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Table of Contents
This issue initiates a two-part series on AIDS
and Africa. We begin with an illuminating discussion on Aids research,
bio-engineering and the origin-of-aids controversy. Dr. Victoria Harden,
Director of the DeWitts Center at the National Institutes of Health,
Bethsheda, Maryland refutes
the charge that the AIDS virus was man‑ made and that it was a
product of laboratory research. She points out that documents related
to the Special Virus Cancer Program are on file in the Library of the
National Institute of Health and that by the mid- 1970s no direct link
between a virus and a malignancy had been shown. Dr. Harden points out
that, to her knowledge, the Special Virus Program had no links to biological
warfare.
Boyd Graves,
an AIDS activist and veteran of the US army provides a rejoinder to
this and by so doing adds to the debate. His argument is that the U.S.
quest for an immune suppressing virus was a driving factor behind the
creation of the AIDS virus.
He argues
that Dr. Robert Gallo was able to isolate a retro-virus a decade before
the public knew about it. Graves alleges that the Federal Government
spent $550 million dollars on the program between 1964 and 1978. The
Hershey Medical Center hosted annual meetings on this program, according
to Graves.
In the next issue, we
would explore other relevant issues related to
the AIDS pandemic and Africa. In this series on AIDS and Africa
we explore various dimensions of the subject and hope to highlight a
growing body of conventional and non-conventional literature on the
subject.
This issue
of AfricaUpdate also includes the second part of the article
by Desmond Wiggins on the issue of circumcision and Islam. In the previous
issue of AfricaUpdate the focus was on Pharaonic Egyptian origins
of the practice and the extent to which communities outside and within
Africa adopted this practice. Desmond Higgins identifies several haddits
related to circumcision as well a fatwa. He gives examples of deliberations
from various parts of the continent.
We thank the various contributors to this issue of AfricaUpdate.
Gloria Emeagwali,
Chief Editor
Return to: Table of Contents
Conversations
on AIDS
By Dr. Victoria Harden, National Institutes
of Health
HardenV@od31tm1.od.nih.gov
From the early 1980s, there were allegations
that the AIDS virus had been manufactured in the laboratories at Ft.
Detrick, Maryland, home of U.S. military biological warfare research
during WWII and the Cold War and now also home to the Frederick Cancer
Research Facility (FCRF) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the lead institute
at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) working on AIDS, spent a
lot of time running down the source of these allegations and answering
inquiries about them. Their Public Affairs Office probably has additional
information about various versions of this "origin of AIDS" story (301-
496-5717). The recent publication of the book, The River again
raised questions about the link between laboratory research and the
emergence of AIDS, although that author suggested that the connection
was accidental, not intentional. A recent testing of the remaining polio
vaccine in which HIV was supposedly a contaminant proved negative. This
left the argument as "Maybe there were vaccine lots contaminated with
HIV which no longer exist," which placed the entire matter into the
field of speculation.
The Special Virus Cancer Program of the
NCI was an initiative launched by Congress in 1963 to search for a causative
link between a virus and leukemia. In 1968 other cancers were added
in the search for viral etiological agents. A special building (Building
41, still being used) was constructed on the NIH campus in Bethesda
to reassure people in neighborhoods nearby NIH that the viruses under
investigation would not escape and infect them. To my knowledge, the
program had no connection to biological warfare work. It was not secret.
No viruses were "developed."
The program became part of the National
Cancer Plan of 1971, which increased funds for all research activities
relating to cancer. By the mid 1970s, no direct link between a virus
and any malignancy had been shown, and the scientific community was
questioning the way funds were allocated for the program. A committee
of the National Academy of Sciences chaird by Norton D. Zinder issued
a report critical of the size of the program and the use of contract
funds for extension of work by intramural investigators. By 1980, funding
was withdrawn and the program ended.
One article on this program is F. J. Rauscher,
Jr., and M. B. Shimkin, "Viral Oncology," in DeWitt Stetten, Jr., and
William Carrigan, eds., NIH: An Account of Research in Its Laboratories
and Clinics (NY: Academic Press, 1984), pp. 350-367, discussion
of this program, 360-365.
Dr. Carl Baker, former NCI director, has
also just completed a memoir about the program that should be published
in the next year or so. He conducted some 33 interviews of former participants
in the course of his research.
These interviews and documents relating
to the Special Virus Cancer Program are on file in the NIH History Office
and freely available to anyone to use (contact me for more information).
The National Cancer Institute has an even more extensive collection
of materials about the program. The National Library of Medicine no
doubt does, also.
