ABSTRACT
If we relinquish the compulsion to separate true representations of AIDS from false ones and concentrate instead on the process and consequences of representation and discursive production, we can begin to sort out how particular versions of truth are produced and sustained, and what cultural work they do in given contexts. Such an approach…raises questions not so much about truth as about power and representation. (Treichler, 1989, p. 48)
The prevalence of HIV infection in Africa and the question of the origins of HIV are contentious and much debated topics. The scientific validity of the African origin theory has been called into question, and the ‘Green Monkey Theory’ (the idea that HIV originated among African monkeys and then spread to human beings) has now been rejected by some of the scientists who first propounded it (Chirimuuta and Chirimuuta, 1989). The prevalence of infection in different African countries is also not a straightforward matter. For example, the early HIV antibody test cross-reacted with the antibodies to malarial plasmodium, ‘resulting in a huge number of false positive results’ (Patton, 1990, p. 26). Black scientists, activists, grassroots workers and researchers have challenged the assumptions of much Western scientific theorizing about the origins of HIV, and analysts of the media have highlighted racist subtexts in reporting about AIDS and Africa (see Adams, 1989: Chirimuuta and Chirimuuta, 1989; Critical Health, 1988; Patton, 1990; Sabatier, 1988; Watney, 1988).
