Book Review:
28 Stores of AIDS in Africa (2007)

Book written by Stephanie Nolen,
Africa Correspondent for "The Globe and Mail"

Review by Pam Amulaku

The last time I heard Stephen Lewis speak, he gave an absolutely glowing recommendation of Stephanie Nolen’s new book ’28’ – and since I am an admitted Stephen Lewis groupie, I went out and bought the 398-page hardcover the very next day!

As its title suggests, the book chronicles 28 personal accounts of AIDS in Africa; the intimate stories of children, grandmothers, truck-drivers, nurses, doctors, teachers, husbands, wives, orphans, advocates, former Presidents, young couples, soldiers, families... all who have had their lives impacted and more often, ravaged, by the AIDS pandemic. The number is not arbitrary – it is estimated by UNAIDS that approximately 28 million people are currently infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Every story in this book puts a vividly human face on the virus, and represents a million more that remain untold.

I’m not going to lie – this collection of well-written and photographed portraits will trouble, overwhelm, devastate and enrage the reader. But despite that, I still think it’s an incredibly important book for everyone to read... out of respect for the courage of those 28 individuals who have shared their stories and the millions more they stand for, and because it will hopefully inspire us all to DO something... but do what?

While it can certainly be helpful for concerned citizens to send financial donations to AIDS advocacy, treatment and care organizations (Nolen lists several that she has found to be working very effectively in the field), that concerned citizenry must also expand by epic proportions in order to defeat such an immense and desperate struggle as the African AIDS crisis. Nolen asserts that the best thing that we in the privileged developed world can do to fight AIDS in Africa right now is to talk about it:

There has, in the past year or two, been a swell of interest at a grassroots level, and international stars and philanthropists have taken up the cause. But the crisis continues to fail to draw the political and financial response it merits because too few people in the West yet understand or care about what is happening.

We are long overdue to raise the alarm: as Nolen reminds us at the conclusion of her book, “each day in Africa, 5,500 people die of HIV/AIDS – a treatable, preventable illness. We have twentyeight million reasons to act.”

Originally published in The Habari Times, Volume 3, Number 1

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