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Accepted Paper:
Global politics and the attribution of meaning to diseases: Cold War rhetoric and Zimbabwean AIDS conspiracy theories
Alexander Rödlach
(Creighton University)
Paper short abstract:
During the Cold War the Soviet Union disseminated messages, claiming that AIDS was the purposeful outcome of US-American biological warfare. This paper describes the pathway of these AIDS conspiracy theories into Zimbabwe, and identifies factors contributing to their local appeal.
Paper long abstract:
HIV/AIDS entered the public consciousness when the Cold War had entered its last stage. Questions regarding the unknown origin of the epidemic were immediately drawn into the conflict between the Eastern and the Western Blocks. Particularly the Soviet Union disseminated through their propaganda machine messages, claiming that AIDS is the purposeful outcome of US-American research in biological warfare. This claim became widely known throughout the Eastern Block fostering the development of grassroots conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS. These theories gained prominence even beyond the borders of the former Eastern Block. In my paper I describe the origin of these AIDS conspiracy theories and their path into Zimbabwe, and identify historic, sociological, and cultural factors contributing to their local dissemination.