Jacob Wentz

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Area of Concentration

International and Area Studies

Abstract

The first documented infection of HIV was found in blood samples in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. Despite these origins, southern Africa is the region most affected by HIV in the world. The second most affected region in the world is west Africa. To build upon research about the spread of HIV across the sub continent, and to assess the impact of demographic change on the differences in HIV prevalence in west and southern Africa, this study investigates the role that urbanization in two regional metropoles—Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa—plays in creating conditions conducive to the spread of HIV. By analyzing the origins of HIV, urbanization, migrant labor patterns, sex work, urban poverty, and urban policy of Nigeria and South Africa through a comparative lens, this study concludes that, while urbanization, and especially migration, are structural factors that account for an increase in conditions that create heightened risk for the spread of HIV, these factors alone cannot account for the differences in HIV prevalence between Lagos and Johannesburg. The specific timing and history of urbanization in Johannesburg, which was spurred by the city’s mining industry in the late 19th century and characterized by the development of segregated housing and patterns of circular migration, likely intensified the spread of infection before the first case of HIV was diagnosed in the country. More biological dating research should be conducted to determine the exact timing and prevalence of HIV in both Nigeria and South Africa, as well as sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, to help explain differences in regional prevalence rates and the spread of the virus across the sub continent.

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