6.3 Learners’ Understandings of HIV and AIDS
6.3.1 HIV and AIDS knowledge among learners
169
170
First, as reported in the sections above, the learners participating in this study had some factual information about HIV and AIDS which they received from the school programme. For example, some learners referred to HIV as, among others, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system:
HIV stands for Human immune virus (sic) which means that HIV is a virus that lives in human blood. It attacks the body immune system and if not managed it destroys the immune system to the extent that the body becomes unable to protect itself from diseases. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome which is the state whereby the body’s immune system has been destroyed by HIV and it is exposed to infections which the body is unable to fight and the result is death (Nthabiseng, 30 August, 2013).
Others understood it as an outbreak similar to those experienced in the past:
HIV and AIDS is an outbreak just like in the past where there were diseases which were incurable such as leprosy and TB which claimed thousands of lives before a cure could be found and I see HIV and AIDS as no exception (Thato, August, 2013).
Reflecting on prevalent discourses of HIV and AIDS as punishment from God or the ancestors in the country, the learners also understood it as a disease of the poor and the ‘immoral’. They gave examples of the latter as sex workers, people who have extra-marital affairs and women who do not obey cultural norms:
HIV and AIDS is a disease of the poor women who are into commercial sex to earn a living.
The disease is transmitted from one person to the other through unprotected sex and extra marital affairs. Further, it is caused by failure [of women] to adhere to the cultural practices
171
such as not having sexual encounter during the time of mourning the spouse (Lebohang, August, 2013).
While some of the learners’ knowledge about HIV and AIDS may be accurate, others still have inaccurate or inadequate knowledge of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. For example, Lebohang’s response indicates that her understanding of HIV and AIDS is based on myths (for example, the epidemic is a punishment from ancestors because of failure to adhere to cultural practices and customs) and stereotypes (for example, regarding sex workers). Lebohang’s response and those who share her understanding might be influenced by religious and cultural beliefs which privilege morality over sexuality, particularly for young people. Informed by the SIT, which posits that people organise their behaviour towards things and people based on the meaning that they attach to those things and people (Charon, 2009), this thesis argues that these varying levels of understandings and knowledge are likely to affect the ways in which the learners respond to the epidemic. The learners’
understanding tends to be clouded by myths which, if not dispelled, might contribute to the escalating rates of HIV infection among young people.
This is not unique to Lesotho. Population-based studies show that while more than 90% of people ever heard of HIV and AIDS, young people still have varied forms of understanding of the epidemic (Burgoyne and Drummond, 2008; Vinod, Agrwal, Alva and Gu, Shanxiao Wang, 2009). For example, as reported in Chapter Two, young people in Cameroon, like others elsewhere in Sub- Sahara Africa (SSA), still have a mixture of beliefs and misconceptions about HIV transmission and prevention (Bankole, Singh, Woog and Wulf, 2004). A few of them reported accurate HIV and AIDS knowledge. For example, according to the Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS, 2004), 27% of females and 35% of males aged between 15 and 29 years of age reported accurate HIV
172
knowledge. This thesis assumes that understanding HIV transmission and prevention is the key to reducing infections. Inadequate understanding is likely to lead to poor decision making about HIV prevention and might make it difficult for people to engage with and respond to the various contextual factors that impact on their responses to the epidemic.
Secondly, a letter written by one of the learners at Lilomo High School in a letter writing workshop in this study further illustrates the ways in which the learners’ levels of understanding were characterised by myths, misconceptions and misinformation. The anonymous letter writing activity was used with the assumption that the learners might feel free to express themselves better than in a face-to-face interview. This is even more so in a context where talking about issues that involve sex and sexuality between adults and young people is taboo. To explore the phenomenon, I engaged Grade 10 learners in a letter writing activity using the following prompt:
Grade 10 learners were taught about prevention of HIV and AIDS. After school a boy named Metsi asked his friends (Lejoe, Mobu, Sefate, Thupa and Lekhala) how they felt about their HIV and AIDS education session! Hm! It was as if they were waiting for Metsi’s question.
Write a letter to your teacher describing what your friends’ responses to Metsi’s question were.
Thabang’s letter illustrates:
Dear Madam,
In the special AIDS day session for boys in Form C [Grade 10], the students were taught about prevention and management of HIV and AIDS. After school, Metsi and his friends,
173
Mobu, Lekhala, and Sefate walked together and chatted about the events of that day. Metsi asked his friends how they felt about the lesson on HIV prevention and management. As if they had been waiting for this question, they answered with gusto. Sefate said he learnt that some things that have to be avoided in pursuit of combating HIV and AIDS are to abstain, avoid sex before marriage, to avoid unprotected sex and he seemed to be in support of them all. Metsi concurred. However, Lekhala disagreed. He said that the lesson did not sit well with him. When asked what he meant, he told his friends that a man cannot live a healthy life without having sex. He alleged that abstinence, in some circumstances causes madness as a man’s blood will rush to his head in such circumstances. He said a man who is not engaging in sexual activity loses his manhood in a way that he becomes useless. He also said a woman who abstains becomes rather bitter. He went on to say that he would not self-destruct by abstaining and intends to engage in sexual activities with many women. He also claimed that condoms have been created by white men to the detriment of black people and that condoms actually make people sicker or more prone to sickness. Because of this, he doesn’t like condoms because the idea of having sex with a condom is simply similar to eating candy with its wrap on. Sefate also says that the perfect sexual satisfaction is brought about by having sex without a condom and that condoms cause kidney disease. Mobu also agreed that condoms even suffocate men.
Metsi asked his friends whether or not they see the importance of this particular lesson.
Lekhala maintained that the lesson was fruitless, that there was nothing like HIV and that people were dying from being bewitched. Agreeing with Lekhala, Sefate also said that Africans have certain beliefs which would be destroyed by these western things such as condoms. According to him, a black man was never built to have one sexual partner, and that
174
a black (African) man’s pride is the number of women he sleeps with. Metsi tried to convince his friends to take note of the contents of the lesson in question, but all was in vain.
Your student,
Thabang
The above letter illustrates how the learners’ understanding of HIV and AIDS includes myths (abstinence causes madness for the man; HIV and AIDS is caused by witchcraft) and denial (there is no such thing as HIV). To further probe these forms of understanding, I followed the letter writing activity with focus group discussions in which I discussed with the learners in more detail, their views about HIV and AIDS. Data analysis suggests that the letter above is typical of the various views that the learners had, which included various myths, misconceptions and misinformation about HIV and AIDS. These included, among others, that condoms reduce sexual pleasure, abstinence causes madness; condoms give people diseases, and HIV is a western conspiracy against African people and their culture.