What Gets Mapped onto What in the Sex is a Football Game Metaphor in Kenyan HIV/AIDS Campaign Posters?

Abstract

Susan Sontag, the prolific author of AIDS and its metaphors subscribes to thesis that ailments such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, syphilis and tuberculosis are rich in conceptual metaphors by which they live by. In fact, conceptual and linguistic metaphors coined around the aforementioned ailments serve as cognitive reservoirs upon which embodied experiences with such ailments are conceptually framed. With specific reference to HIV/AIDS, the scientific works of anthropologists, epidemiologists, behaviour change communicators and political analysts affirm that the HIV/AIDS discourse is synonymous to taboo topics associated with sexuality and death. In sub-Saharan Africa, behaviour change communicators have either consciously or unconsciously creatively used pictorial sports metaphors in HIV/AIDS campaign posters. However, few studies in Cognitive Linguistics have investigated the cross-domain mappings of football metaphors in HIV/AIDS campaign posters within the African continent. Specifically on the pervasive usage of the SEX IS A FOOTBALL GAME metaphor. It is against this background that the paper examines the possible cross-domain mappings of the above-referred pictorial metaphor in 9 HIV/AIDS campaign posters used by behaviour change communicators in Kenya between 1988 and 2010.