THE SIPHITHEMBA CHOIR

The Siphithemba Choir started as an HIV/AIDS Support Group at the McCord Mission Hospital in Durban in 1997. By 1997, an estimated 70% of medical admissions at the McCord Hospital were HIV-related. The antiretroviral treatment (ART) was yet to be widely disseminated, so doctors and staff could render only minimal medical help to patients. The leadership of the hospital, however, understood that alternative help in the form of spiritual counseling and social support networks could be useful in helping patients cope with the emotional and material burdens associated with being HIV positive. Thus in 1997 the Sinikithemba (in Zulu “we give hope” or “give us hope”) Support Group was founded and coordinated by Nonhlanhla Mhlongo, a social worker who had the responsibility of providing hospice services to terminally ill patients and their relatives.

The support group met once a week for prayers, Bible reading, and sharing of experiences. The group brought emotional and material support to HIV-positive individuals who had been deserted by friends and relatives. To alleviate the poverty of individual members who faced the risk of opportunistic infections due to poor nutritional habits, the management created a self-help project for the support group. Nonhlanhla Mhlongo believes that while HIV-positive persons are still strong and in relatively good health, they could be productive and should earn a living independently. In an interview with the author in 2007, Mhlongo stated “We've got people who are HIV-positive, and who have no income…. What we are trying to inculcate to people is that they have to work and not beg. Because of their status they shouldn't go around begging; instead they should give something in return.” The initial self-help project taught beadwork; knitting, woodwork, mosaic, and computer programming were added later. The project generated proceeds, half of which went to the individuals who participated in any specific production, while half was saved in a fund used to support treatment for sick members.

The Sinikithemba Choir was born in the context of these income-generating projects. Choir members speak passionately about the times when they hummed hymn tunes and sang gospel choruses while working at their projects. According to Mhlongo, “the group sang so well, and sometimes we even shed tears.” A pivotal moment came in early 1998, when, according to choir member Nomusa Mpanza, the group sang and danced for hours after the day's work: “It was like we all went crazy that day, and everybody was watching us. So Nonhlanhla [Mhlongo] suggested maybe we should form a choir.” More than forty individuals from the support group constituted the first Sinikithemba Choir, which began to perform at hospital events. The formation of the choir thus transformed the initial support group into a tri-functional entity: HIV/AIDS support group, micro-economic project, and choral ensemble.

Since its founding, the Sinikithemba Choir has gained wide recognition in South Africa and internationally. The choir was featured at the tenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston in 2003, and toured the United Kingdom in July 2005 with world-renowned musician Elton John. In South Africa, the choir continues to raise its voice in educating and mobilizing communities against the menace of HIV/AIDS through their songs, participating in hospital, community, and church social action events, as well as AIDS education and treatment action campaigns. The choir formally separated from McCord Hospital in early 2006; it was renamed Siphithemba, which in Zulu also means “we give hope,” still echoing the message the choir brings to its audience in and through its music.

The Siphithemba Choir continues to function as a community of mutual support whose spirit of communality is realized through the expressive form of its music. Individual members draw from personal experiences to contribute to song composition. Music performances are characterized by call-response styles with integrated dance. Siphithemba's approach to music-making is a quintessentially African example of music as a community experience, in which individuals who live together, who share common values and life experiences, use music-making as a form of social intercourse and through it render a community ethos in performance (Nketia Reference Nketia1974).

As a community of HIV- and AIDS-positive individuals, Siphithemba's music expresses an awareness—and mirrors the dynamics—of race that underpins the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural trappings of the disease, especially in the South African context. Their consciousness is also shaped by the perception that an overwhelming majority of people living with HIV and AIDS are of African descent. This reality is attributable to the genetics of the human immuno-deficiency virus as a factor impacting the racial disparity in the distribution of the global AIDS pandemic.

THE HIV GENOMES AND THE REGIONAL AND RACIAL DISTRIBUTION

HIV displays high genetic variability with rapid mutability. Scientific studies so far have provided useful classification of different strains of the virus into types, groups, subtypes and circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) using the envelope coding and gag sequences.Footnote ² The genome mapping has isolated the most virulent strains and provided a picture of their global distribution. We now know that HIV-1 isolate and its subgroup M accounts for the explosive global AIDS pandemic. Another level of isolation in the M group further identified subtypes A, B, C, D, F, J, K.Footnote ³ The merging of two or more subtypes creates what is known as circulating recombinant forms (CRFs).

