Sinikithemba Choir

Sinikithemba is a Zulu word meaning "we bring hope." It is also the name of one of the world's most unusual choral groups. The members of this South African choir have a non-musical bond, they are all HIV-positive.

"Many Americans think of AIDS as a diminished threat," writes Boston Globe Columnist Adrian Walker, "but in South Africa it retains its full power as a scourge. Because so few in Africa have access to the kind of treatment many Americans receive, the disease remains a death sentence for most who contract it."

Sinikithemba is also the name of the HIV/AIDS care center where the choir is based in Durban, South Africa.

Dr. Bruce Walker who has worked there says, "When one hears the incredible music they produce and one realizes they will all be dead soon if we don't get them treatment, one has a very personal connection to the terrible inequalities and access to care."

Many choir members say they lost their jobs when their HIV status became known. The choir began as a support group, before its members discovered the healing effects of making music.

Choir member Zinhle Thabethe gave a talk at an AIDS research conference in Boston in February, 2003. "Like the other members of Sinikithemba Choir, I am HIV positive. Like them, I am living in a country with one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. On Saturdays we go to funerals for our friends, our neighbors, and our families. And in our support group we have lost 10 members this past year to AIDS. But I am one of the lucky people in South Africa. I got into a pilot study that provides antiretroviral drugs. Now I ask myself, why me? And why do I get to live when others next to me are dying without treatment."
Although many members of the choir have already lost husbands and babies to HIV, they express hope that life-extending medicines and health care will become available to poor people with HIV in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. They also believe that by speaking out through their music, they are helping to end the tremendous stigma surrounding HIV infection in Africa. —Courtesy Calabash Music