"Smart guys plan for the future!" Cultural concepts of time and the prevention of AIDS in Africa

Johanna A. Offe

Africa Spectrum, 2001, vol. 36, issue 1, 53-72

Abstract: In spite of the high rate of knowledge about the causes and effects of HIV/AIDS in most African countries, prevention programs planned by international donor organisations are often unsuccessful in changing individual behaviour in order to avoid new infections. This article argues that one possible reason for the lacking success could be that notions of time and future are implied in the logic of prevention which have developed under specific historical and cultural conditions in Western societies and are not prevailing in some African societies. The Western time and future concept implied in the logic of prevention considers the future to be contingent, but controllable by individuals, who are expected to make future-oriented decisions. The article explores this concept's interdependency with Enlightenment ideas, with the importance of saving in capitalism and the concept of the individual in Western societies. Examples of diverging concepts of future in some African societies are presented which describe the notion of a predetermined future not controllable for individuals. A discrepancy between the concepts of time and future assumed in health policy programs and those existing in the target groups of prevention efforts could be one reason for the lacking success of these health policy measures.

Date: 2001
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