The genetic mappings of the virus have enabled scientists to assess the virulence of each strain (Péloponèse et al., Reference Péloponèse, Collette, Grégoire, Bailly, Campès, Meurs, Olive and Loret1999). These studies show that the most virulent subtypes A, C and D are prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.Footnote ⁴ A is prevalent in West Africa, A and D are equally prevalent in East Africa, while C predominates in Southern Africa (Janssens et al., Reference Janssens, Buvé and Nkengasong1997). The most widespread strain in Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States is the less virulent subtype B. However, a 2001 study by Jenny-Avital and Beatrice (Reference Jenny-Avital and Beatrice2001) shows that the highly virulent non-B subtypes are found among African Americans in the United States. In South Africa, where the less virulent B strain is prevalent among the homosexual and Caucasian communities, the C subtype predominates in the rest of the population, especially among Blacks.

Some inconclusive studies have suggested that biological—in addition to socio-cultural—factors may account for the disparity in the evolutionFootnote ⁵ and distribution of the HIV-1 subtypes among different racial groups (Anastos et al., Reference Anastos, Gange, Lau, Weiser, Detels, Giorgi, Margolick, Cohen, Phair, Melnick, Rinaldo, Kovacs, Levine, Landesman, Young, Muñoz and Greenblatt2000; Gonzalez et al., Reference Gonzalez, Bamshad, Sato, Mummidi, Dhanda, Catano, Cabrera, McBride, Cao, Merrill, O'Connell, Bowden, Freedman, Anderson, Walter, Evans, Stephan, Clark, Tyagi, Ahuja, Dolan and Ahuja1999: Krieger et al., Reference Krieger, Chen, Waterman, Rehkopf and Subramanian2003). While we need to further study biological effects for clues regarding the factors that influence HIV-disease progression, this preliminary research indicates that guidelines may be required to adjust therapy for different demographic groups with unique characteristics (Anastos et al., Reference Anastos, Gange, Lau, Weiser, Detels, Giorgi, Margolick, Cohen, Phair, Melnick, Rinaldo, Kovacs, Levine, Landesman, Young, Muñoz and Greenblatt2000).

Is there a causal relationship between the regional and racial manifestations of the HIV-1 strains, or is the relationship coincidental? Although there is not yet a conclusive scientific study addressing this issue, the perception of the disproportionate prevalence of the disease among people of African descent is very powerful for the members of the Siphithemba Choir. It is this perception that informs the choir's musical performance of their African and Black identity.

SOCIOPOLITICAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS

The experience of apartheid left lingering effects in virtually all sectors of life in present-day South Africa (Coovadia et al., Reference Coovadia, Jewkes, Barron, Sanders and McIntyre2009; Karim et al., Reference Karim, Churchyard, Karim and Lawn2009). The current public health challenges are at least partly rooted in the historical legacies of apartheid. With regard to HIV/AIDS, scholars of public health and social medicine (Brummer Reference Brummer2002; Jochelson et al., Reference Jochelson, Mothiebile and Leger1991; Seftel Reference Seftel1988) identify the migrant labor system under apartheid, with its associated overcrowded male hostels and squatter settlements and deliberately underdeveloped health services for Blacks, as “provid[ing] a favourable environment for efficient transmission of HIV” (Karim et al., Reference Karim, Churchyard, Karim and Lawn2009, p. 921).

In addition to the structural factors, self-contradictory social attitudes shaped the apartheid government's policy on AIDS from the beginning. For example, the belief that HIV was an exclusively White homosexual problem informed the Department of National Health and Population Development's decision to establish AIDS training, information, and counseling centers only in major White urban areas beginning in 1988 (Nattrass Reference Nattrass2007). At the same time, the apartheid government labeled AIDS a “black disease” just to reinforce racial prejudices about Black sexual promiscuity (Karim et al., Reference Karim, Churchyard, Karim and Lawn2009 p. 923). Thus racial profiling was a significant aspect of the government's initial response to HIV. All Black people were prevented from donating blood, while HIV-positive migrant miners from Malawi, Mozambique, and other neighboring countries were deported (Nattrass Reference Nattrass2007).

