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kairosdreaming's review against another edition
3.0
This review can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com or www.amazon.com as part of the Vine Program.
eleanor_graceee's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
biblioholicbeth's review against another edition
3.0
Our Kind of People left me in a hard place when it came to this review. On the one hand, what it has to say about the ignorance of people who assume/believe that an HIV diagnosis is an automatic death sentence is important to hear. Many in Africa still hide from their family, friends and neighbors until they die because of the shame and the stigma. However, there are those who are proclaiming their positive status, hoping that others will begin to understand that knowledge is power, and that the sense of community so important to the African people is even more so for those diagnosed with the disease. In the stories of those with first-hand knowledge, this book is invaluable and eye-opening.
On the other hand, the book seems unevenly written and much feels repeated throughout. The dialogue, while interesting and honest, also occasionally feels like there is too much - it seems to detract at times rather than help. The book, already fairly small and with large type, could have done with more editing - either a smaller book or other topics introduced to keep the size.
Having said all that, I do believe that this is an important conversation to be having. He is spot on when he discusses the fact that while AIDS in places like the US has been fairly stable for years, Africa is just now getting a handle on it. He is also correct in shining a light on the fact that the treatments are so expensive, and yet there is little in place to help those poorest and neediest get the medicine they need. And he makes a valuable point that is valid of ALL patients everywhere - AIDS is a disease, not an identity. It's a valuable and worthy book, but with some writing flaws that tend to take away from the important message the book conveys.
On the other hand, the book seems unevenly written and much feels repeated throughout. The dialogue, while interesting and honest, also occasionally feels like there is too much - it seems to detract at times rather than help. The book, already fairly small and with large type, could have done with more editing - either a smaller book or other topics introduced to keep the size.
Having said all that, I do believe that this is an important conversation to be having. He is spot on when he discusses the fact that while AIDS in places like the US has been fairly stable for years, Africa is just now getting a handle on it. He is also correct in shining a light on the fact that the treatments are so expensive, and yet there is little in place to help those poorest and neediest get the medicine they need. And he makes a valuable point that is valid of ALL patients everywhere - AIDS is a disease, not an identity. It's a valuable and worthy book, but with some writing flaws that tend to take away from the important message the book conveys.
morgandhu's review
3.0
Uzodinma Iweala, the author of Our Kind of People, is a medical doctor and an award-winning novelist. Born in Nigeria, he is a graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and he continues to divide his time between his adopted country and his birth country. All of these things make him eminently qualified to tell the story of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and other parts of Africa from a, shall we say, post-colonial perspective. As he comments early in his book:
"For the rest of the world, Africa’s story has been one of exploitation, famine, floods, war, and now tragic demise as a result of HIV/AIDS. This troubles me. Despite growing up with exposure to both the Western world and Africa—in particular, Nigeria, where my family is from—even I sometimes succumb to thinking of Africa as a place beyond hope and Africans as sad creatures destined to slow-dance with adversity. I should know better, because I have experienced the continent, at least my small corner of it, as a place characterized by something other than tragedy, but it is hard not to think negatively, especially when the vast majority of media from the past few hundred years—the explorers’ accounts, novels, newspaper articles, documentaries—have focused on Africa’s pain. Though a relatively new disease, HIV/ AIDS and its stories have again brought to the foreground a whole set of images and stereotypes about Africans, our societies, our bodies, our sexualities. Many of these representations of Africa are deployed to elicit sympathy and encourage assistance with HIV/AIDS and other issues. Often, however, they unknowingly encourage the opposite, distancing and disconnection, because they provide an image of Africa and Africans to which few people can relate. The lives and voices of real people, who like everybody else in this world find ways to cope with adversity, are often lost amid the drumbeat of deprivation and demise. This confuses me. At times, this angers me. While I understand that Africa—its countries, its people—has endured a fair amount of adversity, the tragic Africa is not the only continent I know."
Over the course of several years, Iweala interviewed people from all sides of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria, from government officials to frontline heath care providers to activists and educators to people living with HIV/AIDS. He examines issues of stigma, lack of public education and debate, social and cultural attitudes toward sexuality, the role of poverty and the cost of ARV drugs as elements in the spread of the infection in Nigeria - which has the third-largest population of HIV positive people in the world. A highly accessible look at a serious health problem that the developed world has too often tended to sensationalise and yet ignore at the same time.
"For the rest of the world, Africa’s story has been one of exploitation, famine, floods, war, and now tragic demise as a result of HIV/AIDS. This troubles me. Despite growing up with exposure to both the Western world and Africa—in particular, Nigeria, where my family is from—even I sometimes succumb to thinking of Africa as a place beyond hope and Africans as sad creatures destined to slow-dance with adversity. I should know better, because I have experienced the continent, at least my small corner of it, as a place characterized by something other than tragedy, but it is hard not to think negatively, especially when the vast majority of media from the past few hundred years—the explorers’ accounts, novels, newspaper articles, documentaries—have focused on Africa’s pain. Though a relatively new disease, HIV/ AIDS and its stories have again brought to the foreground a whole set of images and stereotypes about Africans, our societies, our bodies, our sexualities. Many of these representations of Africa are deployed to elicit sympathy and encourage assistance with HIV/AIDS and other issues. Often, however, they unknowingly encourage the opposite, distancing and disconnection, because they provide an image of Africa and Africans to which few people can relate. The lives and voices of real people, who like everybody else in this world find ways to cope with adversity, are often lost amid the drumbeat of deprivation and demise. This confuses me. At times, this angers me. While I understand that Africa—its countries, its people—has endured a fair amount of adversity, the tragic Africa is not the only continent I know."
Over the course of several years, Iweala interviewed people from all sides of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria, from government officials to frontline heath care providers to activists and educators to people living with HIV/AIDS. He examines issues of stigma, lack of public education and debate, social and cultural attitudes toward sexuality, the role of poverty and the cost of ARV drugs as elements in the spread of the infection in Nigeria - which has the third-largest population of HIV positive people in the world. A highly accessible look at a serious health problem that the developed world has too often tended to sensationalise and yet ignore at the same time.
biblioholicbeth's review
3.0
Our Kind of People left me in a hard place when it came to this review. On the one hand, what it has to say about the ignorance of people who assume/believe that an HIV diagnosis is an automatic death sentence is important to hear. Many in Africa still hide from their family, friends and neighbors until they die because of the shame and the stigma. However, there are those who are proclaiming their positive status, hoping that others will begin to understand that knowledge is power, and that the sense of community so important to the African people is even more so for those diagnosed with the disease. In the stories of those with first-hand knowledge, this book is invaluable and eye-opening.
On the other hand, the book seems unevenly written and much feels repeated throughout. The dialogue, while interesting and honest, also occasionally feels like there is too much - it seems to detract at times rather than help. The book, already fairly small and with large type, could have done with more editing - either a smaller book or other topics introduced to keep the size.
Having said all that, I do believe that this is an important conversation to be having. He is spot on when he discusses the fact that while AIDS in places like the US has been fairly stable for years, Africa is just now getting a handle on it. He is also correct in shining a light on the fact that the treatments are so expensive, and yet there is little in place to help those poorest and neediest get the medicine they need. And he makes a valuable point that is valid of ALL patients everywhere - AIDS is a disease, not an identity. It's a valuable and worthy book, but with some writing flaws that tend to take away from the important message the book conveys.
On the other hand, the book seems unevenly written and much feels repeated throughout. The dialogue, while interesting and honest, also occasionally feels like there is too much - it seems to detract at times rather than help. The book, already fairly small and with large type, could have done with more editing - either a smaller book or other topics introduced to keep the size.
Having said all that, I do believe that this is an important conversation to be having. He is spot on when he discusses the fact that while AIDS in places like the US has been fairly stable for years, Africa is just now getting a handle on it. He is also correct in shining a light on the fact that the treatments are so expensive, and yet there is little in place to help those poorest and neediest get the medicine they need. And he makes a valuable point that is valid of ALL patients everywhere - AIDS is a disease, not an identity. It's a valuable and worthy book, but with some writing flaws that tend to take away from the important message the book conveys.
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