Dr. Victoria Harden is Director of
the De Witts Museum of Medical Research, National Institutes of Health,
Betheshda, Maryland.
Return to: Table of Contents
Excerpts
from: AIDS Origin Question
By Boyd E. Graves, J.D.
I am responding to an e-mail [from Dr.
Harden] that states "no viruses were developed" in the Special Virus
program. The program's flowchart ("research logic") proves the United
States was seeking to create an immune suppressing virus. Dr. Alan Cantwell
agrees that the United States, according to the logic of the flowchart,
bioengineered and produced "immune-suppressing" viruses in large quantities.
It is our position this secret federal
virus development program needs to be independently reviewed for the
secrets it holds in our current fight with a "special" virus, AIDS.
The AIDS virus is "special" because it
has an affinity to a blood deficiency marker. The Special Virus program
of the United States created and proliferated AIDS as a way to bring
"eugenic order" to Africa, consistent with PL91-213 3/16/70.
Any independent review of the flowchart
and 15 progress reports of this secret Manhattan project will definitively
conclude the AIDS pandemic is a direct outflow. Ultimately, the flowchart
document find will be revered as one of the greatest document finds.
Your agency did not respond to my January
abstract, "A SPECIAL ABSTRACT ON THE MEDICAL ETIOLOGY OF AIDS."
The endnotes of this paper contradict
the current history conclusions of your agency. Please go to my website:
http://stateorigin.sun-city.net. I would be happy to forward you those
15 endnotes and phone numbers of many of the experts who have reviewed
the flowchart or written books on the secret program.
Dr. Robert Gallo does isolate a retrovirus
in the program nearly ten years before it is announced! This discovery
is kept secret to allow the program to continue to move toward a "contagious
cancer" that "selectively kills." See pages 104-106, Progress Report
#8, (1971). Dr. Gallo "excludes his role" as a "Project Officer" for
the AIDS project in his autobiography. Additionally in 1971, "n-demethyl-rifampicin"
is identified as an "inhibitor" of the Special Virus.
We will hand-deliver petition signatures
to the Surgeon General for a review of this secret virus development
program. We will ask that Congresswoman Tubbs Jones refer the 3000 signature
petitions we left with her to Dr. Satcher. The Special Virus program
spent $550 million dollars between 1964 and 1978.
The relationship between AIDS and VISNA
was established through the program, and it is clear the AIDS virus
does indeed have a mycoplasma trigger for neoplastic transformation.
The "wasting" in humans is identical to the "wasting" in sheep.
We believe we are entitled to have a conference
on the true origin of AIDS in conjunction with the flowchart and progress
reports of the Special Virus program of the United States of America.
Please provide us the mechanism to allow
our research to be included in the true history of racial genetic engineering
of the United States of America. According to former President Richard
Nixon, the "order" to depopulate Africa extends only until the end of
the 20th Century. See, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents,
Vol. VI, pg. 734, 3/16/70.
It does appear that "finally" John Bailar
and Iwan Morus are willing to step to the public podium and debate a
secret virus program akin to "Manhattan." Our collective effort will
deactivate this weapon. The Special Virus program met every year at
Hershey Medical Center, hosted by Dr. Fred Rapp.
Boyd E. Graves, J.D.
Director-AIDS CONCERNS
The Common Cause
Medical Research Foundation
1-888-842-6419
boyded2001@yahoo.com
Islamic
Texts and Circumcision*
By Desmond Wiggins, University of South
Australia
In regard to female circumcision
the Qur'an is again of no value as a textual source. Some Muslims
attempt to establish a foundation for male circumcision from the Qur'an
based on somewhat questionable exegesis even in the minds of many Islamic
scholars. However, my research has failed to find any Muslim who attempts
to support "female circumcision" from the Qur'an.
In fact proponents of the "Qur'an-only"
philosophy maintain that because "female circumcision" is not mentioned
in the Qur'an, it has no place in Islam and hence is not a religious
rite. But as I have already mentioned, their acceptance of male circumcision
on the basis I have shown makes their argument incongruous.
There is, however, support for "female
circumcision" in the extra-Qur'anic sources. The most frequently
quoted passage in support of "female circumcision" is a report of a
conversation between Muhammad and Um 'Atiyyah which appears in Abu
Dawud (Book 41, Number 5251). Um 'Atiyyah is reported as an exciser
of female slaves who had immigrated with Muhammad. On one occasion Muhammad
allegedly asked her if she kept practicing her profession, to which
she responded in the affirmative. Then she added: "unless it is forbidden
and you order me to stop doing it." Muhammad replied: "yes, it is allowed."
