Reconstructing Mchape '95: AIDS, Billy Chisupe, and the Politics of Persuasion

Abstract

This article re-examines the case of Billy Goodson Chisupe of Malawi, who in 1995 claimed to have discovered a cure for AIDS, and distributed the cure, at no charge, to nearly a million people. Existing interpretations of these events fail to recognize their significance; the mass movement to Chisupe reflected neither the ‘inevitable’ expression of a cultural pattern nor a public demand for ‘moral purity’, as Schoffeleers and Probst have theorized. It is argued here that the Chisupe affair can be explained not as ‘mass hysteria’ but as the product of rational fears (of AIDS), calculations (of the probability that someone like Chisupe might be ‘real’) and desires (for a chance to speak openly about inequality, politics, and the threat posed by disease). Chisupe's message – about inequality, and respect for African ‘tradition’ and science – is the crucial missing link in the existing portraits of the Chisupe affair, and that there are potential political and public health implications to the failure to understand the appeal of that message.

Acknowledgements

The preparation of this article would not have been possible without the generosity of friends and strangers on three continents. Special thanks go to Denise Grady and Celia Dugger of The New York Times, Diana Cammack of the Overseas Development Institute, and Kebba Jobarteh, Lisa Hyde, Nader Kim el-Mallawany, Eric McCollum, and Peter Kazembe of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Lilongwe. I am also greatly indebted to the following for their help: members of the Friends of Malawi/Peace Corps, in particular Elizabeth McGovern and Rusty Klinger; Pushba and Rob Jamieson of The Chronicle, Lilongwe; Femi Abodunrin and Albert Harawa of Chancellor College, Zomba; Jordan Goldwarg; Stephen Sneed of Williams College; Scott Geibel of the Population Council in Nairobi; Terence Ranger; and my supervisor at Oxford, Sloan Mahone. The African Studies Management Committee at Oxford University generously provided a travel bursary for a second field visit to Malawi. I am ever greateful to the Rhodes Trust for funding my studies at Oxford, and to Sir Colin Lucas, Mary Eaton, Catherine King, Sheila Partridge, Bob Wyllie, Colin Page, and John Gee at Rhodes House for all their efforts on my behalf.

Notes

1. Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 133–134.

2. Marwick, ‘Another Modern Anti-witchcraft Movement’; Ranger, ‘Mcape’; Richards, ‘Modern Movement’; Willis, ‘Kamcape’. For other writings on the theory of witchfinding movements, see Wendroff, ‘Trouble-shooters and Trouble-makers’ and Willis, ‘Instant Millennium.’

3. Richards, ‘Modern Movement’, 452.

4. See Probst's discussion of kachirombo, ‘Mchape '95’, 118.

5. For a discussion of ‘contamination’ beliefs, see, among others, Green, ‘Purity, Pollution and the Invisible Snake’, and Farmer, ‘AIDS and Anthropologists’.

6. Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 418.

7. For more on government involvement, see DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 7. The sole mention of morality appearing before publication of the government pamphlet was in mid-February, and has been widely quoted. But it is curious that the only person to hear this religious/moral message was an interviewer from the Theology Department at Zomba, someone whose Christian bias would have been obvious to Chisupe, the interviewee. The text of that quotation (initially cited by Chakanza, ‘The Mchape Affair at Liwonde’, 3) is as follows:

Why do you all come here? Are you all AIDS victims? Let me remind you what the Bible says. You should not commit adultery. Some of you are just coming here for fun. You want to drink mchape and then go back to your old ways. If you are not going to change your ways, do not expect to be healed.

 For other enquires by Chakanza, see Chakanza, ‘Kunadza Mchape "95"’, and Chakanza, ‘The Mchape Affair at Liwonde’.

8. Both Chisupe and his wife corroborated that version on separate occasions. Cammack, ‘Surviving AIDS in Malawi’.

9. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 4, 7.

10. Voysey and Gray, ‘Mchape Fever’; Elizabeth McGovern, correspondence with the author, 2007; Hill, ‘Hopkins Doctors’; Flint, ‘Dream Potion’; Cammack, ‘Surviving AIDS in Malawi’.

11. For more on ‘pilgrims’, see Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’.

12. For more on ‘pilgrims’, see Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 423.

13. Waldorf, ‘Mchape: A Wake-up Call’.

14. Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 416.

15. The eight groups: responders (health workers), officials, diplomats, tasters, observers (largely expatriate volunteers), scholars, (contemporary) commentators, and reporters. Two further categories are no longer living: the distributors and the dying.

