HIV testing of African asylum seekers, a peculiar form of Swedish goodwill ?

By the African Health Team

For the fifty African academics gathered in Stockholm in January, hearing that 908 of the 4000 HIV+ people in Sweden are Africans came as a bewildering shock. "Sweden is a very quiet country. We don’t talk about these figures," explains Dr Amosy M’Koma of the African Health Team, which is sponsoring this series of conferences on HIV prevention education among Sweden’s 40 000 Africans.

However, according to M’Koma, "these figures have been in print, and there has been no backlash. Negative talk about Africans was responded to in the proper way."

Such precise figures also beg the question of how they were obtained. The Swedes have chosen the velvet fist of forceful persuasion. Although testing is not mandatory, most African asylum seekers get tested for HIV to "show their goodwill." Many are convinced that they will not be denied any sort of leave to remain if they do not.

Eurocentric assumptions about African ignorance of the basic facts about AIDS must be challenged for prevention work to be effective. M’Koma wishes people would "open their eyes" to the very sophisticated understanding of AIDS by Africans who are recent arrivals to Sweden. "Many believe that Africans who’ve lived here longer are aware of AIDS, when in fact they are the ones most completely outside of the information flow." Not the Africans arriving in Europe.

The next conference is scheduled for 27 April 1996, in Stockholm.