Communication on AIDS : dominant discourses and dominant discourses in the construction of the reality of AIDS in Cameroon ; La communication sur le sida : discours dominants et discours dominés dans la construction de la réalité du SIDA au Cameroun

In Cameroon, the Aids issue is the subject of an abundant discursive work that brings in a plurality of actors. However, all the social communication actors on AIDS do not give the same meaning to the issue. Some consider it as affection, in the same way as the other known affections. For them, it results from the pathogenic action of a natural micro-organism called HIV; for others, AIDS is a physiological state open to the sickness due to immunodeficiency; and a last category considers it as a mystical sickness which is due either to the action of witch – doctors or to God’s anger. But an analysis based on the definition of the concepts used reveals that the convictions and certainties expressed by the social communication actors on AIDS, are not the reflection of an ontological, uncreated, palpable and objectively discernable reality. They are rather possibilities. Two types of possibilities emerge from this process: the scientific one which brings in actors who share the same scientific knowledge and practices, who have the same viewpoint and are recognized by others as being competent to talk about AIDS. They usually express themselves in specific symbolic places like hospitals, medical analysis laboratories, media and public institutions. The scientific discourse sometimes changes, thus modifying the consequent thoughts and convictions. The second type of possibility brings in non scientific actors and specialists in other fields than biology, but also biologists who are considered as being in the margin of the orthodoxy. Whereas the actors of the scientific dynamic have at their disposal the consensus and arbitration bodies that permit them to harmonize their views, those of the popular dynamic move along without any coordination. The popular dynamic integrates scientific discourse into cultural practices and knowledge systems, as well as it makes formulations relating to the different manners the cultures concerned think of health and sickness. The end results are the specific thoughts and beliefs ...