‘Tewo Zamani’—Sickness of this Generation: The Feminization of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

The sheer number of African colloquial lexicons such as Tewo Zamani—the sickness of this generation—accentuates the magnitude and unparalleled cataclysms HIV/AIDS has engendered in continental Africa. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has adopted the face of a woman as women account for 59% of the total HIV/AIDS infected population in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study hypothesizes that by disproportionately affecting women and the productive segment of the population, HIV/AIDS has reconstructed gender roles in Sub-Saharan Africa. By employing an Afrocentric methodology and by adopting a two-country case study analysis—Ethiopia and South Africa—this study examines if, and how, HIV/AIDS has redefined gender roles in Sub-Saharan African countries. The study surmises that the sociocultural, economic and political disempowerment of African women has exasperated their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection. Moreover, it asserts that the disparate HIV infection rate among African women has made women the bearer of a triple burden