ABSTRACT

This chapter examines AIDS in Kinshasa, Zaire, a large city of 4 million inhabitants, where many sexually active people are at risk. Two case studies of women in Kinshasa are used to show how HIV / AIDS is related to both socioeconomic conditions and to other health issues. Women are especially at risk because of their poverty, their relative powerlessness in the overall organization of Zairian society, and their subordinate position with respect to men. In 1987, Nsanga was twenty-six years old and very poor. In 1989, Nsanga said, "Many men now avoid pickups because the mass media have identified 'prostitutes' as a source of AIDS infection. Women in Mbeya's circle were dubious about the value of the government's AIDS-prevention messages. In addition to advising men to "avoid prostitutes" and "stick to one partner", information campaigns urged people to avoid blood transfusions and to use disposable injection syringes.