16. Chisupe, in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 3.

17. Note that this is the original version, influenced neither by religious authorities nor by the government. This version is corroborated by Cammack, ‘Surviving AIDS in Malawi’; Chisupe, quoted in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, and Flint, ‘Dream Potion’.

18. Accounts of the dream appear in, among others, DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, and Daley, ‘In Malawi’.

19. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 109; Hill, ‘Hopkins Doctors’; Ligomeka, ‘Fake Drugs Boom’; Finkel, ‘Few Drugs for the Needy’; Waldorf, ‘Mchape’; Daley, ‘In Malawi’; Simwaka and Tulua, ‘The Machinga Healer’; Flint, ‘Dream Potion’.

20. Tenthani, ‘“Mchape” Overdose’; DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’.

21. Cammack, ‘The Danger of Mchape’, 8.

22. Ntonya, ‘Chisupe’, 4.

23. Cammack, ‘Surviving AIDS in Malawi’.

24. Cammack, ‘Surviving AIDS in Malawi’.

25. Interview, Klaus Fiedler; Simwaka and Tikula, ‘The Machinga Healer’; Daley, ‘In Malawi’; Raphael Tenthani (journalist), correspondence with the author, 5 April 2007; Cammack, ‘Danger of Mchape’.

26. Finkel, ‘Few Drugs for the Needy’; Voysey and Gray, ‘Mchape Fever’; Chisupe, testimony in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’; Cammack, ‘Danger of Mchape’, 8.

27. Hill, ‘Hopkins Doctors’; Probst, ‘Mchape '95’; Daley, ‘In Malawi’; Chakanza, ‘Kunadza Mchape '95’.

28. Finkel, ‘Few Drugs for the Needy’, 109; Cammack, ‘The Danger of Mchape’; Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’.

29. Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 415; Probst, ‘Mchape '95’; Flint, ‘Dream Potion’, 108–109.

30. Muslims were warned that the dreams of people who ‘appear[ed] from nowhere and claim[ed] to suddenly have visions’ should not be trusted, though religious leaders did not deny that dreams could have value, ‘if they are dreamt by a person of renowned moral standing in the community.’ Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 414.

31. ‘Anything or activity that is allowed to come between you and God becomes false god. The moment you find that some pursuit leaves you little or no time to follow Christ, you have succumbed to the wills of Satan.’ I John 5: 21 . Editorial, ‘False Gods’. See also Njawala, ‘Bodily Desires’.

32. Matemba, ‘Mchape Drinkers’.

33. Schoffeleers notes that Deuteronomy 13: 1–6 prohibits the veneration of ancestors, false prophesying, and false revelationary dreaming (414). See also Mpinganjira, ‘The Bible and “Mchape”’.

34. Editoral, ‘False Gods’; Interview, Noel Mbirimtengerenji; Somanje, ‘Religious Leaders’.

35. Interview, Martin Chiphwanya; Voysey and Gray, ‘Mchape Fever’; Waldorf, ‘Mchape’.

36. Somanje, ‘Religious Leaders’, 141.

37. Chakanza, ‘Kunadza Mchape '95’; Probst, ‘Mchape '95’.

38. My source for army and police participation was from an interview with Andrew Faria. Elizabeth McGovern provided an account of parliamentary participation in correspondence with the author. Cammack, ‘Mchape’, describes city council involvement, and Cammack, ‘Malawi at the Threshold’, discusses participation of workers from other ministries. Several newspapers reported government ministers coming to take the cure: see, for examples, news reports in Weekly Chronicle, 10–16 April 1995; Nation, 8 March 1995; Malawi News, 18–24 May 1996; Independent, 10–16 March 1995, The Democrat, 23 March 1995, Weekly News, 11–17 June 1996.

39. Flint, ‘Dream Potion’; Hill, ‘Hopkins Doctors’; Daley, ‘In Malawi’; Somanje, ‘Religious Leaders’.

40. Flint, ‘Dream Potion’.

41. GTZ (Gesellschaft fiir Technische Zusammenarbeit), the German development agency coordinating health services in the district, led the efforts. Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 113.

42. ‘Chisupe's Do's and Don'ts’, Daily Monitor, 15 March 1995, cited by Probst. See also DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 7; Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 409.

43. Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 113.

44. See, e.g., Kandiado, ‘Health for All’, Weekly Chronicle, 3–9 April 1995, 2.

45. The Democrat, 23 March 1995, cited by Cammack, ‘Mchape’.

46. Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 114.

47. Interviews with Blackson Matatiyo, Albert Harawa, Andrew Faria, George Matthews, Chimwemwe Budah, Rachel NyaGondwe Fiedler, and others.