Muhammad then gave Um 'Atiyyah specific
instructions on the methodology for female circumcision (Aldeeb, 1994,
p. 6), explaining to her that his method of "female circumcision" would
bring radiance to the face of the woman.
There is some dispute as to the strength
of this particular tradition, but it does appear in one of the "six
undisputed, authentic hadith collections, that is in the Sunan of Abu
Dawud (Chapter 1888)" (Muslim Women's League, 1999, p. 3). Further
authenticity is given to the saying by virtue of the fact that it is
quoted by al-Hakim and al-Baihaqi on the authority of al-Dhaahhak ibn
Qais (al-Sabbagh, 1998, p. 17).
Another well-known Ahaddith is that of
Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He relates in his Musnad (5:75) from Abu al-
Malih ibn, Usama's father, that Muhammad said: "circumcision is sunna
for men and an honorable quality for women'. In Nuh Keller's translation
of al-Misri's Reliance of the Traveller, (p. 59) it states that
circumcision is obligatory for females. Umar Barakat maintains this
obligation is for females as well as males ("What is the Origin of Circumcision,"
n.d., p. 2).
A third Ahaddith that is accepted as having
strong authenticity states: "if the two circumcision organs meet, gsul
or grand ablution, becomes obligatory." This saying is cited in Malik,
Muslim, al-Tirmithi and Ibn Majah in their respective anthologies and
is also located in other collections of the Haddith (al-Sabbagh, 1998,
p. 38). When commenting on the chapter entitled "Ghusl" in al Bukhari,
no. 291, Ibn Hajar remarks that the term "two uncircumcised parts" refers
to the circumcised genitals of the female and male.
Sunnah.org, an online Muslim website,
comments on this Haddith:
from 'A'isha: The Prophet (s) said:
"If the two circumcised parts (i.e. male and female genitals) have
been in touch with one another,
ghusl (major ablution) is necessary."
Tirmidhi narrated it and said it is fair and sound (hasan sahih-Tahara
#108-109). Also related by Ahmad and Nisa'i. It has come through other
narrators and in other versions: see 'Kashf al- khafa' under the hadith:
"idha iltaqa al-khitanan fa qad wajaba al-ghusl".
The preceding Haddith are not the only
resources that give credibility to "female circumcision" being legitimate
in traditional Islam. As previously stated, "traditional Islam" utilises
many elements to arrive at an understanding of Allah's will and Muhammad's
continuing guidance-one such element is the proclaiming of a fatwa.
In regard to female circumcision, a fatwa
(no. 380/63) was issued on 11 September, 1950, which states: "the circumcision
of females is an Islamic ritual that the sunna has ordained, and that
the scholars of Islam have acknowledged as being legitimate...we say
it is sunna, so as to strengthen its accountability" (The Legal Research
Center for Human Rights, Cairo - b).
This concept is demonstrated by the account
of Ahmed Amin (cited in Bouhdiba, 1985, p. 174) of a tribe in southern
Sudan which wished to convert to Islam en bloc. The tribe had no hesitation
in contacting the Islamic University of El Azhar-in Egypt-"for information
concerning the doctrine, practice and laws of Islam."
Trimingham aptly comments: "Islam was
a religious culture...its religious institutions, its morality and law...were
one" (1980, p. 1). It should be remembered that when Islamic religion
was brought into Africa, its rules and regulations were assimilated
into the local indigenous religions. The result is a particular practice
of Islam indigenous to each area, but still part of the world wide religious
tradition of Islam. This concept is consistent with other world religions,
such as Catholicism, which passes religious decrees in Rome, but those
decrees are accepted in that religion in various degrees world wide.
In 1994 Sheik Ali Gad al-Haq issued a
fatwa giving female circumcision legitimacy as a requirement of Islam
(Lampert, 1996, p. 1). Islamic scholars such as Dr Saeed Mohammed Ahmad
Thabet understand this ruling from Islam's "high religious authorities"
means that "female circumcision is purely Islamic, like male circumcision"
(Lampert, 1996, p. 1).
The Jurisprudence Research Committee and
the Council of Islamic Research issued a third fatwa of importance in
establishing the legitimacy of female circumcision in Islam on 24 November,
1994. This fatwa concluded that female circumcision is legitimate in
Islam and should not be prohibited (The Legal Research Center for Human
Rights, Cairo - b).
