Life is so intricate that it is not wise to make sweeping statements. One person’s experience does not constitute a philosophy. It is not a good idea to jump to the conclusion that the person who has come up with the fact that marriage is a cause of AIDS in Africa is wrong. It is his or her subjective opinion, probably drawn from an experience or experiences he or she has had.

This writer lived in Zambia thirteen years ago for three years and during that time a very large percentage of the nation was being decimated through AIDS. One of the cultural practices that aided in the spread of this ominous disease was the practice of “cleansing”. When someone lost a spouse, a relative (often a married one) would have to have sex with them to “cleanse” them so that the spirit of the dead spouse would not haunt the bereaved family. This was of course regardless of what the person had died of.

This cultural practice caused AIDS to proliferate since a lot of people who died, died of AIDS. However, the vast majority of those who died of AIDS in Zambia at the time were unmarried people who indulged in a promiscuous lifestyles.

Then from Zambia this writers family moved to Mauritania, an Islamic state at the time. Men were allowed to marry up to four wives at a time. If he divorced one of his wives, he was allowed to replace her with another wife, thus maintaining the four wives that he was legally allowed to marry. However, an interesting phenomenon is that AIDS was almost non-existent in Mauritania. In the three years that the family lived there, there was only one known personally who had died of Aids. This was a stark contrast to the situation in Zambia where in three years the family personally knew twenty-five people who had succumbed to the disease. Not to mention that hundreds were dying daily of those this family did not personally know.

Polygamy is prevalent amongst the Maasai people of Kenya where the men marry up to six or seven wives, yet it is the tribe with the least cases of AIDS.

AIDS is prevalent in Africa as a result of many reasons. It is believed that one of the main reasons is because most governments have not seen it as the pandemic that it is. There are governments who are looking away, hoping that the pandemic would just vanish one day.

The youth need to be taught openly about AIDS and this can be integrated into the education systems. In some cultures, it is not believed that AIDS exists. They believe that it is a curse! Aids is most prevalent among the unmarried. Unfortunately Aids is decimating the most productive individuals in Africa (15 to 35-year-olds).