Abstract

This Talk is part of the Centre of African Studies Lent term Seminar Series: Gender in Africa

Writing of Zambia and Tanzania at the height of the HIV /AIDS epidemic, Baylies and Bujra (2000) argued that the epidemic might well possess strong liberatory potential to free both men and women from the prison of particular constructions of gender prevalent in the region. My paper will review the course and consequences of the last thirty years of HIV /AIDS in Zambia, both the progression of the epidemic and responses to it. Drawing on my long-term fieldwork, I will focus on constructions of masculinities among a group of Catholic mission-educated men and their families and friends in Zambia. I will discuss my ongoing research with particular reference to the introduction of medical male circumcision as a prevention against HIV , and more recently, against cervical cancer.