allAfrica.com: Senegal: Women - Vulnerable but Vital Campaigners Against AIDS (Page 1 of 2)

The Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, while acknowledging that his country has achieved some success fighting HIV/AIDS, insists it is far from enough: "We are living a tragedy in Africa now, because of the destruction of our population caused by a disease we cannot cure. I think what we can do now is to strengthen and improve our efforts at prevention."

At the forefront of that battle, Wade considers, are the women of Senegal. "Take any given woman in any given neighbourhood," he said. "If she gathers together a group of ten or twenty women and she talks to them - without fanfare, without drums or trumpets - and explains the problems of AIDS so that it sinks in, then we will make progress. And that is possible in Senegal."

That is precisely the role played by Aminata N’diaye, the vice-president of the Association of Women of Niomré, a village in northern Senegal with an overwhelmingly Muslim population of about five thousand, located near the main town of Louga.

From her village alone, about 400 men have left to find jobs in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the United States and even farther afield, although some have stayed closer to home, crossing borders into neighbouring countries.

N’diaye says this exodus presents a problem. Often the men leave behind a wife and family. They return to Senegal when they can, but sometimes these home visits come after several years’ absence. While abroad, the men may have had other partners and become infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, although they may be unaware because they may not have been tested. They then pass the virus on to their spouses or girlfriends.

Sure enough, AIDS has begun to spread in Niomré. The village chief, Serigne Thierno Lo, says there have been more cases reported in his village in the past four to six years.

The religious dimension to all aspects of life and culture in Senegal is ever-present in Niomré, among men and women. Chief Lo says he believes AIDS is the 'divine will’ (of Allah). The only way to stop the spread of the disease, adds Lo, is for us "to change our behaviour and remain faithful", which he says is happening in his village. "The truth is, if everyone just stayed where they were meant to be, as they should be doing, then AIDS simply couldn’t spread."

But Aminata N’diaye says the women in her village are confronted with a cultural dilemma, a consequence of the migration of Niomré’s men and what happens while they are overseas.

Lo, the chief, is open about the fact that the cultural practices of polygamy and spousal inheritance (sometimes called wife inheritance) still exist in Niomré. According to this custom, a widow is remarried to either the brother or a close relative of her deceased husband.

The trouble is that her spouse may have been living abroad and may have contracted AIDS, and passed on the virus to her before he dies. Chief Lo stresses that these matters remain highly sensitive in Niomré, and elsewhere, because of the stigma still attached to the disease. 'Our culture is to be discreet’, he says, so the cause of death may not have been publicly acknowledged.

The tradition of remarrying widows to their husbands’ relatives thus risks becoming a factor in the rapid propagation of AIDS, a reality others in Kenya and other African countries have also had to face.

President Wade acknowledges that the prevalence of HIV infection is higher in areas of his country, such as Niomré, thanks to the constant migration. "It seems that the virus comes from outside. We have lots of Senegalese who come and go, in and out of the country. And in their areas of origin, the prevalence rate is higher. So, if we can convince the wives of these migrants that they must take even more precautions than other women, and protect themselves even more, then that’s important."

N’diaye and the women’s groups in Niomré agree with him and discuss these issues among themselves. They have concluded that they must put pressure on their menfolk, especially those who leave the village and live abroad, to have HIV tests and inform their wives of their status, so that everyone can take precautions.

But those willing to discuss these matters in Niomré also agree that it is an uphill struggle, because AIDS and HIV remained taboo in their village and are not topics aired publicly. N’diaye and others say individual counselling is a matter of choice and not obligation.

Wade recommends that his compatriots living in other countries, in Senegalese 'villages abroad’ as he puts it, be it in France, Gabon, the US or elsewhere, "must be sensitized to the problems of AIDS. Even if in those countries AIDS is not a priority, for the Senegalese abroad we must make it a priority. And that goes especially for our compatriots living in high HIV prevalence zones in East Africa and elsewhere. We really have to implement these policies, but the most important thing is education, information and communication - and people must go for HIV tests."

In Louga, a town not far from Niomré, some professional and amateur actors and musicians use a colourful, dynamic and entertaining theatre performance as an education tool, to tell a story of 'wife inheritance’ - and the hazards and possible tragic consequences - to an audience that is predominantly young, Muslim and committed to the fight against AIDS.

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