Post-coloniality and the movements and readings of scientific and legal practices: The history of HIV/AIDS in Africa, patents, and the multilateral governance of generic drugs

This thesis examines the history, political economy, and global response to HIV/AIDS in Africa. It is particularly interested in how Africa’s colonial past and postcolonial struggles with European science and law influenced these issues. It therefore explores the many ways that the colonial encounter coloured how scientific knowledge about HIV/AIDS travelled to and was read and contested in Africa. In addition, it sets out how this encounter informed the political economy of debates about access to and the global governance of generic HIV/AIDS drugs in the continent.

It draws on an interdisciplinary and theoretically-informed scholarship to unpack these issues. However, it aims not to produce new theoretical insights or make original theoretical contributions to this scholarship. Rather, it seeks to contribute to and fill-in gaps in the historiography of HIV/AIDS in Africa and scholarship on the global governance of generic HIV/AIDS drugs. Accordingly, it examines two areas that have not received adequate, academic attention in these areas. Firstly, Project SIDA—the first major research project on HIV/AIDS in Africa; and, secondly, the World Health Organization Prequalification Programme for Generic HIV/AIDS drugs—the primary, regulatory regime that governs the production, certification, and importation of generic HIV/AIDS drugs in the continent. It situates these subjects within a wider discussion about the colonial encounter and postcolonial struggles in Africa around European science and law. It argues that the encounter influenced how Project SIDA, and the scientific knowledge that it produced, was read and contested in Africa. It also contends that postcolonial struggles, especially around the global patent regime, informed the political economy within which the Prequalification Programme emerged and, importantly, the technical capacity of African generic manufactured to certify their generic drugs for HIV/AID treatment programmes in the continent.