Alicia Keys didn’t have to go to the small town near Durban on the eastern coast of South Africa. The HIV/AIDS infection rate there is thought to be twice that of the national average. In this area of South Africa, 40 percent of the inhabitants are infected.
However, for the Grammy award winning songwriter and singer, the chance to go there to help get a clinic built was enough of a reason to cross an ocean to confront what seemed to be an insurmountable challenge. Keys says the reason she came was “to be the voice of the people. To represent real people and life. The real joys, pains and struggles. I never did want to get caught up in frivolity and the fantasies. I never cared about any of that.”
Keep A Child Alive, the humanitarian organization, enlisted Keys to be their ambassador and help raise awareness of the problem of AIDS In Africa. The organization hopes to take on the pandemic with their simple philosophy of $1 per child every day for drugs that are life saving. Almost 100 percent of the donations go towards treatment.
The Wentworth clinic will be providing the residents of the town with HIV testing as well as treatment and drug dependency and alcohol counseling. There will also be courses held on women’s empowerment and nutrition.
However although the effort is substantial it’s still just a small counterattack on a war that has many different fronts.
Overcoming Taboos and Stigmas
Twenty five years following the identification of the AIDS virus, taboos, stigmas and falsehoods still surround the disease, particularly in places like Wentworth. There are up to 6 million people in South Africa that live with HIV/AIDS, more than all other countries. However it’s difficult to make an accurate estimate since so many South African refuse to get tested.
Up until quite recently, the President of South Africa denied that there was a link between AIDS and HIV. In a trial that this year was widely publicized, a major politician stated that he would take a bath after having sexual intercourse in order to avoid passing on the virus. That claim enraged many health advocates.
The organization Keep A Child Alive is hoping that the attention that Keys can create will help to bring some real results into an area where the progress has been very slow.
Erika Rose, longtime friend of Keys as well as sometime partner in song writing said, it’s such a stigma there. Alicia Keys putting her name on the building, it’s now cool to get tested, cool to get treatment. This is something very layered and deep. People here suffer in silence.
By 1991 apartheid’s legal justifications, the official state policy of South Africa’s for segregation, had been mostly removed. However in terms of how the nation treats HIV/AIDS the legacy still persists. According to Leigh Blake, Founder of Keep a Child Alive, Wentworth offers a unique challenge. Much of Wenworth’s population is mixed race. That’s a community that has been neglected.
Blake said, they were dumped into the Wentworth township mostly to be put to work in the surrounding industries. After apartheid was abolished, much of the focus went to the black community. Rightly so as they have been painfully and desperately treated over the centuries. However South Africa’s colored community needs help as well.
Colored is the phrase that South Africans use commonly to refer to individuals of mixed phrase. The American visitors had to get used to it. Rose said that eventually she realized that for Keys and her it was another form of connection. In South Africa Rose and Keys would both be considered to be colored.
Rose said, it took some explaining, that’s what they call us here, what they call themselves. They say colored. Here I am colored. So is Alicia. It’s another insane sort of connection. People see Alicia to be one of them. That’s how she sees it too.
Music: The Common Language
Being far away from home and in a place that was unfamiliar, Keys was able to find a familiar language in music. The chirping birds, wind in the trees, and often from her own songs. People sang them to her everywhere she went. Keys said, music unites people. It’s a source for hope.
Keys said, all of music speaks to me. But we need to have something to believe in. When it seems there is nothing for you to believe in, then you have your faith and hope that you won’t be left alone.
For any epidemic having accurate information is critical. The voice of Keys’ is a very powerful tool for fighting against AIDS.
Rose said, having the voice Alicia has, you’ve got to use it. You know, it’s a currency. People go around putting so much stock in terms of fame and celebrity, but people don’t use it to do the right thing.
