To the RPCV Malawi community:

I am an American Rhodes Scholar at Oxford working on a dissertation on the Billy Chisupe/ �mchape� affair in Liwonde, Malawi beginning in 1995 (briefly, Chisupe claimed to have found a cure for AIDS, and hundreds of thousands, or perhaps a million, people drove south to try it.)

I am contacting you in the hopes that you might have some information on the event.

There's been very, very little written about this-- something like three newspaper articles and two journal articles-- and so talking with people who remember the events is essential.

To that end, I am looking to contact anyone who might remember the Chisupe affair, and particularly anyone who might have been involved in the official, religious, or public health response to Chisupe, for a conversation by e-mail or phone, or perhaps in person in Malawi in late April. If this might be you or someone you know, please e-mail me at [email protected].

I�d also be interested in reading anything that you may have written�in diaries, letters, etc.�about Chisupe or AIDS or traditional medicine in Malawi while in the Peace Corps or after the fact. I can send you a copy of my work when I�m finished, and I will of course acknowledge anything of yours that I use.

If you have any information on �mchape,� or if you would be able to suggest some names of people to contact for further information, I would be much obliged.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to hearing from you.

MCD
[email protected]