Africa: Power, Politics And HIV/Aids in the African Blogosphere

December 4, 2008

Dipesh Pabari

2 December 2008

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column

About a year ago, CNN and Time declared the identification of male

circumcision as a preventive measure against HIV infection as the

biggest medical breakthrough of 2007. Having worked on one of the

studies that led to this " discovery " several years before, I quickly

penned something which was published on Africa News on the 20th

December 2007 .

16th November: 0828 hrs

Google Search key words: HIV/AIDS Africa

Results: 17,340,000 for HIV/AIDS Africa. (0.07 seconds)

16th November: 0836 hrs

Google Search key words: HIV/AIDS Africa Blogs

Results: 1,140,000 for HIV/AIDS Africa Blogs (0.22 seconds)

21st November: 0659 hrs

Google Search key words: Politics and Power HIV/AIDS Africa blogs

Results: 418,000 for Politics and Power HIV/AIDS Africa blogs (0.16

seconds)

" The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse "

About a year ago, CNN and Time declared the identification of male

circumcision as a preventive measure against HIV infection as the

biggest medical breakthrough of 2007. Having worked on one of the

studies that led to this " discovery " several years before, I quickly

penned something which was published on Africa News on the 20th

December 2007 (http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/14084).

What followed was an onslaught of comments prompting the publishers

to keep the article open as a discussion. In this little microcosm of

cyberspace, individuals debated the " truth " behind male circumcision

as a potential preventative measure against HIV/AIDS. Right from the

start it was clear that the readers of this forum were equally as

concerned with the value of the science behind this declaration as

they were with the power of agency and socio-political dimension that

could have influenced and skewed the science in favour of male

circumcision. To many this was a " western conspiracy " :

• " You need to be careful of these Americans who come to African

forums to sell their ideas and to teach to the " stupid Africans. "

• " Appeal to authority is nothing but intellectual laziness or

incompetence. One should actually do a critical analysis of the

evidence itself, and not rely on 'big brother " to do the thinking for

them. "

• " .... For all the good work does he is a hypocrite in

this case. He speaks against programs designed to promote behaviour

change as being 'neocolonialist' yet sees absolutely no problem with

telling African Men what they should be doing with their own bodies. "

Such reactions towards research in general are fairly common and well

documented within medical anthropology journals and mainstream media.

Four years before the article above was published, I had conducted an

ethnographic study on people's knowledge, attitudes and beliefs

towards medical research using a trial on male circumcision as a case

study in a town in western Kenya. For several months, I held hundreds

of interviews and group discussions with the young, the old; the poor

and the not-so poor; both men and women. More often than not, young

urban youth in particular would make similar comments as the ones

above. As an ethnographer, my job was to document and report my

findings. The questions then and now is, are the presence of such

perceptions important enough to address? Do such perceptions have any

impact on the social acceptance of western models of research? Do

populist opinions matter enough to scientists to actually address

them?

I believe it is safe to say that beyond documentation, medical

research has done little to address engaging with public opinion and

understanding why communities hold such opinions probably because it

rarely has a direct impact on the actual studies especially in

poverty stricken environments. There is certainly never any shortage

of participants willing to sign up to a study out of desperation for

the paltry " benefits " offered (free medical care, transport fare,

compensation for time). My experience conducting the ethnography

showed that the very same young men who expressed their anger against

western research stating that " we are just guinea pigs for the

scientists " were the very same people lining up to participate in the

study. This particular study has always been very pro-participant in

terms of addressing their immediate needs such as setting up income

generating activities; increasing compensation for time and providing

medical care but the issue at hand in this particular paper is the

impact web 2.0 is having on widening the paradigm of inclusion.

Whereas once upon time, the academic ivory tower would have easily

been able to ignore the populist paradigm, the increasing presence

and public and accessible documentation of such discourse is pushing

academics to engage and respond within a public domain. No longer can

scientists hide within the exclusive world of journals and peer

review or discuss amongst themselves such perceptions but now must

engage the public domain whether it is conspiracy or not. I believe

one of the main reasons for this is web 2.0 has allowed public

opinion to infiltrate a paradigm that was once only reserved for

scientists. What was once only orally expressed and taken and

documented in the third person by researchers is expressed in writing

first hand by the very people who voice these opinions. Simply put,

the internet has allowed oral opinion to invade the stronghold of the

written word and more importantly that oral opinion can be shared

with millions around the world who would never have known what people

at the grassroots actually believed or felt.

