Doin’ My Drugs

In the story of David and Goliath, the meek shepherd David defeated a giant with a simple slingshot and a few small rocks. The myth today is that the sling is Twitter and the stones are a few well-crafted tweets. But, David had to step onto the frontlines with what little armor he had and stand toe-to-toe with the giant. That’s true heroism.

Doin’ My Drugs, a documentary by Tyler Q. Rosen, follows a modern-day David, in this case, musician and activist Thomas Muchimba Buttenschon, and his Goliath is HIV/AIDS in the country of Zambia. In Zambia, fourteen percent of its 17-million citizens are HIV-Positive or have AIDS. This is accounts for only the reported cases of HIV.

Fear rules over Zambia forcing its victims into silence. If discovered as HIV-Positive, you are shunned by your neighbors and family. If you speak up about the disease or come out with your sexual orientation, you are disgraced, denounced, and censored. Years of silence have turned the AIDS crisis in Africa into a full-blown epidemic, leading Buttenschon to return to his home country, speak out, and give voice to those who have been fighting the good fight before him.

“Years of silence have turned the AIDS crisis in Africa into a full-blown epidemic, leading Buttenschon to return to…speak out…”

Along with Buttenschon, director Rosen speaks to many musicians, including Danny Kaya, who wrote Yakamuyo, concerning homosexuality. The government first banned the song, but as the HIV epidemic grew, the song was released, and its message’s effects resulted in the distribution of condoms in male prisons.

The most amazing story is Buttenschon’s himself. When he was a toddler, his parents thought he had a severe case of malaria. His sickness led the family to Denmark, and after close examination, young Thomas Muchimba Buttenschon was diagnosed as HIV-Positive, and his parents had AIDS. Both parents would die in Denmark by the time Buttenschon turned 8-years-old, leaving him to be raised by foster parents until adulthood.