Professor Richard Ballard from the Department of Population Studies and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal spoke at the launch of Mandisa Mbali’s South African AIDS Activism and Global Health Politics in Durban.

Ballard has shared his speech on Democracy in Africa, in which he commends Mbali on her multifaceted approach to Aids activism, the depth of her research and her prose, which he says is “clear, direct, efficient, and yet unhurried.”

Thanks very much for asking me to speak on this occasion. My job here this evening is an easy one because Mandisa has produced a wonderful book for us. It is impressive, firstly, because of its scope. One expects it to be a story of the Treatment Action Campaign but in fact the TAC is located within a much greater universe of doctors, scientists, gay activists, gender activists, international activists, multilateral organisations, and politicians that precede and exceed the TAC. The book represents the subject in something approaching its multifaceted entirety rather than privileging some actors’ roles.

• Complete article: Democracy in Africa

Book details

• South African AIDS Activism and Global Health Politics by Mandisa Mbali
  EAN: 9780230360624
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