48. Probst, ‘Mchape '95’.

49. ‘Press Statement on Herbal Cure for AIDS and Scientific Research on Mchape in Machinga’, reprinted in The Focus, 25 May–2 June 1995, cited by Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 116.

50. Chisupe's son died of cryptococcal meningitis, an opportunistic infection common in AIDS patients in Africa. Interview with Chimwemwe Mbasalankunda, lab technician at Zomba Hospital. With thanks to Michael April, Department of Public Health, Oxford.

51. For the most useful explanation of the culture of fear, see Waldorf, ‘Mchape’. See also Cammack, ‘Malawi at the Threshold’; Flint, ‘Dream Potion’; Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 407; Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 127–129; Daley, ‘In Malawi’.

52. See Cammack, ‘Mchape’. The argument draws on the work of Anne-Marie Wangel, ‘AIDS in Malawi’.

53. In contrast to the Muluzi government's ‘tacit endorsement’ of Chisupe, Banda had forced Chikanga, whose healing career contains certain parallels to Chisupe's, to leave the country.

54. Malawi Police, ‘Chishango’; Waldorf, ‘Mchape’. See also, Anon. ‘Condoms Do Not Always Prevent’; Kaingana, ‘New Doubts on Condoms’; Machila, ‘Children Sent To Buy Condoms’; Gillies, ‘Breaking Down Sexual Taboos to Fight AIDS’; Katangwe, ‘PSI Sells 3 Million Chishango Condoms’; Mwanza, ‘Condom: Age Versus Tradition’; Somanje, ‘The Condom Stigma’.

55. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 4.

56. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 5.

57. Reports of the first death appeared in The Nation, 21 March 1995. Traditionally healers typically do not dose. See DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 5–7; Flint, ‘Dream Potion’.

58. Most interviewees mentioned this idea, among them Martin Chiphwanya, Albert Harawa, Andrew Faria, George Matthews, Klaus Fiedler, and Chimwemwe Budah.

59. Lester Chitsulo, communication with the author.

60. William Livingstone, beheaded in the course of the Chilembwe uprising.

61. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’.

62. Chisupe, testimony quoted in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’.

63. Chisupe, testimony quoted in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’.

64. Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 414.

65. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 6.

66. Chisupe, testimony in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 3.

67. Chisupe, testimony in DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 2–3.

68. Elizabeth McGovern, correspondence with the author; political cartoons (see Figures 1–3); interviews, Andrew Faria, and others.

69. Waldorf, ‘Mchape’, 141.

70. Reports in The Nation, 29 March 1995, 8. See Figure 1.

71. Reports in The Democrat, 23 March 1995; Cammack, ‘Mchape’.

72. Reports in The Independent, 10–16 March 1995, cited by Cammack, ‘Mchape’.

73. Interview, Klaus and Rachel NyaGondwe Fiedler. The second piece is mentioned in TRS Graduate Seminar files, at Chancellor College.

74. Liomba to Medical Association of Malawi (MAM), April 1995 meeting, cited byWaldorf, ‘Mchape’, 137. Probst also writes of a ‘Malawian woman doctor presiding over [a] meeting [organized by the MoH who] stood up and forcefully demanded respect for African notions of illness and healing.’ Probst, ‘Mchape '95’, 133.

75. Reported in The Nation, 21 March 1995.

76. To ‘sit phwii’ translates roughly as ‘to be in a position where one cannot do anything’ (Yambazi Banda, correspondence with the author, 13 May 2006); Ntchire, ‘Ministry of Health, Please Shut Up’.

77. Reported in The Democrat, 23 March 1995; Cammack, ‘Mchape’.

78. ‘It perplexes me that someone sits in his office at Ministry of Health headquarters, drafts a press release and sends it to MBC to warn the public that scientifically there is no drug that can cure AIDS. Fine. [But this] guy does not tell us that he has been there to collect the medicine, tested it in the laboratory and administered it on HIV patients and the result does not uphold the claim that it will cure AIDS.’ Ntchire, ‘Ministry of Health, Please Shut Up’.

79. ‘It perplexes me that someone sits in his office at Ministry of Health headquarters, drafts a press release and sends it to MBC to warn the public that scientifically there is no drug that can cure AIDS. Fine. [But this] guy does not tell us that he has been there to collect the medicine, tested it in the laboratory and administered it on HIV patients and the result does not uphold the claim that it will cure AIDS.’ Ntchire, ‘Ministry of Health, Please Shut Up’.

80. DeGabriele, ‘Old Peppers’, 8.

81. Schoffeleers, ‘AIDS Pandemic’, 411.

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Marissa C. M. Doran

Marissa C.M. Doran has recently completed the MSc in African Studies at Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar