When Chief Mfanyana Lukhele mentions Aids at community meetings in this Swazi hamlet the men usually get up and leave.“There are so many people who are dying and sick but no-one will say what they are dying of,” he told Reuters outside his homestead in the tiny southern African kingdom’s mist-topped mountains.Impoverished Swaziland is battling the highest HIV infection rate in the world. Around 40 percent of adults live with the disease and more than half of 19-30 year olds are infected, spelling humanitarian and economic crisis for this deeply traditional state squashed between South Africa and Mozambique. In a country whose absolute monarch chooses a new bare-breasted maiden to wed each year, persuading men to stick to one sexual partner is difficult, even with lives at stake.

“I think the king could do more to set an example for men in this country,” said Alan Brody, the Swaziland head of United Nations’ children’s agency UNICEF. Both King Mswati and his government urge people to defer sex until marriage and to use condoms. They talk openly about AIDS, but for obvious reasons they do not urge monogam. Aids is ravaging southern Africa, but the virus spreads extra fast in Swaziland partly due to the prevalence of polygamy, and while aid workers say they cannot change local tradition, they can do more to educate men.“It is men who take the decision about family planning and condoms, so if we don’t get the message through to them we are not going to beat this thing,” Brody said.

Softly-spoken Chief Lukhele decided education by stealth was the only answer for the men in his 1,800-strong chiefdom, and invited them to a play with free food afterwards. He didn’t tell them it was commissioned by UNICEF to spread Aids awareness.Chief Lukhele managed to round up around 400 people — around half of those men — to watch ‘The Tale of Two Futures’, the final part in a serialization of plays about HIV/Aids performed across Swaziland and the first to target men.

While only six men there admitted to having already taken an HIV test, some told Reuters after the play they would now check their status, or try to stick to one sexual partner.“I am trying to change my ways but it’s hard,”said John Ndlovi, a 50-year old retired miner dressed in a ragged yellow T-shirt, with a wry smile. “I have not had a test but after seeing this play I think now I must find out if I am infected.”

“Of course I try to talk to my boyfriend about HIV and I will ask him to get tested before we marry, but I don’t know if he will,” said 19-year-old schoolgirl Mozipho Mhlanga with a shrug. “I hope he won’t take another wife, I hate the thought of that, but it is also Swazi tradition.”

<B>Rebecca HARRISO</B>