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Article: Beyond statistics: the AIDS wall in Harare.(research note)
- Article from:
- African Arts
- Article date:
- September 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Regents of the University of California. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When I applied for a Fulbright to work in Zimbabwe in 2000, I knew the bleak statistics about AIDS: a quarter of the country's residents were infected with HIV; millions of its children were already orphaned by the pandemic; life expectancy had plummeted from 63 to 39 years. Still, these were statistics, easy to distance oneself from emotionally, especially from halfway around the world.
As my departure for a five-month stay in Harare grew nearer, however, e-mail messages from a colleague already working in public health in Zimbabwe made me despair about going there as an artist. I hadn't realized the extent of Zimbabweans' denial of AIDS's existence, despite the ...