Subsistence agriculture makes for a hard life, particularly in areas that are badly hit by HIV. Put farming and Aids together, add drought or disease, and you have a diabolical mixture of circumstances. This assertion has become an article of faith in many African countries, not least South Africa — said to have the highest number of HIV-positive citizens in the world.
No image available
/ 9 February 2005
Msinga, in KwaZulu-Natal, has been hit hard 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. Honouring the dead is putting this community’s livelihood at risk.
Sydney Brenner won the Nobel Prize for Medicine last year and is one of South Africa’s most distinguished scientists. He looked up at the whale skeleton suspended just above his head and quipped: "Now I know how Jonah felt."