"…THOSE WHO DID IT HAVE POWER...” MUSIC, HEALTH AND HEGEMONY IN TANZANIA IN THE CONTEXT OF HIV/AIDS

This article investigates the display of power relations in the production of health knowledge about HIV/AIDS through music that addresses the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Tanzania. It specifically looks at the intersection of the state and religion in both shaping culture and influencing decision-making in the production of health knowledge on HIV/ AIDS. I argue that the study of HIV/AIDS and the creative process of music about HIV/ AIDS is also the study of power relations at multiple levels. Using two recordings, 'Mambo kwa socks'(Things with socks on) and 'Usione soo,sema naye” (Do not feel shy, speak to him or her), which have been forbidden from public broadcast by the government of Tanzania as evidence, I suggest that musical performances that focus on HIV/AIDS involve the production of multiple, often dissonant and antagonistic interpretations among individuals because of the musical styles employed and because of the interpreters' different ages, social positions, context, social and historical spaces.