The government's labeling of AIDS as a “black disease” was a cause for curiosity among Black South Africans, especially since HIV was first reported in South Africa among White homosexuals in 1982 (Karim et al., Reference Karim, Churchyard, Karim and Lawn2009). Nearly five years after the first appearance of the virus in the Republic of South Africa, none of the seroprevalence surveys conducted among pregnant women and hospital patients—including in the Black community—identified any infected individual (Karim et al., Reference Karim, Karim, Singh, Short and Ngxongo1992). In 1988 however, the heterosexually transmitted subtype C was first reported in both the general population and the Black community; between 1990 and 1994, the infection rate doubled in the Black community on a yearly basis. Also, revelations were made—albeit with an inconclusive investigation—at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1998 concerning the storing and possible dissemination of HIV-infected blood in the Black community as part of a bioweaponry project by the South African defense ministry.Footnote ⁶

The nature and timeline of the appearance of the virus in various communities in South Africa and the TRC hearings on bioweaponry have led many to suspect the intentional introduction of HIV into the Black community by the apartheid government. This suspicion remains strong even among politicians,Footnote ⁷ prompting Rhodes University social anthropologist Virginia Van der Vliet (Reference Van der Vliet, Kauffman and Lindauer2004) to address the accusations being launched against the White-controlled National Party for promising White voters that AIDS would reduce the Black majority to a minority population in a period of five years. These suspicions have had a serious effect on the AIDS discourse in South Africa, so that the polemics surrounding the public debate on AIDS “are ever more influenced by racialist readings … in ways that are ever more radical” (Fassin Reference Fassin2007, p. 72).

The “conspiracy theory” started gaining momentum once again during my research in South African in 2007, when it was announced that the microbecidal gel that was being tested in KwaZulu-Natal (primarily among Black women) had failed, and in fact had proven to increase the risk of infection. Nevertheless, the White scientist and professor at the University of Cape Town who was overseeing the research project insisted on continuing with the testing of the gel in South Africa, which drew outrage from the Black community.

The Siphithemba Choir also experienced issues at the McCord Hospital that forced them to analyze their experience of HIV/AIDS in terms of race. For example, McCord Hospital had two support groups, one for Blacks and another for Whites and Coloreds.Footnote ⁸ The separation of the two groups mirrored the separation of Black bodies from White bodies under apartheid. Gugu (a pseudonym) commented, “Many of us were getting sick and some were dying, but we see them [White patients], they say that they are also positive, but they looked better. I think because they have jobs and [are] making money, but for us, we have nothing.”

The Siphithemba Choir also faced issues of cultural politics at the hospital when the medical superintendent prevented them from bringing their Zulu drum to Boston for the tenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections by associating it with indigenous spirituality. Some choir members believed that the superintendent's prohibition of the drum amounted to an attack on their cultural identity as Africans, especially because their music is used to “tell the story of their trauma and pain; to proclaim their aspirations and affirm their humanity” (Keteyi Reference Keteyi1998, p. 28). The prohibition of the drum by the superintendent therefore turned the context of the fight against HIV/AIDS into a space for contestation over cultural symbol and meaning, thereby triggering memories of apartheid under which system the politics of culture and the cultural domination of Africans by Europeans composed ideological bedrock.

On another level, the legal battle between the South African government and thirty-nine international pharmaceutical companies over the importation and/or manufacture of cheaper generic antiretroviral drugs (ARV) had impact on the public discourse on HIV and AIDS in South Africa. In addition to the argument for patent rights, there were loud speculations about whether Africans could satisfactorily handle the complexity of the ART regimen. The fact that African countries, including South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya had been major centers for the clinical trial of anti-AIDS drugs seemed to be inconsequential in the debate. During a performance at the conference in Boston in 2003, a Siphithemba Choir member, Zinhle Thabethe, used the medium of the concert stage to thank the gathering of scientists for their good work in developing the anti-AIDS drugs. At the same time she spoke out against those who made the arguments that “Africans are incapable of handling the antiretroviral regimen” as a reason for delaying the delivery of the drugs to Africa (Hainsworth Reference Hainsworth2006). In this speech, Zinhle argued that she is a living example of the success of ARV in an African environment.

In light of the complex interplay of sociopolitical and cultural factors that has shaped Siphithemba Choir's use of choral singing to perform their African and Black identity, the choir conductor Phumulani Kunene noted, “We are aware of these issues, and so whenever we are singing, even when we travel to America, or to anywhere, we believe that we are talking not just about ourselves, but for Africa and for Black people everywhere.” Phumulani's statement echoes ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino (Reference Turino2000), who notes that nationalist leaders share a cross-cultural sensibility with people of similar class, sociopolitical, racial, or ethnic background across national boundaries. Similarly, the Siphithemba Choir members feel they share a common background and experience with all people of African descent around the world who appear to make up the majority of the victims of HIV and AIDS in most national territories where they live.

