Die, the beloved countries: human security and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Conflict is generally recognised as destabilising for society, yet in 1998 alone, 200,000 people died from armed conflicts in Africa, compared with 2.2 million from AIDS, so what is the relationship between disease and instability? Where does HIV/AIDS fit into altered conceptions of “security” and any reassessment of issues pertaining to sustainable development and international politics?

The authors argue that HIV/AIDS has and will continue to have a significant impact on the dynamics of “who gets what, where, when and how” in Southern Africa. The article addresses the socio-political impact of HIV/AIDS in the region. “Human security” is used as the conceptual looking glass through which to ascertain the causes and effects of the unfolding disaster, placing focus on the implications for

• demographics
• food
• political and macro-economic security
• the effect on governments’ ability to provide essential services

The authors conclude that the threat to Southern Africa’s human security is such that those who are not infected, dying and dead from HIV/AIDS are certainly equally affected by the disease. This state of affairs is partly the result of a historical legacy of poverty, creating a confluence of time and space that makes the continent the Armageddon of the disease. The authors believe that though the battle against the disease is being lost, the issue is being ignored by political scientists. The authors ask:

• what the social effects of the missing generation of young adults unable to raise their children will be
• how intra-African peacekeeping operations will be affected by the epidemic which disproportionately affects military personnel
• what the impact of the virus will have on the functioning of state departments in already poorly performing criminal justice systems in Sub-Saharan Africa
• how thirty to forty per cent of the adult population, which is HIV-positive and dying will react when their government decides to spend limited state resources on policing, education or housing instead of building more hospitals and care centres for those infected by the virus

The article concludes by enjoining political and other social scientists to redouble their intellectual efforts at analysing and addressing the origin, prevalence and social consequences of HIV/AIDS.