|
November
18, 2002
AIDS
in Africa Is Featured in Exhibit
EVANSTON,
Ill. --- In Africa -- home to 70 percent of the world's adults and
80 percent of the world's children living with HIV -- the campaign
against AIDS by necessity is bold. Women wrap themselves in fabric
inscribed with anti-AIDS messages bordered by images of condoms.
Explicit posters urge passersby to practice safe sex, just say no
and protect themselves against infection. The ubiquitous AIDS ribbon
is reproduced colorfully in beads and distributed widely.
In
support of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 and to raise awareness of the
efforts that Africans themselves are taking to slow the devastating
AIDS crisis, Northwestern University Library is presenting "Celebrating
World AIDS Day: HIV/AIDS in Africa" on the University's Evanston
campus. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
On
the main floor of University Library, 1970 Campus Drive, from Nov.
19 through Dec. 30, the exhibition includes posters, publications,
books, pamphlets, videos, crafts and ephemera from the University's
Herskovits Library that document the AIDS crisis in Africa. The
Herskovits Library is the world's largest separate library devoted
to the study of Africa.
A
highlight of the exhibition -- a large embroidered quilt made by
members of a South African woman's collective -- will be on view
separately from Nov. 26 to Dec. 8 at the nearby Mary and Leigh Block
Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston.
"Reading
about the AIDS crisis in Africa in this country it's easy to think
that there is no hope there," says Herskovits Library curator
David Easterbrook. "We want to give a picture of the incredible
community mobilization, activism and hard work being carried out
by Africans committed to turning the situation on their continent
around." Easterbrook, with Northwestern anthropologist Kearsley
Stewart, co-curated the exhibit.
Visitors
to the Northwestern exhibit will be able to listen to samples of
music created by a Ugandan choral group made up of people living
and coping with HIV/AIDS. The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) Choir,
with a theatre group, travels to towns throughout Uganda, Africa
and the world spreading messages of HIV/AIDS education and hope.
Uganda
has seen a drop in the incidence of AIDS partly as the result of
such mobilization efforts and is viewed by many as an African success
story in the struggle against AIDS, according to Stewart, who has
spent 10 years researching HIV/AIDS in that country. "It marks
the first such decrease on the African continent since the AIDS
epidemic emerged," she notes.
On
a continent where AIDS is expected to claim the lives of approximately
one-third of its current 15-year-olds, the education of teenagers
is crucial. Exhibition visitors will have an
opportunity
to view a segment of "Soul City," a popular TV soap opera
in South Africa that targets teens with its AIDS-related themes
and reaches one in four of that country's residents. Millions tune
in weekly to the show and millions more follow "Soul City"
as a daily radio program.
Materials
from a national print campaign that accompanies "Soul City"
also will be displayed. Capitalizing on the show's popularity, they
reinforce "Soul City's" public health messages. Researchers
have found that regular viewers of the TV program were four times
more likely to practice safe sex than were non-viewers.
Also
on exhibit are examples of traditional African beading crafts that
now are employed in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Women's collectives
create beadwork to raise awareness and money for HIV/AIDS education
and treatment. Numerous beaded cloth sculptures created by members
of one such collective tell stories about people living with and
fighting against HIV/AIDS.
The
quilt on exhibit at the Block Museum of Art from Nov. 26 to Dec.
8 is the work of the Chivirka Group, a woman's collective established
in 1986 to stimulate local economic development and encourage women
to do their traditional embroidery work for a commercial market.
Chivirka means "toil" or "hard work" in the
Tsonga language.
Members
of this collective, like the other artists whose work is part of
"Celebrating World AIDS Day," allocate a portion of all
their earnings to HIV/AIDS social welfare and education programs.
"It's
all about returning to a central feature of African social life
-- the community -- to confront the challenges of this health crisis,"
says Stewart. "With few material resources, Africans have developed
very effective community-based models for the care of people living
with HIV. We, in the United States, have a lot to learn from their
example."
For
information about the exhibition at Northwestern University Library,
contact David Easterbrook at (847) 491-4549. University Library
is closed Thanksgiving Day. For University Library building hours,
call (847) 491-7635. For Block Museum of Art hours, call (847) 491-4000.
|