I dislike this photo intensely. It looks like something from a jam jar, a hideous caricature of Black women – an act of violence. It comes with this article on gender politics and AIDS.
It talks about “cultural taboos” and rape driving AIDS. But it makes no mention of the rape of lesbians leaving many living with HIV and dying of AIDS.
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A simple search of a non sexist, non racist image bank could have solved this misrepresentation of African women suffering the scourge of HIV and AIDS. With the staggering levels of African women living with HIV or losing their lives because of the onset of AIDS I feel this article deserves something more tangible, visually. As it stands, the image used above is reminiscent of a colonial cartoon or something to that end…
Shocking, and to think that I thought racism was a thing of the past. A sort of neo-colonialsm, if anything. The assumption, in the first place, that AIDS was an African thing didn’t end there. Ever since, African has borne the brunt of such misrepresentation. I’m reminded of some of the images I saw while doing my first degree… Big ears, fat lips and that sort of caricature. Although to some it is just illustrative, or so we are led to believe, the image above is reminiscent of a colonial cartoon or something to that end and rather damaging to the morale of women generally. Surely something more realistic could have been found in a good image bank. African women living with HIV or losing their lives because of the scourge of AIDS deserve better.