A SWAZI LIFE AFTER HIV

After I wrote last month (10 April 2008) about Sanele Mdluli and his weekly column, ‘My Life With AIDS’, in the Times Sunday, I got quite a few comments.

Many of them were very supportive of Sanele who has to cope with HIV in a society that doesn’t really want to get involved. He had written, ‘We live in a world of stigma where we are discriminated against because of HIV.’

In his columns he also told of how bleak life could be with HIV and how his life was empty and devoid of colour.

I think it was this seemingly hopeless state of mind that worried people who spoke to me. Sanele even wrote, ‘People are waiting for our [HIV positive people] funeral dates.’

Which brings me rather neatly to his latest column (27 April 2008). Sanele is setting a new date, not for his death, but for his wedding.

He writes about his wife-to-be,

‘Many a times I have been jilted and many a times the same has happened to her. The most amazing part is that of an HIV negative woman wholly accepting an HIV positive man like me.

‘To confound matters, I am one outspoken guy about my status, as I go about with the quest of having an HIV free generation. All over the country, wherever I am invited as a motivational speaker and at workshops, I never stop without drumming it clear to my audience that I am HIV positive and love my virus.

‘It’s one hell of a big surprise that I am really loved for who I am.’

So there you are – proof positive of life after HIV.

See also
A SWAZI LIFE WITH AIDS