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Still hoping even as the tears fall

Bryan Born

I didn’t go to Africa as a prophet of doom, but there are times when it seems that forecasting disastrous news has become part of my job description. Often I’ve been involved in discussions with African pastors where the topic has been the rapidly growing number of deaths. A common lament is how busy they’ve become just ministering to the bereaved and conducting funerals. They have little time to concentrate on building up their congregations. “When will the young people stop dying”? they want to know. As they’ve looked to me for a comforting answer, I have felt a little like one of the Old Testament prophets as I’ve replied, “It’s going to get much worse before it gets any better.”

There is no joy in prophesying disaster, but it must be admitted that HIV/AIDS is ravaging Africa. Over two-thirds of the 33 million people infected with HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS/World Health Organization). While the percentages of those infected have dropped in some of the more northerly countries, southern Africa has now become the epicentre of the AIDS disaster. For the past seven years, we’ve been living in Botswana, a country situated right in the middle of southern Africa. Today Botswana, with 17% of its 1.5 million people believed to be HIV positive, has the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage of HIV positive people in the world.

In some areas of the country, the situation is completely out of control. A survey of pregnant women in various areas of the country revealed that one-third of all pregnant women tested HIV positive (Botswana AIDS/STD Unit). Selebi Phikwe, the town where we spent our first six years, topped the list with 49.9% of all pregnant women testing positive! Can you imagine that scenario in Abbotsford, Regina or Kitchener?

Children like these are feeling the effects of HIV/AIDS as their parents are quickly passing from the scene. They are often left to grandparents or left to fend for themselves.

Although we as foreigners cannot fully identify with the people of Botswana, we often find ourselves crying out with Jeremiah: “Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” (Jeremiah 8:21-22).

As staggering as the statistics are, it’s watching one’s friends die that hurts the most. What does one say to the young woman wasting away with one sickness after another? How does one comfort the aging grandmother who has buried four of her own children and now is left with the task of raising the six children they left behind? Who has the wisdom to help a friend understand the implications of his case of shingles/herpes, once a disease suffered only by the aged but now an almost 100% accurate way of diagnosing the onslaught of AIDS?

Many are asking, “Why is AIDS ravaging the continent of Africa?” In 1992, when we arrived in Botswana, most people knew nothing about AIDS. Many didn’t even believe that it existed. When people began to die of the disease, traditional causes such as witchcraft, ancestral curses and transgression of sexual taboos were blamed. At funerals today, these are still suggested as possible causes of death to avoid the stigma of admitting that a loved one has died of a “sexual” disease. Since human sexuality is not openly discussed, most people try to avoid the issue by saying that someone who died of AIDS was “just sick”. Unwilling to change their behaviour, many would rather simply deny the personal reality of AIDS.

This wholesale denial has allowed a disastrous situation to get worse. The countries of southern Africa have a serious problem with sexual promiscuity. Starting around the time most African countries gained independence from their colonial overlords in the 1950s and 60s, numerous societal changes have taken place, all with the result that the traditional African family has come under serious attack. Rapid urbanization has had dramatic consequences. As people moved to towns and away from the authority of village structures, the limits of morally acceptable behaviour have been stretched to the breaking point. Add in the problems of migrant labour (men working for long periods away from home), poverty and alcohol abuse, and one has a recipe for family breakdown and sexual licence.

While it is true that marriage is still held in high regard, one finds fewer and fewer Africans actually getting married. Most young people do not believe that abstinence is desirable or even possible. Young men must prove their virility by becoming sexually active, while young women display their maturity by bearing children. Hospitals report that over 80% of all children are born to unwed mothers. These women often find themselves in financial difficulties and are thus tempted to form short-term sexual relationships with various men; the men promise to meet their pressing material needs, but often just leave them with another mouth to feed, and a deadly virus.

A funeral in Botswana.

“They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).

As was the case in Jeremiah’s day, Africa has no shortage of false prophets offering worthless, even dangerous counsel. Traditional doctors have been quick to claim the ability to heal AIDS, and many a suffering family has exhausted its savings trying to help a dying child. Even more repugnant has been the idea that sex with a virgin can cleanse a man of the disease. Using money to lure young girls into their hands, older men have thus attempted to heal themselves, but have only succeeded in planting the seeds of death.

But perhaps the greatest piece of propaganda has been foisted on Africa by Western health officials. Afraid to address the moral issues surrounding AIDS, the West has promoted the condom as Africa’s saviour. While the use of condoms has risen steadily, HIV infection rates have continued to skyrocket. Why? Botswana’s AIDS/STD Unit pinpointed the answer when it discovered that as condom use increased, so did high risk sexual behaviour. Lured into a false sense of security, many have bought into the line, “Condomize and stay alive.” Unfortunately, reality has proven that claim to be false.

