Philippe Talavera, an HIV/AIDS activist, filmmaker and head of the Red Ribbon campaign in Namibia, gave an address titled, “Cultural Diversity: Its impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS in Namibia,” on Sunday, Oct. 26 in Whitley Auditorium. Details...
Talavera visited the Elon campus Oct. 19-26 for a series of presentations about the AIDS epidemic in his country. He was Elon’s second Periclean-in-Residence as part of Project Pericles, a national initiative that encourages civic engagement and social responsibility among college students.
Talavera is director of the Ombetja Yehinga Organization, which specializes in the development of education material about HIV/AIDS for Namibian youth. He has directed and produced several videos and short films to help break taboos and discuss sensitive issues, including “The Hyena’s Disease,” which makes use of songs and poems written by teenagers in the Kunene region of Namibia.
During Sunday night’s presentation, Talavera explained why the HIV/AIDS rate in Namibia, a country of 1.8 million people and 11-13 different cultural groups, rose from 4.2 percent in 1992 to 23.3 percent in 2002, despite the best efforts of activists like himself.
“We did not acknowledge early enough the importance of cultural diversity in the spread of HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Talavera explained that some traditional cultures have contributed to the spread of the virus through unsafe sexual practices and a lack of education and female empowerment. He also explained that Namibia’s emerging urban culture has helped spread the virus as people leave their traditional homes and encounter new lifestyles.
One problem for AIDS activists in Namibia, Talavera noted, has been the different cultural attitudes of the cultures there towards sex. For example, Talavera said that to many groups in the country, abstinence and faithfulness are a foreign concept.
“You’ve got all this money going into programs to promote a concept that does not exist,” he said.
Although Talavera pointed to a number of cultural challenges in overcoming the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Namibia, he said that efforts by his and other groups to promote HIV/AIDS awareness through art have been largely successful, and that increasing rates of higher education in the country may help slow the spread of the epidemic.
“I really believe that hope lies in the young people,” he said.