Sheik Mohammed Mutwali Sharawi, a leading
cleric, also issued a decree advocating that female circumcision is
a requirement of Islam. Sheik Sharawi died on June 17, 1998, but his
teachings and decrees earned him high acclaim in Islam. During his time
as a cleric, Sheik Sharawi angered feminists and human rights activists
because of his strong support and rulings that female circumcision should
be practiced in Islam (Nasrawi, 1998, p. 1). The 43rd Sheik
of Al Azhar, Mohammed Al Sayed Tantawi, declared thirteen days into
his reign that "female circumcision" is useful for men and women, improving
the woman's appearance and giving more pleasure to the man (Youssef,
n.d., 3).
In the excerpts from the law suit filed
by Dr. Mounir Fawzi, professor of gynecology at Ain Shams University
Medical School, Fawzi comments that the former [now deceased] Grand
Imam Sheik of Al Azhar Gad Ali Haq, "has proven the Shari'a basis of
this [female] circumcision in a research paper published in Al Azhar
magazine on October 1994" (The Legal Research Center for Human Rights,
Cairo). The paper's ruling was that on the basis of Sharia texts and
scholarly interpretations, circumcision is obligatory for males and
females (The Legal Research Center for Human Rights, Cairo - b). In
another place in the lawsuit excerpts, the fiqh of Abi Hanifa and Malik
are quoted: "male circumcision is sunna...and for women is for their
dignity, and if people in a certain town have agreed to prevent it,
the Imam should fight against them because it is Islamic duty."
One final element for authenticating female
circumcision is the argument from the norm: that is, the calling upon
established custom. This approach is an acceptable method of establishing
what constitutes a source of Islamic law and is used by al-Sukkari to
strengthen the foundation of "female circumcision" (Aldeeb, 1994, p.
7).
One of the fundamentals of Islamic law
is that what is not prohibited is allowed (Ahmad, 2000, p. 2; Al-Sukkari)
and it is better to apply the norm than to give it up (Aldeeb, 1994,
p. 7).
The establishing of "female circumcision"
based on law is very relevant to the practice of "female circumcision"
in Islamic Africa because Islam made its impact on Africa as a legal
culture, with laws governing the lives and beliefs of people.
Trimingham comments: "Islamic culture
[was] only adopted in part. Islam made its impact [on Africa] as a legal
culture" (1980, p. 3).
Further, the "Negro Islamic mentality,
that is the clerical outlook, tends to be severely legal" (Trimingham,
1980, p. 68).
Conclusion
Though many more resources could be cited
the above data is sufficient to allow for the conclusion that there
is support for "female circumcision" in "traditional Islam." However,
it is not the Qur'an that offers this support either for male or female
circumcision.
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* Desmond Wiggins holds a MA in Religious
Studies from the University of South Australia. The first part of this
article was published in AfricaUpdate, Vol. VIII, no. 3 (Summer
2001)
Return
to: Table of Contents
Nigerian Cinema
Revisited
By Gloria Emeagwali,
C.C.S.U.
An interview with Mike Abiola, Chief Executive
of Afro-Hollywood and Director of Pace Television, London. The interview
took place at the headquarters of Afro-Hollywood, HolIes House, London.
Gloria Emeagwali: We have heard of the
boom in Nigerian video films. When was the turning point?
Mike Abiola: 1993/4
G.E.: Who are the high profile Nigerian
film producers?
M.A.: Well these include Tunde Kelani
of Mainframe Productions, Amaka Igwe of Moving Movies, Tade Ogidan of
Ogidi Productions. They document the culture for posterity in authentic
classical Yoruba and Igbo dialect.
G.E.: What makes these stand out?
M.A.: Well they use the latest technology
and do proper research for their scripts. They win most of the awards.
G.E.: Which is the most popular type
of production? Is it political?
M.A.: No. Films based on everyday happenings
on a theme that is well put together with good popular actors and actresses
to deliver the film story. Nigerian viewers depend on the stars acting
in the film and the producers. Anything made by Mainframe does well.
Examples of successful Nigerian film on
video include Femi Lasode's Sango (1998), Freedom (1999);
Tade Ogindan's Hostages (1998), Diamonds Ring (1999);
Amaka Igwe's Forever (1998) and Violated (1997) and Ogidi's
Release (1998).
G.E.: What are the major themes?
M.A.: The themes vary but include philosophy,
religion, spirituality etc.
For example in Ti-Oluwa-li-ile
The Earth is the Lord's, the focus is on religion and culture.
The sale of the ancestral land to speculators
leads to intervention by ancestral spirits.
