Removing the log in the other's eye: contradictions affecting HIV and AIDS interventions in Malawi, a case study of the Make Art/Stop Project

Abstract

Many efforts have been made to reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS in Malawi. Some of these intervention efforts seem to reproduce the very effect they are meant to reduce thereby creating contradictions that thwart intervention efforts. It appears that the means by which intervention efforts attempt to liberate communities often serve to recreate oppression rather than alleviate it. Using the case study of the Make Art/Stop AIDS project, this study identified and examined the paradoxes that have beset the practice of applied theatre as an intervention approach. The study uses the lenses of critical and post-critical performative pedagogy to unpack the contradictions that have arisen during the implementation of supposedly people centered approaches.