POSITIVELY ME

South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic looks different to what it did four decades ago. So, too, does its activism. Leading HIV activist Nozibele Qamngana-Mayaba uses her personal story to advocate for change - not just systemic, but societal too. In this extract from her memoir, she reflects on the fear and thrill of becoming a mother; there's life, so much of it, after a diagnosis.

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Nozi never expected her story to be 'the one' to inspire and comfort others in similar circumstances. She never planned to go from living with an HIV positive diagnosis, in secret, to being an activist and living with it proudly. But when she shared her story in 2019, it garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and ignited a national conversation about what it means to live with HIV.

Now, in the age of (mostly) widely available treatment, increased life expectancy and more and more people on treatment - cases continue to rise and stigma remains.

More than 20 years after her diagnosis, Nozi's world couldn't be more different. And she tells the story of how she made this world for herself in her second memoir, Positively Me.

Born in Gqeberha in the 1990s, Nozi's upbringing was one of struggle and strife. She was raised by the tough hand of her mother in the confines of a strict Christian household. Nozibele strived to be the “good girl” that everyone adores in order to win her mother's approval, as well as the affection of her absent father. She lived by the book and was steered by her faith. Hers becomes a life of firsts. She is the first person in her family to travel overseas. The first to graduate from university. It is also her first love, with his charming smile, that infected her with HIV.

This diagnosis throws her life into disarray. Fearing stigma and feeling the need to maintain her “good girl” image, she kept her status a secret. However, she soon succumbed to depression.