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Breaking Stone Silence: Giving Voice to AIDS Prevention in Africa
Breaking Stone Silence is about the astounding struggle over life and land in Africa and the resounding relationship between principles of prevention, community organization, social justice and community health. Written to be accessible to both students and lay readers concerned about AIDS in Africa from a world citizen's perspective, readers will feel challenged to place the global AIDS crisis in the context of the learning needs, hopes, privileges and responsibilities of those living in the western world. This is also a book for health practitioners and scholars grappling with the complexity of an unprecedented epidemic and feeling the urgency for insight into effective prevention interventions. In as much as this book reveals truths about the despair of African life, the main message is about the spiritual resiliency and cultural notability of the Shona and Ndebele people. "Stone Silence" explores the dynamic tension in the black and white Zimbabwe community between those with moral courage and a commitment to social equity and those who just want things the way they were. Like African masks that symbolize both bravery and death, AIDS, community action and prevention education represent Africa's harshest legacy as well as Zimbabwe's heritage of hope. This book looks behind the masks--we see tearful eyes, inspiring smiles, a stark reflection of ourselves
302 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
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March 6, 2015
Terry’s "Breaking Stone Silence" combines the personal with the pragmatic in a discussion of the cultural, economic, and political forces impacting the upward-spiraling AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe. Drawing from his year living in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, as a Fulbright Scholar, as well as his community development experiences during his Kellogg Fellowship, Terry weaves personal stories with organizational theories, policies, and successful prevention practices to make AIDS in Africa accessible to those in the Western world.
He points out, “Our goal needs to be to understand, not to stand in judgment.”
The complexity of the AIDS epidemic is mind-boggling. As Terry points out, two-thirds of the 33 million victims in the world are living in sub-Saharan Africa, and Zimbabwe has emerged as the epicenter. Terry writes, “Imagine every week the Twin Towers collapse with 3,800 of Zimbabwe’s young people inside. What’s more, it’s so commonplace, it doesn’t even make the news.”
And what is yet even more astounding to the author—and the premise of the book—is the government’s aloofness and the country’s silence about this disease that is taking a staggering toll on Zimbabwe.
“I’ve come to think of the silence around the stigma of AIDS and the quiet malcontent with the ruling party as an immutable barrier people have built around themselves. …Zimbabwe seems to be a nation with her depression turned inward, a people for whom ‘breaking the silence’ would require a monstrous wrecking ball,” he writes.
Among the many irreconcilable dichotomies Terry enumerates that make prevention efforts so complex in this country are:
• Many of Zimbabweans can recite the causes of HIV infection, yet still relate to the belief that illness is an attack from disturbed spirits;
• HIV-infected Zimbabweans tend to rely more on traditional healers, or witch doctors, than on proven—albeit costly—Western treatments; and
• Drug companies grow rich on drugs that take pennies to produce, yet the pills can’t possibly be bought by millions dying for them.
Glimmers of hope surface through the despair, and one such spark is an HIV prevention program developed by Terry and two Zimbabwe college graduates, SHAPE Zimbabwe, dedicated to getting young people talking about sex and AIDS. Such discussions begin to address the cultural context of patriarchy in African society that exacerbates the spread of the disease.
He points out, “Our goal needs to be to understand, not to stand in judgment.”
The complexity of the AIDS epidemic is mind-boggling. As Terry points out, two-thirds of the 33 million victims in the world are living in sub-Saharan Africa, and Zimbabwe has emerged as the epicenter. Terry writes, “Imagine every week the Twin Towers collapse with 3,800 of Zimbabwe’s young people inside. What’s more, it’s so commonplace, it doesn’t even make the news.”
And what is yet even more astounding to the author—and the premise of the book—is the government’s aloofness and the country’s silence about this disease that is taking a staggering toll on Zimbabwe.
“I’ve come to think of the silence around the stigma of AIDS and the quiet malcontent with the ruling party as an immutable barrier people have built around themselves. …Zimbabwe seems to be a nation with her depression turned inward, a people for whom ‘breaking the silence’ would require a monstrous wrecking ball,” he writes.
Among the many irreconcilable dichotomies Terry enumerates that make prevention efforts so complex in this country are:
• Many of Zimbabweans can recite the causes of HIV infection, yet still relate to the belief that illness is an attack from disturbed spirits;
• HIV-infected Zimbabweans tend to rely more on traditional healers, or witch doctors, than on proven—albeit costly—Western treatments; and
• Drug companies grow rich on drugs that take pennies to produce, yet the pills can’t possibly be bought by millions dying for them.
Glimmers of hope surface through the despair, and one such spark is an HIV prevention program developed by Terry and two Zimbabwe college graduates, SHAPE Zimbabwe, dedicated to getting young people talking about sex and AIDS. Such discussions begin to address the cultural context of patriarchy in African society that exacerbates the spread of the disease.
Displaying 1 of 1 review