Amaka and Ogidan tend to focus on contemporary
issues. The theme of Tunde Kelani's Saworoide Brass Bells, is
historical, dating to the 1950's and 1960's.
G.E.: In the Sahelian region, in Mali
and Burkina Faso, for example, actors and actresses are not really turned
into celebrities. Is Nigeria different?
M.A.: Yes, indeed. Nigerians do celebrate
their actors and actresses. We do something here in London to honor
outstanding actors and actresses in the Afro-Hollywood awards and Parade
of Stars. Most Nigerians make the effort to attend and see their favorite
stars get autographs, take photographs and so on. Nigerians celebrate
their actors and actresses. They shower them with gifts. As early as
2:00 A.M. one morning I received a call by someone trying to find about
their favorite star.
G.E.: In a previous interview I asked
about the sudden boom in film production. Do you have any thoughts on
this?
M.A.: Well, the downturn in the economy
made it difficult to import foreign films. Most distributors of Indian
and Chinese film saw problems repatriating money abroad. In 1993/4 during
the political and economic crisis, it dawned on film practitioners that
the vacuum could be filled. Some of those trained in film school saw
the video as a medium as undesirable.
Some of the people who decided to take
the bulls by the horns were in fact formally trained as apprentices
to Nigerian pioneers, although not necessarily in Western institutions.
Some armed themselves with their camcorders and recorders hiring at
times camera men who covered social events and parties, and improvising
on scripts in the process.
Stage actors were asked to improvise.
Some had been trained by veteran Yoruba actors such as Hubert Ogunde,
Duro Ladipo, and Kole Ogunsola. As demand grew so, too, more people
got involved. Producers of videos in English and Igbo soon got more
involved.
[The first in the series of interviews
was published in Africa Update, Spring 2000 issue]
Africa
Online
By Haines Brown, C.C.S.U., Emeritus
Telecenters are a controversial method
to combat Africa's digital divide. They raise the questions to what
practical use if any people might put such a resource and whether the
technical requirements of a telecenter might be overwhelming.
Some answer may come from the Kwa-Kukuza
digital village in South Africa. The Kwa-Dukuza area includes over 90
schools that serves 60,000 students.
Computers can bring new resources to
education and better prepare students for the jobs of the future. Furthermore,
a necessary foundation is laid for the introduction of distance learning
and other forms of computer mediated education. The small business persons
who make use of the telecenters are also able to acquire and implement
useful business applications.
However, supporting these telecenters
is challenging. Because the experiment presumes a market model instead
of social planification,
wide bandwidth becomes prohibitively expensive,
and users experience slow downloads at the expense of educational objectives.
Also, the Windows operating system tends
to be unstable and insecure, which requires a move to Windows 2000,
although it too is subject to viruses and regular upgrade costs. In
China and Western Europe, where there is in addition to these concerns
a fear of U.S. snooping thanks to Microsoft backdoors or the FBI's culling
private data from BadTrans worms or directly with the Magic Lantern
viral snooper, people are beginning to turn to the superior and much
less expensive Linux operating system.
Information for this article came in part
from "News Update," a free newsletter on African Internet content and
infrastructure produced by Balancing act (http://www.balancingact-africa.com/index.html)
Abderrahmane
Sissako's Rostov Luanda
Charley Harbach, Hist 476, CCSU
If you want to have your heart touched
by the personal histories of many ordinary people who suffered through
the struggles for Angolan independence, then take the time to see Abderrahmane
Sissako's movie, Rostov Luanda. The imagery is powerful and the
personal stories compelling. However, whoever described the movie as
a "simplistic, monotonous, and luso-centric travelogue that omits the
major issues surrounding the Angolan paradox" was right on target.
Almost every person Sissako comes into
contact with offers their personal history of the war for independence
and how it affected their families and themselves. Many of them had
little or no political awareness of the situation and, if they did,
they really didn't care about it.
Sissako missed many opportunities to
address the real issues of the war and the reasons for what has happening
to the people he came into contact with. He could have touched on the
Portuguese policy to divide and rule, in which they divided families
to decrease their urge to resist Portuguese control. He also could have
related the Portuguese policy of forced settlement of convicts in Angola
to explain why the Portuguese settlers were poor and illiterate.
Basically, the movie is a travelogue
of interviews conducted with ordinary Angolans while he searched for
a lost friend. It does not reveal any of the issues between the Portuguese,
the MPLA, the FNLA, UNITA, Cuba, Russia or the United States. If you
are looking for an in-depth look at the major players and the political
wrangling associated with the struggle for Angolan independence, find
another movie.
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