AIDS AS A PARADOX OF MANHOOD AND DEVELOPMENT IN KILIMANJARO, TANZANIA

When AIDS emerged in the Kilimanjaro region in 1984, many Chagga (the predominant ethnic group in the region) viewed it as a 'disease of dev elopment'. Whereas AIDS was commonly seen in the West as a form of pun ishment for non-reproductive and non-productive lifestyles, in East Af rica it represented paradoxes in reproductive and productive life-espe cially for young, mobile men. This article discusses the emergence of the conditions of risk for HIV among young adults in the 1980s and 199 0s, and then explores the perceptions of local actors about the histor ical and demographic processes that have surrounded the symbolic assoc iations of AIDS. The themes that AIDS evoked were different for men an d women; from one perspective, AIDS was seen as an attenuated crisis o f the productive and reproductive labors of manhood. For people in nor thern Kilimanjaro, this disease illuminated contested issues in histor ical dialogues about social change and the moral value of male partici pation in idealized forms of work and prescribed male/female unions. T he implications of these cultural and demographic realities for AIDS p revention are discussed in the conclusion. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd