UC Berkeley

AIDS is changing the face of Africa, bringing life expectancies in parts of southern and eastern Africa, which had begun to approach First World standards, down to an expected 38-40 years. But also, and perhaps more consequentially, the defi nition of the AIDS pandemic as an epochal crisis is generating an organisational response that may alter patterns of governance across Africa. We know something about the effects of the pandemic on life, health and education, and on matters like food security and defence, but hardly anyone has analysed the epidemic’s effects on forms and cultures of governance.