HIV Exceptionalism
Development through Disease in Sierra Leone
Adia Benton
Rachel Carson Prize, Society for the Social Studies of Science
Have HIV/AIDS-focused development programs ignored wider health crises in Africa?
In 2002, Sierra Leone emerged from a decade long civil war. Seeking international attention and development aid, its government faced a dilemma. Though devastated by conflict, Sierra Leone had a low prevalence of HIV. However, like most African countries, it stood to benefit from a large influx of foreign funds specifically targeted at HIV/AIDS prevention and care. In HIV Exceptionalism Adia Benton chronicles how Sierra Leone reoriented itself as a country suffering from HIV at the expense of other, more pressing health concerns.
"A keenly observed case study." —Foreign Affairs
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In 2002, Sierra Leone emerged from a decade long civil war. Seeking international attention and development aid, its government faced a dilemma. Though devastated by conflict, Sierra Leone had a low prevalence of HIV. However, like most African countries, it stood to benefit from a large influx of foreign funds specifically targeted at HIV/AIDS prevention and care.
What Adia Benton chronicles in this ethnographically rich and often moving book is how one war-ravaged nation reoriented itself as a country suffering from HIV at the expense of other, more pressing health concerns. During her fieldwork in the capital, Freetown, thirty NGOs administered internationally funded programs that included HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Benton probes why HIV exceptionalism—the idea that HIV is an exceptional disease requiring an exceptional response—continues to guide approaches to the epidemic worldwide and especially in Africa, even in low-prevalence settings.
In the fourth decade since the emergence of HIV/AIDS, many today question whether the effort and money spent on this health crisis has helped or exacerbated the problem. HIV Exceptionalism reveals the unanticipated consequences of HIV/AIDS development programs.
Awards
Winner, 2017 Rachel Carson Prize, Society for the Social Studies of Science
$22.50 paper ISBN 978-0-8166-9243-9
$79.00 cloth ISBN 978-0-8166-9242-2
192 pages, 4 b&w photos, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 2015
Adia Benton is assistant professor of anthropology at Brown University.
A keenly observed case study.
Foreign Affairs
HIV Exceptionalism will be a fine addition to both institutional and personal libraries, offering insights for global health and development scholars, and particularly for HIV/AIDS researchers.
African Studies Review
Through fine-grained accounts describing how individuals navigated new structures, new relationships, and new expectations that came along with being beneficiaries of global HIV funding, Benton reveals that jagged edges and uncomfortable truths about broader global-local health encounters. This book tells a compelling story about an entire society adapting to a sudden infusion of donor money for a disease that, in this particular context, barely existed.
Anthropological Quarterly
Benton recovers numerous silences and opens a conversation foregrounding the unarticulated moral epistemologies people struggle with.
Journal of African History
Benton adeptly dissects the psychological and practical effects of the well-meaning but often overbearing world of development. HIV Exceptionalism is strongly argued and impressively researched.
The Lancet
This book serves as a critical call to those in the public health field to be wary of health programming that so imbalances comprehensive healthcare services in an effort to target a health problem that is perceived as exceptional, emergent and urgent.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Contents
Preface
Introduction: HIV Exceptionalism in Sierra Leone: Christiana’s Story
Part I. The Exceptional Life of HIV in Sierra Leone
1. The HIV Industry in Postwar Sierra Leone
2. Exceptional Life, Exceptional Suffering: Enumerating HIV’s Truths
Part II. Becoming HIV-Positive
3. The Imperative to Talk: Disclosure and Its Preoccupations
4. Positive Living: Hierarchies of Visibility, Vulnerability, and Self-Reliance
Part III. HIV and Governance
5. For Love of Country: Model Citizens, Good Governance, and the Nationalization of HIV
Conclusion: The Future of HIV Exceptionalism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About This Book
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Foreign Affairs reviews 'HIV Exceptionalism'
Tiny Spark interview with Adia Benton, author of 'HIV Exceptionalism'
HIV Disclosure: Privacy, Pressure & Public Health - Interview with Adia Benton
Foreign Affairs reviews 'HIV Exceptionalism'
"A keenly observed case study of the impact of foreign aid on local practices in very poor countries."
Tiny Spark interview with Adia Benton, author of 'HIV Exceptionalism'
Tiny Spark interview with Adia Benton, author of 'HIV Exceptionalism'
HIV Disclosure: Privacy, Pressure & Public Health - Interview with Adia Benton
Tiny Spark interview with Adia Benton on 'HIV Exceptionalism'