Ses'Khona Bible Studies Appendix 1
by Bongiwe Dumezweni (ed.)
AIDS Bible Studies
About this project
About IFES
Following are three newspaper stories relating to the assignment at the end of Ses'Kona #3 in preparation for #4.
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Sufiya Huseini, a mother of a 10 month old daughter, Adama, a poor woman from the region of Northern Nigeria, Tungar Tudu, was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery. The recent introduction of the full sharia strict Islamic rule of law backed up by harsh punishments is a highly political issue in the region, whose population is largely Islamic. In an interview, Sufiya explained that she divorced her husband because he could not support her and returned to her father's house with her two children. But then she says, a 60 year-old man began to show interest in her. "He used fetish charms to woo me, but he did not succeed", she says. "One day I was in the bush and he ambushed me and forced me. That happened four times. I am telling you as I am telling God. I suddenly found myself pregnant. I was embarrassed for what this would do to me and to my family". Not long after her pregnancy began to show, the police arrived and interrogated her. When it came to the court hearing last June. Abubakar (the 60 year old man) denied everything. Under the common interpretation of Islamic law, adultery can be proved only if someone confesses to it, or if the act is seen by four male witnesses. Lacking witness to the act Abubakar was acquitted. But on the evidence of Sufiya's pregnancy, Judge Muhammad Bello Sanyinlawal sentenced her to death by stoning.
{Drum - The Voice of Africa, March 14 2002, No 497, page 19}
Many of them are HIV positive themselves, but they're not sitting around at home feeling sorry for themselves. They're tackling the problem of HIV/AIDS in a positive way by counselling and caring for people dying of the disease - and they've really set tongues wagging in Mohlakeng Township near Randfontein. But they laugh off the insults and cruel jokes people make about them, because these dedicated caregivers - all volunteers at Mohau home-based care centre, know only too well that those who're mocking them now could well need their help in the future. Sibongile Booi, an HIV positive worker at the centre, sees her mission of nursing people who are infected with the HIV virus as a way of mentally preparing herself to cope with her disease when it becomes full blown Aids.
{Drum- The Voice of Africa, November 2 2001, No 479, page 6}
The caregiver's job is still considered a task of female members of the family because tradition makes a clear distinction between men and women's roles. This has resulted in the burdening of female members of the families without any relief. Caring for a terminally ill person is physically and emotionally demanding.
{Zimbabwe Herald, May 28 2002}
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