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In Swaziland, 'Secret Lovers' Confronted in Fight Against AIDS
Activist Gcebile Ndlovu, 44, organized a protest against ads that she says blamed victims. "Don't tell me how many people to have sex with," she says.
(Photos By Craig Timberg -- The Washington Post)
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"Those are the people who are doing the damage!" callers raged, Dlamini recalled.
It was about this same time, AIDS activists say, that children of women with HIV began asking their mothers, "Do you have a makhwapheni?" In other families, the frenzy stirred up by the campaign, activists said, prompted at least a few families to banish relatives who were open about having HIV.
"It was saying, women are prostitutes, women are the ones bringing HIV into the home as if it was us who were bringing HIV here," said Siphiwe Hlophe, 47, a friend of Ndlovu's who helped organize the protests.
But von Wissell was convinced that the message, even if it upset some, was working. And in the face of attack, he had decided not on surrender but on a tactical retreat. In meetings with Ndlovu and other activists, he vowed to resume the campaign, with an important concession. The word at the center of the controversy, makhwapheni, would be used no more.
The new campaign, which includes television ads, began in late September, two months after the makhwapheni messages were suspended.
The changes are not nearly enough for Ndlovu, though she says that she has lost the will to continue the fight. "Even now," she said, her soft voice cracking with hurt, "the messages are the same. And because I'm quiet, Siphiwe is quiet, no one is saying anything about it."
Von Wissell was not entirely pleased with the outcome, either, fearing that the loss of his shocking slogan watered down the impact of the ads. Preliminary research on the makhwapheni campaign, conducted for the AIDS commission, showed tremendous reach throughout Swaziland.
Among Swazis surveyed, 86 percent had heard of the campaign, and despite the controversy, 91 percent agreed with its message warning against the dangers of multiple sexual partners, and 78 percent said it made them consider changing their own sexual behavior. The study was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
It is far too soon to tell whether the makhwapheni campaign, or its toned-down successor, caused changes that will lower Swaziland's HIV rate.
The AIDS activists who opposed it remain doubtful.
"I wonder how many Swazis are now faithful to their partners?" Hlophe said with a skeptical smile. "It did not make any difference."
But one man it did affect was Ndlangamandla, the newspaper editor.
Years of watching Swazis die, including several friends, did not force him to accept that his fondness for girlfriends endangered him and his wife, and ran the risk of making their two children orphans. The makhwapheni campaign -- and especially the conversations it provoked -- did.
"I will be at the bar," Ndlangamandla said, "but you'll never find me with another woman. I'm scared."
