A NEED FOR STRONGER VOICES FROM WITHIN SOUTHERN AFRICA

OUT's Jacques Livingston attended the MSM Global Forum Pre-conference and the International AIDS Conference in Mexico. Here are his thoughts...
Published on: 19 August 2008

Who gets to talk on MSM at a global level?

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend both the MSM(1) Global Forum Pre-conference and the International AIDS Conference at the beginning of August in Mexico. The MSM Global Forum provided an important platform for international delegates to share information and network around policy and legal frameworks as well as prevention and health activities and issues pertaining to MSM, globally. What became increasingly evident during this critical pre-conference forum was that the global North seems to speak on behalf of the global South, meaning that researchers and experts from Europe and America dominated discussions and presented themselves as ‘all knowing’ of what was occurring in Southern Africa. Voices from within Southern Africa were largely overlooked and given little opportunity to contribute. For me, this presents a potential problem. It suggests that no one within Southern Africa is doing anything of value in the fight against HIV/AIDS among MSM. It also presupposes that all the expertise in this area lies outside of Southern Africa. Both of which represent serious misconceptions as there is a lot being done within Southern Africa and significant expertise and skills are being developed locally in the field of HIV prevention. In addition to this, there was a strong sense that the pre-conference forum was dominated by, and served the interests of, an elite few - consisting predominantly of an older group of men from Europe and the West who had been involved in HIV prevention since the early 1980s. As such, very little space was provided for new, fresh and young individuals to step forward, claim their space, ask questions and share their experiences. I am doubtful as to whether such an invitation will ever be made and think that it will be up to those that are positioned outside of the present discourse to claim their own space. Despite these huge challenges, I do feel that the MSM Global Forum has the potential to be a meaningful platform for the global South in the fight against HIV amongst vulnerable populations, such as MSM.

Taking to the streets of Mexico City

Following the pre-conference forum we participated in a march against homophobia through the streets of Mexico City. This was a significant march, which received a great deal of publicity and support, especially from the Mexican Government. The march was very powerful as hundreds of community members and activists converged with their banners and rainbow flags under the Independence Column (a pillar topped by a magnificent gold Angel) and proceeded to walk (and stop traffic) through the city to the Zocalo (also known as Constitution Square, which is the religious, political and administrative nerve centre of Mexico City). The anti-homophobia march mirrored our very own Pride march, except for a deeper sense of purpose and meaning, as it symbolised the coming together of people to present a united front about an issue that affects us all. It was then that I realised that, as LGBT people in South Africa, we have still have some way to go before we can call ourselves a community in any sense of the word. 

MSM on the global agenda

The International AIDS Conference in Mexico City was the largest it has ever been, attracting approximately 20 000 – 25 000 people from around the world. There was so much happening simultaneously that one could easily become overwhelmed. The issue of MSM vulnerability was very dominant at the Conference. This represents a significant shift internationally. What is important for us is to ensure that this target group does not fall off the table of HIV work. The next challenge for us is to get women who have sex with women (WSW) on the international agenda as they are currently de-prioritised given the invisibility of lesbian sexuality and its perceived low risk profile.

Prism potential

In addition to the Conference itself a Partner Meeting (hosted by the Schorer Foundation from the Netherlands) was held with 17 LGBT organisations from 9 different countries. The focus of the meeting was to network and share information and lessons learnt. An important development from this meeting was the first steps taken to formally organise the Southern African PRISM(2) partners (including organisations from Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) to increase collaborative efforts and to present a collective position on MSM and WSW. In this way attempts will be made to provide a stronger voice for MSM and WSW in Southern Africa, thereby profiling our needs and vulnerabilities, internationally, in a way that has never been done before. Thus claim our space within international fora and ensure that the global north does not speak or act on behalf of Southern Africa, and more specifically, that HIV/AIDS programmes in the South are shaped by those regions themselves. I am very excited about this and look forward to strengthening this area of work in the years to come.  

(1) Men who have Sex with Men
(2) PRevention Initiative for Sexual Minorities