The fields of the Msinga Valley in the heart of KwaZulu-Natal show the merest trace of green. This is partially because of the modest rainfall in the region this summer, but mainly because many fields simply haven’t been cultivated.
Msinga is in the province hardest hit by HIV/Aids and the number of funerals in the district has risen dramatically in recent years. According to custom, farmers will not work their fields for one week after the death of a man and two days after the death of a woman. As the number of funerals rises each week, farmland lies fallow, exacerbating the already high levels of poverty in this dry, remote area.
Families tend to seek traditional explanations for disease, such as the alienation of ancestors, instead of seeking medical diagnoses. Many use their savings, sell livestock or take out loans for rituals to pacify the ancestors and to pay traditional healers. Relatively large amounts are expended on funerals and ceremonies for unveiling tombstones. Cattle herds have become smaller, as animals are slaughtered and sacrificed to the ancestors.
The social and economic consequences are becoming patently obvious. Income generated by cattle farmers has decreased, leaving many men unable to pay lobola. As experienced farmers succumb to Aids-related illnesses, there has been an immense loss of agricultural skills, such as ploughing, herding and preparation of traditional medicines for cattle. These deaths mean that essential knowledge and skills are not being passed on to the next generation.
“Society hasn’t adapted its traditions to the Aids pandemic,” says Rauri Alcock, manager of the Church Agricultural Project (CAP) and chairperson of MidNet, a network of Midlands NGOs. “In Msinga, culture is stronger than death. There is enormous social pressure to obey traditions.”
Alcock says the pandemic has severely hampered rural development and he has seen poverty levels rise slowly, but affect broad sections of the community. “Aids is affecting everything we do. There are families who have been rich and powerful and who are poverty-stricken today because of Aids,” he says.
The stigma associated with Aids means many families have withdrawn from community life rather than drawing on social networks for physical, financial and emotional support. As a result, children are taken out of school to save money or to act as caregivers for the ill and to do household chores. Women generally become primary carers, leaving them with less time to work the fields or generate alternate sources of income for the household.
Analysts warn that the changes wreaked by Aids on African rural villages are systemic and that these communities may never recover. “The communities’ understanding and knowledge of Aids is key for its development and sustainability,” says Alcock.
The CAP educates residents on subsistence farming, and offers loans to those who complete the course. It also runs a vegetable garden project for women, and allows farmers to graze their own cattle on the project’s farm in return for their labour doing field rehabilitation.
Each week the 2 500ha CAP farm sees an average of 10 funerals. Although the dead used to be buried in a family’s cattle kraal, the first graveyards have been established, as kraals filled up too quickly.
“Aids is a big dilemma to our work. People don’t work because of [the large number of] funerals, which ruins our crops,” says Thoko Ximba, a CAP fieldworker. “But there is nothing we can do to change traditions.”
The pandemic aggravates already difficult living conditions. More than 45% of Msinga’s economically active population is unemployed and almost half of households have an income of less than R18 000 a year. Nearly 70% of the population is illiterate.
The area seems to have fallen through the cracks of the provincial HIV-awareness campaigns, with residents saying they are not aware of any such campaigns. Development workers in the area say this may be because Msinga is renowned for gun-running and marijuana trade, and has also suffered from high levels of crime and violence. Residents say that even the police hesitate to come to the area.
Rather than watch HIV/Aids rapidly destroy the gains farmers have made over several generations, CAP decided to initiate its own action and plans to integrate Aids education in its agricultural programme.
Msinga is a conservative area largely controlled by tribal authorities, so the organisation’s first step will be to meet with the authorities of the six Msinga tribes to discuss ways to make Aids a subject of communal dialogue. “Change can only come from discussions within the community rather than from ‘lecturing’ people, and only if tribal authorities are part of the effort,” says Alcock.
The NGO also plans to work with provincial government agencies and the Aids clinic of the Church of Scotland hospital in Tugela Ferry, which is located about 70km from the CAP farming area. The hospital operates 13 satellite and two mobile clinics, but since the Msinga area covers about 1 800km2 and includes 160 000 people, there are still many who live out of reach of these health-care facilities.