Aids doesn't show its face

Ever since HIV/AIDS was introduced to the world's consciousness, scientists have aimed to uncover the social and biological mechanisms feeding the epidemic. In his new book, Daniel Jordan Smith utilizes the current AIDS epidemic as a framework to provide an assessment of rising economic and social inequality as well as perceived moral decay in Nigeria. Africa's most populated country has the third highest rate of HIV infection in the world. Smith draws on his 23 years of experience in Nigeria's south-eastern Igbo region, where he has conducted numerous anthropological studies on the relationships between social change and health, along with analyses from previous work including the award-winning A culture of corruption: Everyday deception and popular discontent in Nigeria (2008) to provide credible and extensive evidence of Nigeria's changing economic and moral climate. The volume examines the different spheres of Nigerian life, using individuals' beliefs about and reactions to the epidemic to expose the monumental societal forces of globalization, expansive capitalism, and subsequent social changes in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Smith argues that the causes of the epidemic derive from larger societal shifts that may not always be obviously related to the prevalence of viral spread. For example, in the first chapter, Smith highlights the lure of perceived opportunities and wealth many young Nigerian men associate with urban life. He notes that the prosperous urban opportunities that inspired migration were illusionary, but continued to lead young men to remain in cities to work as okada, or motorcycle taxi drivers, in hopes of future economic success. Smith argues, from the common perspective of many older Nigerians, that urbanization in this context decentralizes the family, fostering individualism and the erosion of traditional morals, leading to increased use of prostitution and, subsequently, exposure to infection. Throughout the book, Smith focuses each chapter on a facet of Nigerian life, namely, urbanization, gender inequality, religion, civil society, kinship, and reproduction, evaluating the moral and societal consequences of change in each area.

Capitalism · Development economics · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Globalization · Igbo · Inequality · Language change · Morality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social change · Sociology · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses · Law

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