Haiti and HIV: Creating the History of Contagion

Abstract

This paper argues that the corpus of knowledge built through research on and with HIV in Haiti, conducted and/or funded by international organizations, is part of a larger metarrative about the Caribbean nation. In this, Haiti is a symbol of underdevelopment and a provider of events and concepts to the nation-building processes of the Global North. The text focuses on a study indicating the entrance of HIV into the United States through Haiti, on the link between HIV epidemics and notions of race and development, and on publications concerning international efforts on the fight against HIV on Haitian territory.