Recently, however, some African governments have started spreading a new message. Thabo Mbeki, the new president of South Africa, has appealed to his people to change “the way we live and how we love,” and has encouraged abstinence and fidelity. Governments across the region are calling upon the church to become more involved in this struggle.

“Why have You afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror” (Jeremiah 14:19).

How has the African church responded? Like the Western church, the initial response to the AIDS crisis was either silence or the claim that AIDS is God’s judgement on sexual sin. Whereas the sin identified in North America was homosexual practice, here in Africa it was fornication and adultery. For years, churches have done little to address the issue. Sadly, one of the reasons for this lack of response was the high level of sexual misconduct among church members, including the leadership.

Now churches are adopting a more positive approach. This change in attitude is summed up in the words of Ugandan David Zac Niringiye: “I propose to you that HIV/AIDS is not a problem to the church. It is an opportunity for the church. HIV/AIDS is not a curse! It is an opportunity for us to see God’s grace manifested” (AIDS in Africa: The Church’s Opportunity). In Botswana, the church at large set aside September 1999 to pray that God would intervene in this crisis. Pastors are becoming more open to addressing from the pulpit the various issues surrounding AIDS. Young people are asking questions and openly discussing how they can follow God’s pattern of abstaining from sex until marriage.

More than just teaching about HIV/ AIDS, churches are taking an active role in ministering to those suffering with AIDS and their families. Counselling centres are being established to provide encouragement and practical support. Sadly, many people, upon discovering that they are HIV positive, have decided to end their lives instead of facing the difficult days ahead. Helping people come to terms with their present condition and enabling them to face the future is not easy, but, as those who have a hope, Christians are beginning to rally to the challenge.

Two other important areas of ministry are home-based care and caring for orphans. As government health care systems have become overloaded, more and more AIDS sufferers are being sent home to die. Families are often at a loss to know how to care for them. Churches have recognized the extent of the problem and are mobilizing groups to provide home-based care for AIDS patients, as well as educating caregivers so that the disease is not passed on.

The growing number of orphans is presenting a special challenge. While the traditional African extended family is doing its best to cope, the problem has become enormous. By next year, Botswana expects to have 65,000 orphans out of a population of just 1.5 million. Many families just don’t have enough food to go around, and many children are ending up on the streets. One of the large churches in the capital city has begun a feeding program for these destitute children, and plans are underway to provide more assistance. In other areas of the country, similar programs are being set up, not just to feed the children but to equip them with the skills, knowledge and faith that will enable them to experience a decent life.

Young people from one of the independent churches in Gaborone – the age group most at risk today in Botswana.

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. . . . Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail” (Lamentations 3:19, 21).

Recently, I helped a friend conduct a funeral for a 30-year-old single mother of two, a member of his church. The service went smoothly, and soon we were at the graveyard, lowering the casket into the ground. As we did so, I glanced over at the two children she had left behind. The young boy stood awkwardly, biting his lip, trying not to cry, while his older sister turned away and began to sob bitterly. The tears formed in my own eyes, and I wondered what would become of them. The churches of their village have organized an orphan care program, and have also started a counselling centre. Perhaps they’ll receive the physical, social and spiritual care they need, but there are so many orphans just like them. I walked over to them, kneeled down and prayed for them briefly. As we stood together, I was still trying to hope even as our tears fell.

Statistics How many people are living with HIV/AIDS today? . . .worldwide: 33.4 million . . .in sub-Saharan Africa: 22.5 million . . .in North America: 890,000  – UNAIDS/WHO In Africa. . . In Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, more than one person in five between the ages of 15 and 49 has HIV or AIDS.  – UNAIDS/WHO In 1998, there were over 5,500 funerals a day in Africa for people dying of AIDS – more than 2 million for the year. Already, at least 9 million Africans have died of AIDS.  – UNAIDS/WHO From 1998 to 1999, the number of people dying daily from AIDS in Zimbabwe has more than doubled from 100 to 220.  – CNN News How has AIDS cut African life expectancies? Zimbabwe: from 65 to 39 Botswana: from 67 to 40 Namibia: from 65 to 42 Swaziland: from 58 to 39 South Africa: from 65 to 56  – US Census Bureau South Africa now has 3.6 million people infected with HIV, with an estimated 1500 new infections daily.  – Medical Research Council of South Africa Only $150 million a year is being spent on AIDS prevention in all of Africa.  – UNAIDS/WHO

Bryan Born and his wife Teresa are MBMS International/Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission missionaries in Botswana. They are members of North Peace MB Church in Fort St. John, B.C.

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Last modified December 6, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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