As stated in a conference paper by Luc Van Braekel, " The new age is

the age of opinion not facts. "

Researchers are increasingly using web 2.0 tools. The Economist

recently ran an article examining how web 2.0 is changing the shape

of scientific debate: " With the technology in place, scientists face

a chicken-and-egg conundrum. In order that blogging can become a

respected academic medium it needs to be recognised by the upper

echelons of the scientific establishment. But leading scientists are

unlikely to take it up until it achieves

respectability...Nevertheless, serious science-blogging is on the

rise. The Seed state of science report, to be published later this

autumn, found that 35% of researchers surveyed say they use blogs.

This figure may seem underwhelming, but it was almost nought just a

few years ago " (The Economist, September 2008). However, the issue at

stake here is not about incorporating the tools within the exclusive

domain of research but about using these tools to engage with the

public sphere. Web 2.0 is a direct channel for anyone with access to

the internet to interact and engage with one another on an equal

ground no matter in what social category one is placed.

Blogging itself is an increasingly important paradigm for

communications and it needs to be acknowledged and used. Today, there

are over 72 million blog sites, making the practice of sharing your

daily life and thoughts with the rest of the world one of the fasted

growing areas on the internet.

Moreover, the impact of blogs on our world stretches beyond our

immediate needs to be heard and is being used more and more to effect

change. For example, the first blog-driven political controversy led

to the eventual downfall of a U.S. Senate Leader exposed for his

white supremacist sympathies. Just as one uses the mainstream media

or traditional forms of communicating such as public gatherings, it

is critical to use the World Wide Web. Just about everything that

appears in the papers ends up being discussed on the internet whether

on blogs, social networks, chat forums, comments, etc. Fine, this is

the middle class who have a platform to voice their opinions and they

are a minority of a minority in Africa but they are the ones that sit

smack between the poor and the rich and connect those two worlds

whether they are sitting in a bar and talking it through with a civil

servant or when they return to the rural homes and sit with grandpa

over a glass of a local brew.

As a blogger, I have been fascinated by the onslaught of blog posts,

comments and campaigns (both for and against male circumcision) that

have since emerged and for a brief time dominated the [public] sphere

of public health. One particular post and the comments that followed

caught my attention:

" Luo youths to disrupt a planned force[d] foreskin chopping exercise

launching by VP 'Judas Iscariot' and Beth Mugo. Unsterile medical

surgeon instruments and contaminated multi-dose vial are already in

Luo land, reveals Luo Council of Elders " (MajimboKenya.com, 9th

September 2008).

The title of this post says it all about the content of the article,

but what is of more interest are the public comments framed in a

political context. A few excerpts are reproduced below:

* " This is ridiculous for someone like Kalonzo and Mugo (Kenyatta

family) to lead the onslaught on Luo chopping project, something is

fishy. Luos should support the Mzee Riaga and stop this foolishness

and useless political gimmicks. "

* " Akinyi, thanks for highlighting this subject. Luo must stand

behind the Ker (Luo elder) and stop this act of dictatorship from

Raila. Mugo is a circumcised women [sic] and she is being accused of

secret women circumcision in Central Province, now the Luo are their

project with Kalonzo. Luo women let us stand behind our Ker support

our youths to stop this uncultural move the grand coalition. "

* " Anyang' did not win any election in Kisumu Rural he was imposed on

us by Raila. Now we can understand why Raila wanted him to be a

minister of medical services, to help him circumcise Luo so that

coming next election 2012 Raila wants to show Kikuyu how Luo men no

more have a foreskin.(Foreskin vs. votes project). Raila should know

that we are comfortable with being Kayi as the Kikuyus always call

us. Raila will soon send Mungiki to force our women to circumcised

just Mugo is doing in central province. "

* " I am again highly critical of the fact that our identity as a

people and party is presently under discussion and considerable

debate especially when it comes to this so called 'circumcision'. I

am looking at this as an attempt by some of us and our leaders to use

our cultural and identity pillar as a tool that could be negotiated

even in the elusive search for Kenya's Presidency. This is

unacceptable for it smacks of a deliberate and selfish move to bring

the Luo under the hegemonic tutelage of other communities. I

completely agree with the group that seeks to stop the dilution of

Luo culture through the promotion of circumcision.

