HIV/AIDS and Social Exclusion in Mbozi District, Tanzania, 1980s–2014

Abstract

This article is about the plight of the excluded and various social actors’ responses to the social exclusion engendered by HIV/AIDS in Mbozi District, Tanzania. Unlike many previous studies, this study investigates the plight of the excluded and the responses of various actors, namely individuals, the society, the government and the international community, to such exclusion expressed over a long historical period. It does this by drawing on documentary and oral materials collected from the district between 2008 and 2014. It is argued in this article that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has increased the marginalisation of people in the district and that the responses to such exclusion have not been very successful. This failure brings to the fore the need to revisit the policies or practices that impact negatively on the excluded in the district and Tanzania in particular and in Africa in general.