SIPHITHEMBA'S MUSICAL PERFORMANCE OF BLACKNESS

Siphithemba Choir's performance of African and Black identity is realized through the textual mainstay of their songs, the integration of song and dance, and the use of indigenous Zulu-derived concert dress to reflect an African worldview and aesthetic.

Three of their songs that most clearly speak about African and Black experience of HIV/AIDS have been listed above. “Siyakubonga Somandla” is an adaptation of a preexisting song “Yihla Umoya oyiNcwele, Usindisi Afrika” [The Holy Spirit Must Come Down, and Africa Will Be Saved], in which the choir begins by singing about hope as a way to put their signature on the song. The composer of the original version of the song is unknown, although archival sources show that the song appears frequently in the annual Good Friday Ecumenical ServicesFootnote ⁹ that are organized by the Diakonia Council of Churches in Durban. The Good Friday service goes back to 1978 when it was first organized in defiance of the State for detaining several members of the clergy who led a rally against Bantu Education.Footnote ¹⁰

Featuring the song every year in the ecumenical service shows its close association with the liturgical event. Now performed in the context of HIV/AIDS, the song speaks about salvation for Africa, representing a vision and consciousness about the African experience of HIV/AIDS as somewhat reminiscent of apartheid.

In the opening sections of “Siyaphela Isizwe” and “Jehova,” Africa and “Black Nation” are conflated as an imagined community (Anderson Reference Anderson1991) of God's people, thereby ascribing to Africa an ecclesial status.

In these songs, ascribing an ecclesial status to Africa, Blacks, or the “Black Nation” is particularly of interest. In response to the possibility that the audience might construe their “nation of the Lord” idea of Africa and Black as exclusionary of other nations, Xolani said: “You know umfundisi (father), God is not the God of any particular people. He is the God of Black people too. We are his children so he is supposed to protect us like he is protecting other people. So we are not saying that only Africa belongs to God, instead we are saying that we are also his people.”

It is worth noting in view of Xolani's statement that theology played a role in shaping South Africa's racial politics of the past. The Afrikaner nationalism, for instance, was forged on the assumption of being a chosen race, wherein the movement of the vortrakkers in search of a “homeland” became a typology that reenacted the biblical exodus (de Gruchy and de Gruchy, Reference de Gruchy and de Gruchy2005). In the same vein, Isaiah Shembe, founder of the Zulu Nazarite Church, drew upon biblical imageries to interpret the Zulu experience of oppression under the colonial and settler governments in Natal. Thus both the Afrikanners and Africans have claimed special relationship with God and have used theology to define the terms of their relationship with each other in national politics. It is not therefore surprising that the Siphithemba Choir uses language of theological significance as they perform their experience of HIV/AIDS.

Whereas Siphithemba Choir's repertoires consist largely of religious music, choir conductor Phumulani and choir member Nomusa revealed that they also incorporate traditional Zulu songs because of their amenability to integration with dance. According to Phumulani, “These traditional songs have a way of making people want to dance.” As a result, the preferred dance style is the ukusina, an indigenous Zulu dance characterized by the heavy stamping of feet. Most importantly, dance is a way for the choir to project their distinctive African identity in performance, particularly at international concerts. At home, traditional songs paired with dance speak directly and powerfully to their South African audience.

The need to connect with their local audience and to project an African identity to their foreign audiences also informed the choir's use of traditional Zulu dresses as part of their concert regalia. The women's outfits include a black skirt that is modeled after the isidwaba, a black-dyed traditional skirt made from cowhides, the ibhayi, which hangs over their shoulders, and the isicholo, a crown that is sown from twigs or fiber, worn traditionally by married women.Footnote ¹¹ This attire is lavishly embroidered with Zulu beads, in addition to which they wear a waistband of Zulu beads, and bead headbands and necklaces.

The men's attire is modeled after those worn by Zulu maskanda artists. The pants and a top are of a multicolored quilted design, and their headband is made of animal skin. All components of the choir uniform are a combination of the colors of the South African national flag, which also embodies the new way of referring to the Republic as the “Rainbow Nation.”

Another uniform worn by the choir is a green super wax print with the title “African American Heritage,” with images of African and African American leaders including Emperor Haile Selassie, Martin Luther King Jr., and Marcus Garvey. A South African Zulu family who lived in Los Angeles gave the clothes to the choir during one of their tours of the United States in 2003. According to Phumulani, “We did not buy the clothes, a brother gave it to us in America. But we liked it so much ngoba liyakhuluma into ngabantu abamnyama [because it says something about Black people].” The choir thus uses the uniforms to project their Zulu and African identity, while at the same time reiterating a pan-African vision and ideological commitment to the African course.