Since circumcision as a defining feature of one's identity is so

vital for those that maintain the practice as part of their ethnic

identity, the discourse has become so embedded in the Kenyan social

landscape partially due to the politicisation of ethnicity. The

mutilation of non-circumcised Kenyans during the post-election

violence attests to this and it is indeed a shame to see public

reinforcement of the politicisation of what is essentially a public

health issue coming from what one hopes would be a more informed

community - i.e. the virtual community.

On the ground however, the reality has been very different. Hordes of

young Luo men are prepared to wait hours and even days and, more

surprisingly, are willing to take the chance of knowing their HIV

status before getting circumcised regardless of the fact

that, 'knowing kills' (a statement I heard so often regarding getting

tested). I recently examined the reinvention of the cultural

significance of male circumcision in an article published in Wajibu.

It is worth reiterating here that I never came across this sort of

speak while interviewing people on a one to one basis or within Focus

Group Discussions and neither did my fellow ethnographer while

interviewing in Dholuo. Instead, what we found is that the majority

of Luo say that culture/customs/tradition is not an important factor

in deciding whether or not to circumcise. On a number of occasions

when I explored this issue with informants these issues were raised

only in terms of interactions with other ethnic groups, very broadly

speaking in a sense of acceptance by " the other " . Unlike the comments

above, the percentage of respondents that stated that they would not

circumcise because it is not part of their culture was insignificant.

On the contrary, I came across two Luo councillors who were very

proud to state that they had been circumcised purely for hygienic and

health reasons. One of the conclusions that we drew in our study was

that simply adopting male circumcision does not diminish your

cultural identity. Circumcision does not detract from the essence of

what constitutes you as a person. The question is why, six years

after the ethnography was conducted and male circumcision was

publicly embraced was there a plethora of statements within the

blogosphere against male circumcision based on culture and politics?

Given my involvement with the on male circumcision in Kisumu (western

Kenya), I have maintained contact with the Principle Investigator and

over the past year, we have had several discussions on the importance

of scientists engaging within the blogosphere. From Prof. 's

perspective, it is a question of whether the time taken to engage in

the blogosphere is really worth it as he questions whether the

blogosphere is reaching the necessary target audience (i.e. policy

makers and implementers and local communities):

" First, how many people in Kenya really blog, and if they do blog,

how many go to the site where you go? Precious few in the overall

scheme of things...is it an effective way for me to spend my time if

I want to influence people and policy? Do the MPs and Raila blog? I

don't think so. Does Mister Onyango tilling his shamba in Siaya blog?

I don't think so. Some poor STI-infested drunk poverty-stricken youth

in Obunga blog? I don't think so. For that matter, does the Ker blog?

I don't think so. One has to make choices about how one spends his

time to be effective, and I am not convinced that blogging is IT.

Similarly, if I had the money to hire someone to attend to the blogs -

read them and write to them and post comments - would that be an

effective way to spend our hard-earned funds rather than have that

person out on the streets promoting circumcision or on radio or

writing articles for the Nation. In Kenya, I don't think so... "

My response to my good friend, Prof. :

" The medium is increasingly filtering through to the target

audiences. Civil servants and civil society ranging from social

activists to community health workers and public health researchers;

employees and thousands of others sitting in offices are using the

internet, and their perceptions are being influenced by what they

read. University students would much rather spend 100ksh in a cyber

cafe and download everything they need to cut and paste rather than

spend hours in a library scanning through books looking for something

to put in their papers. The PR machinery around politicians and all

the other spin doctors and fixers are increasingly made up of young

internet savvy people behind the scenes. I am not saying you replace

one medium with another; I am saying we need to embrace this medium.

How different would this be to what you asked me to do years ago: " Go

and hang on the streets and listen to what people are saying and

learn from them. "

* Dipesh Pabari is a Kenyan writer and freelance education and

communications consultant.

* Please send comments to editor@... or comment online at

http://www.pambazuka.org/

December 4, 2008