“In this masterful book, Daniel Jordan Smith has located crucial points of entry for reimagining AIDS prevention and care amidst Nigeria’s entrenched inequality and overwhelming social and moral crises. With its innovative methodological openness and deep insights, AIDS Doesn’t Show Its Face is a moving testament to the timely role and public significance of anthropology.”

João Biehl, Princeton University

“From almost the moment it first appeared in Nigeria, Africa’s richest and most populous country, AIDS began to rival corruption for a grim distinction: what many citizens see as the most potent symbol of national moral decay. In a place where vast wealth is held by an ever-more remote and powerful few, those of little means are often obliged to entanglements in corruption or exposure to deadly disease. This book is at once a riveting ethnography and an exceptionally well-argued demonstration of how, exactly, inequality can leave people so few alternatives to risk and deception in their most intimate relations.”

Caroline Bledsoe, Northwestern University

“Drawing on more than twenty years of fieldwork, Smith effectively uses popular reactions to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria as a lens through which to observe and analyze social change there. He successfully shows that things are not as simple as they might seem to outsiders—even the best-intentioned outsiders—and that much of the public health messaging that emphasizes individual responsibility is simply off the mark.”

Adam Ashforth, University of Michigan