Of National Dignity: The Ethics of Care in Jim Wooten’s We Are All the Same (2005)

Abstract

South Africa’s battle with HIV/AIDS placed the country at the epicentre of the epidemic as the largest case study within the world. We Are All the Same (2005), a memoir on the life of infected child Nkosi Johnson, puts the spotlight on the interface between Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS denialism and the pressing need to challenge discriminatory attitudes in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In this paper I view the role of memoirs as mediators in conflict resolution, thereby giving people both the role of witness and access to realities of children living with HIV/AIDS. Thus, memoirs operate not only as stand-ins of national issues such as the preservation of constitutional rights or dignity in care but also as repositories of public knowledge that are accessible to others. My analysis will illustrate the themes of the ethics of care and national dignity in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within Wooten’s memoir to speak out about the violations of children’s rights in the areas of health and education.