexual and reproductive health, the experiences of comrades in different regions, and the narratives and explanations linked to sexual and reproductive health that were dominant, but not unchallenged.
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Why is it important?
The ANC would go on to lead the first post-independent government in South Africa and was tasked with responding to ever increasing HIV infection rates and AIDS related deaths. The article reveals some of the preparatory work that went into understanding and addressing HIV and AIDS and shows how gendered ideas linked to sexual and reproductive health played themselves out in the organisation's responses.
Perspectives
The stories and experiences of people who lived in exile during the struggle against apartheid are increasingly being told but often the more intimate aspects of people's lives - love, sex, reproduction and health - are hidden in the stories of heroism and sacrifice. I wrote this because the written archives revealed the gendered nature and assumptions linked to sexual health and reproduction that shaped responses to what would become on of the greatest challenges to a newly independent country. Examining the origins of the ANC's response to AIDS and how it changed over time is important in being able to analyse contemporary health concerns and policies linked to AIDS.
Assoc. Prof. Carla Tsampiras
University of Cape Town
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sex in a Time of Exile: An Examination of Sexual Health, AIDS, Gender, and the ANC, 1980–1990, South African Historical Journal, September 2012, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/02582473.2011.637951.
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