3

Nkosi Johnson 恩科西·约翰逊

1989 - 2001

 

Nkosi, born Xolani Nkosi, was born to Nonthlanthla Daphne Nkosi in a township east of Johannesburg in 1989. He never knew his father. Nkosi was HIV-positive from birth, and was legally adopted by Gail Johnson, a Johannesburg Public Relations practitioner, when his own mother, debilitated by the disease, was no longer able to care for him. The young Nkosi Johnson first came to public attention in 1997, when a primary school in the Johannesburg suburb of Melville refused to accept him as a pupil because of his HIV-positive status. The incident caused a furor at the highest political level—South Africa’s Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of medical status—and the school later reversed its decision.

Nkosi was the keynote speaker at the 13th International AIDS Conference, where he encouraged AIDS victims to be open about the disease and to seek equal treatment. Nkosi finished his speech with the words.

"Care for us and accept us - we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else - don’t be afraid of us - we are all the same!"

Nelson Mandela referred to Nkosi as an “icon of the struggle for life.” He was ranked fifth amongst SABC3’s Great South Africans. At the time of his death, he was the longest-surviving HIV-positive born child.

Together with his foster mother, Nkosi founded a refuge for HIV positive mothers and their children, Nkosi’s Haven, in Johannesburg.[6] In November 2005, Gail represented Nkosi when he posthumously received the International Children’s Peace Prize from the hands of Mikhail Gorbachev. Nkosi’s Haven received the US $100,000 prize money from the KidsRights Foundation as well as a statuette which has been named the Nkosi in Nkosi Johnson’s honour. Nkosi’s life is the subject of the book We Are All the Same by Jim Wooten.

恩科西，乳名Xolani Nkosi，1989年出生在约翰内斯堡东边的一个小镇上，生下来被唤作Nonthlanthla Daphne Nkosi。他对他的父亲一无所知。恩科西出生时就是艾滋病病毒携带者，被约翰内斯堡的公关从业员基尔·约翰逊合法收养，而他的生母，被疾病折磨得疲惫不堪，已无法再照顾他。1997年，位于约翰内斯堡郊区的梅尔维尔的一间小学以小恩科西是艾滋病病毒携带者的身份为由拒绝接收他，此时小恩科西首次引起了公众的注意。这一事件甚至在最高的政治层引起了一股骚动——南非宪法禁止歧视特殊疾病状况的群体——学校后来改变了它的决定。

恩科西是第13届国际艾滋病会议的主题发言人。在会上他鼓励艾滋病受害者公开病情并寻求平等的治疗。他以这样一段话结束他的发言：

“在意和接纳我们——我们同是人。我们也是正常的。我们拥有手，拥有脚；我们会走路，会说话，我们有和任何一个人一样的需要——不要害怕我们——我们是一样的！”

纳尔逊·曼德拉把他称为“为生命而战的偶像”。在南非广播公司的最伟大的南非人评选中，他名列第五。直到他去世时，他已是携带艾滋病出生孩子中生存最长的人。

恩科西和他的养母在约翰内斯堡为携带艾滋病的母亲和她们的孩子建立了一个庇护所——恩科西避难所。2005年11月，基尔代表恩科西在他死后从米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫手中接过国际儿童和平奖，恩科西避难所从儿童基金会获得了100，000美元的奖金和一尊为纪念恩科西并以他的名字命名的小雕像。Jim Wooten以恩科西的一生为主题写了《我们是一样的》一书。