Abstract
After almost three decades of HIV/Aids communication in South Africa, a recent
HSRC report (Shisana et al. 2014) indicated that South Africans’ knowledge
on HIV/Aids has declined in the last few years and risky sexual behaviour
amongst certain groups has increased. This shifts the thinking about HIV/Aids
communication away from focusing on communication alone to issues around
the uptake of HIV/Aids communication. This crisis of HIV/Aids communication
suggests investigating future directions for communication about the virus in the
hope that a new direction might stimulate the uptake. Instead of continuing the
trajectory of strategically incorporating participatory techniques in project‑based
HIV/Aids communication that is conceived “outside” the target community, this
article investigates participatory HIV/Aids communication that emerges from
“within” society. Through a review of existing literature, this article investigates
the HIV/Aids communication of HIV‑positive South African celebrities, and
indicates how they participate in HIV/Aids communication and how they express
their life stories in public (public self‑expression). Furthermore, some HIV‑positive
celebrities invite the public to share their life stories on a public platform – in line
with the Freirean principle of participatory development communication. This
form of HIV/Aids communication is also characterised by the sharing of real
people’s personal views regarding all aspects – not only biomedical – of the virus.