28 Stories of AIDS in Africa

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa
AuthorStephanie Nolen
CountryCanada
SubjectHIV/AIDS in Africa
Published1 May 2007
PublisherWalker & Company, Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Pages384
Awards2007 PEN “Courage” Award winner
ISBN978-0802715982

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa is a 2007 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist and author Stephanie Nolen.[1] It tells 28 stories of people who have worked tackling HIV/AIDS in healthcare, as advocates, and people who have been diagnosed as HIV positive and their family members.

The book has been met with widespread critical acclaim from academics, humanitarians, and book reviewers.

It was a national best selling book in Canada.[2]

Background

In 2003, Nolen, an award-winning[3] Canadian journalist, persuaded her superiors at The Globe and Mail to let her investigate and report on the AIDS pandemic in Africa.[4] She relocated to Johannesburg where she spent four years researching every aspect of the pandemic.[4]

Book summary

Zackie Achmat, in 2013

The book profiles 28 Africans who have HIV/AIDS, who have worked in healthcare or advocacy, or have otherwise been affected by the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, noting that 70% of global HIV cases are in sub-Saharan Africa.[5]

The book opens with background material about the work of Nolen, an explanation of HIV/AIDS in lay terms, and notes that 28 stories have been chosen because 28 million people had been infected with HIV/AIDS.[5][4]

Each of the 28 stories opens with a photograph of the person that is the subject of the chapter.[5]

  • Chapter 1 Siphiwe Hlophe who cares for orphans in Swaziland.[6]
  • Chapter 2 Tigist Haile Michael, an Ethiopian school girl orphaned by AIDS[7][8]
  • Chapter 3 Mohammed Ali a Kenyan truck driver[9]
  • Chapter 4 Prisca Mhlolo from Zimbabwe who was assaulted by her own family when she told them her positive HIV status[10]
  • Chapter 5 Regine Mamba, a grandmother[11][12]
  • Chapter 6 Lydia Mungherera, a Ugandan doctor[8]
    Gideon Byamugisha, in 2012
  • Cahpter 7 Noé Sebisaba, a blood donor who was surprised to find himself with an HIV diagnosis[13]
  • Chapter 8 Christine Amisi a Médecins Sans Frontières nurse[4]
  • Chapter 9 Manuel Cossa, a migrant gold miner from Mozambique who worked in South Africa[4]
  • Chapter 10 Cynthia Leshomo of Botswana who worked to reduce stigma[4]
  • Chapter 11 Mfanimpela Thlabatse a farmer in Swaziland who lost his wife and children to HIV/AIDS just months before the treatments became available to his community[14]
  • Chapter 12 Andualem Ayalew an Ethiopian soldier who lost his job and who was denied the opportunity to study abroad because of his HIV status[15][16]
  • Chapter 13 Alice Kadzanja, a nurse in Zomba[4]
  • Chapter 14 Zackie Achmat the famous South African HIV activist[17]
  • Chapter 15 Lefa Khoele from Lesotho who struggled with HIV until he was given medication at age 12[10]
  • Chapter 16 Pontiano Kaleebu a Ugandan doctor working on an HIV/AIDS vaccine[10]
  • Chapter 17 Winstone Zulu the AIDS activist[8]
  • Chapter 18 Agnes Munyiva a Kenyan sex workers who avoided AIDS despite over 2,000 sexual encounters[18][19]
  • Chapter 19 Mpho Segomela a South African child who died of AIDS[19]
  • Chapter 20 Anne Mumbi, a sex worker who avoided AIDS despite the odds[20]
  • Chapter 21 Gideon Byamugisha the Ugandan priest who speaks about the good things he has done, and his failings[21]
  • Chapter 22 Ida Mukuka an AIDS counselor from Lusaka[22]
  • Chapter 23 Anita Manhiça a Mozambique housewife who was infected by her husband, but who was accused of infecting him [23]
  • Chapter 24 Morolake Odetoyinbo who is struggling to live with the virus in Nigeria[24]
  • Chapter 25 Moleen Mudimu who stopped being able to afford the medicine that help keep her alive once the Zimbabwean economy collapsed[8]
  • Chapter 26 Ibrahim Umoru a Nigerian activist[25]
  • Chapter 27 Nelson Mandela whose son died of AIDS[4]
  • Chapter 28 Thokozani Mthiyane a South African who manages his HIV thanks to USAID subsidized medications[26]

The book ends with a chapter about how readers can help.[27]

Critical reception

Stephen Lewis described the book as "the best book ever written about AIDS, certainly the best I've ever read".[28]

The Guardian praised the book for focusing on the stories of people in Africa, rather than USA, and also credited Nolen for linking the stories to culture, society and politics.[1]

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation described the book as "timely, transformative, thoroughly accessible" and described how Nolen writes with "power, understanding and simplicity."[29]

Bono called the book a "formidable book of record."[30]

Laretta Benjamin, an AIDS researcher, described the book as one of the best she has read, complimented Nolan for putting a human face on the statistics.[5]

The New Times of Rwanda described the book as probably the best written account of the history of HIV/AIDS.[4]

James Orbinski said of the book "Read. Weep. Rage. And above all else - like those people described in this book - find the courage to do."[3]

Awards

  • 2007 PEN Canada Paul Kidd Courage Prize (awarded to Nolen for her coverage of the AIDS crisis in Africa)[2][31]
  • 2007 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction, shortlisted[2]

Editions

The book has been published in seven languages in eleven countries,[32] including:

  • Hardcover, Random House, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8027-1598-2.
  • Hardcover, Knopf Canada, 2007, ISBN 978-0-676-97822-3.

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Thirty books to help us understand the world in 2020". The Guardian. 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  2. 1 2 3 "Stephanie Nolen". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  3. 1 2 "Review: 28 Stories of Aids in Africa by Stephanie Nolen". The Guardian. 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "BOOK REVIEW : 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa". The New Times | Rwanda. 2010-01-03. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Benjamin, Laretta (2009-04-24). "FEATURED: 28: STORIES OF AIDS IN AFRICA". The Englewood Review of Books. Archived from the original on 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  6. ↑ "Putting a human face on AIDS". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  7. ↑ Pozez, Gerri. "28 Stories of AIDS in Africa." Journal of International Affairs, vol. 62, no. 2, spring-summer 2009, p. 241. Gale Academic OneFile, Accessed 18 January 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 McCarthy, Mary (2008-07-01). "28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen". Raidió Teilifís Éireann.
  9. ↑ "28 Stories of AIDS in Africa – Global Human Rights Direct". globalhumanrightsdirect.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  10. 1 2 3 "Profiles from the Front Lines of Africa's AIDS War". NPR. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  11. ↑ Malani, Preeti N. (2008-08-06). "28: Stories of AIDS in Africa". JAMA. 300 (5): 591–592. doi:10.1001/jama.300.5.591. ISSN 0098-7484.
  12. ↑ "Twenty-eight stories represent the many faces of HIV-AIDS". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  13. ↑ Greene, Melissa Fay (2007-05-12). "AIDS: up-close, personal, devastating". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  14. ↑ Max, D. T. (2007-06-03). "Don't look away". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  15. ↑ "28 Stories of AIDS in Africa, by Stephanie Nolen - 1022 Words". Bartleby. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  16. ↑ "Tales of Despair and of Triumph Stephanie Nolen Reports on the AIDS Epidemic in Africa". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  17. ↑ "The AIDS beat". The Journal. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  18. ↑ Nolen, Stephanie (2007-05-27). "Staying alive: the women who are immune to Aids". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  19. 1 2 Comfort, Laura. "Will the" fight" ever end?: a critical reading of the metaphors and discourses that construct HIV/AIDS in an African context." (2009).
  20. ↑ "28 Geschichten über Aids". Amnesty International Schweiz (in German). Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  21. ↑ Rice, Andrew (2007-05-24). "An African Solution". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  22. ↑ "Mariposa Grandmothers, on behalf of the Stephen Lewis Foundation will run this event on Apr. 19". Toronto.com. 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  23. ↑ "Reading Guide from 28 | Penguin Random House Canada". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  24. ↑ Umunna, Gregory Ejiogu (2011). HIV/AIDS: Political Will and Hope. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 978-1462869343.
  25. ↑ Robinson, Vicki (July 2007). "Lessons of health and history". Mail & Guardian.
  26. ↑ Nolen, Stephanie (2008-12-12). "Out of Africa". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  27. ↑ Lloyd, Robin (2007-08-07). "Book Review: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa". Toward Freedom. Archived from the original on 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  28. ↑ Stephen Lewis Foundation We're Reading (Archived from the original on April 15, 2008)
  29. ↑ "Books: 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa". CBC Books. 15 Feb 2017.
  30. ↑ "28". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  31. ↑ "Globe reporter's AIDS coverage earns PEN Courage Prize". CBC. 26 Oct 2007.
  32. ↑ "Stephanie Nolen". University of Calgary. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
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