Cross-cultural Variations of the HIV/AIDS IS DEATH Pictorial Metaphor

For three decades now, HIV/AIDS undeniably remains one of the leading killer diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. The same narrative is advanced in the literature by sociologists and epidemiologists where mental images that cognitively represent a true African embodied experience with HIV /AIDS is death and its respective personifications such as HIV/AIDS IS A SNAKE, HIV/AIDS IS A WALKING CORPSE and HIV/AIDS IS GRIM REAPER (cf. Sabatier, 1987, Sontag, 1988, De Waal, 2006 and Magonya, 2012). From the foregoing, it can be said that linguistic studies on cross-cultural variations of the HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphor in posters are relatively few in cognitive linguistics. Furthermore, there is need to undertake scientific investigations on how mental images are psychologically and metaphorically linked to the embodied experience with the pandemic. In this regard, the two fold objectives of this paper are: First and foremost, to study the cross-domain mappings of the HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphors and second to investigate cross-cultural variations of the aforementioned pictorial metaphor. The conceptual framework guiding the study espouses arguments from Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Lakoff and Turner (1989) on the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), with specific focus on death metaphors outlined in More than cool reason. A field guide to poetic metaphor, together with Kövesces (2010) arguments on metaphor and variation. The study will employ an analytic research design and data will be collected from 11 purposively sampled websites where a total of 20 posters coined around HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphor were drawn. Using content analysis, data collected from online sources was coded, arranged into themes and analyzed qualitatively. The findings for the study are consistent with Kövesces thesis on the existence of cross-cultural variations in HIV/AIDS IS DEATH conceptual metaphor.


Introduction
Cognitive linguists subscribe to the thesis that human cognition unconsciously processes metaphorical utterances because of our embodied experience with concepts. Seemingly, this school of thought was belittled by earlier language philosophers who subscribed to the view that metaphors do not warrant any scholarly attention (Lakoff, 1980;Moreno, 1998, Lakoff, 2008. In fact, Lakoff and Turner (1989) opine that various concepts ranging from emotions, society, human character and even the nature of life and death among other things are understood and expressed metaphorically. Apparently this also extends to eco-disasters and even life threatening ailments that record high mortality rates such as HIV/AIDS, cancer and any other pestilences. The aforementioned ailments can be expressed metaphorically to paint a grim picture of man′s experience with such dreaded disasters (cf. Sontag, 1989, Byock, 2002, Moore & Williamson, 2003and Wang, 2009). Taking the case of HIV/AIDS whose metaphors are of key interest in this paper, it is arguable that HIV/AIDS coexists with the following pejorative terms such as plague, calamity, epidemic and disaster. Moreover, for Sontag (1988:17) HIV/AIDS has dual metaphoricity. Said differently, the asymptomatic nature of HIV/AIDS is construed to be cancer-like, whereas its mode of transmission invokes the sense of pollution or contagion realized in expressions such as, one can contact HIV/AIDS through contaminated blood or bodily fluids of a seropositive person. Closely related to the issue of contagion is Moore and Williamson (2003) thesis that sex can be a corrupting agent 1 and sexual acts allow filth to infiltrate the human body. Thus, HIV/AIDS reinforces the link between sex and death. Besides this, literature on HIV/AIDS by scholars such as Moore and Williamson, (2003) affirm that dissociating HIV/AIDS from death, fear 1 Moore and Williamson (2003:8) cite three Platonian laws that morally corrupt the human body namely drink food and reproduction. With regard to sexuality, just like death, sex is regarded a taboo topic and various cultures have norms on sexuality because of the intricate link between sex and death. In Moore′s and Williamson′s perspective, the bodily excess is associated with ailments and death and sexuality is baseless. In fact, for Byock, (2002), Fernández (2006) and Gire (2014), the fear of death is universal 2 . Byock (2002) and Fernández (2006) further stress that death is actually a fear-based taboo word with psychological, social and religious affiliations. Besides this, the multifaceted dimension of the fear of death entails fear of the dying process, premature death, loss of a loved one, the decaying corpse, evil spirits, premature death, phobic fear of death and fear of afterlife experiences. From the foregoing, it is the mystical nature of death that makes people resort to using metaphors and euphemisms in reference to it. Psychologists such as Gire (2014) contend that the fear of death is premised in the terror management theory which holds that human beings and animals are instinctively preconditioned to uphold self-preservation at all costs. Naturally, this explains how animals instinctively flee from life threatening scenarios. Gire further argues that man′s sophisticated cognitive abilities enable him to effortlessly process the outcomes of mortality, and consequently, trigger positive or negative death anxieties 3 . On the positive side, people who fear death strive to stay alive, whereas the negative side of death would make others either engages in risky activities such as sky diving, taking a job as an undertaker, a morgue attendant or even avoids scenarios where death has occurred as death aversion strategies. In the context of societal death anxieties, Gire dichotomizes such societies into two parts notably death denying cultures and death affirming cultures. Examples of death denying cultures are Western nations where higher death anxieties are recorded due to death-related phobias. Whereas, both Eastern and African nations are classified under death-affirming cultures, since death in such regions is not only culturally accepted, but is equally perceived as a positive transition to the afterlife. Moreover in such contexts, the death anxiety level is relatively lower than in the Western countries. It is in this regard, that this paper examines death metaphors used in HIV/AIDS campaign posters. To able to undertake such a study, a re-examination Turner′s and Lakoff ′s (1989) conceptual metaphors of life, death and time is imperative as seen in Appendix 1. A number of scholars 2 Moore and Williamson (2003) and Gire (2014) argue that the fear of death is almost universal, it is innate. Further, aspects such as religion has to some extent mitigated the fear of death in contemporary times. However, the constant fear of annihilation cannot wished away (cf. Byock, 2002:279), as humanity still registers fear and trauma, especially, in contexts recording high mortality rates as seen in terror attack on the Pentagon on the 11 th of September 2011 and bird flu on several nations. Seemingly, this extends to even fear of life threatening terminal illnesses. 3 Gire provides examples of studies showing inconsistencies in death anxieties, he cites Duff and Hugg′s (1995) research where higher levels of death anxiety was recorded among christians, where the converse was expected, where religion is supposed to psychologically prepare one for the afterlife. Besides this case, Gire cites Morris and Mc Adie (2009) study which compared Muslims, Christians and non-religious groups. Christians recorded lower death anxiety than both Muslims and non-religious groups. The Christians perceived death as a reward for good living, (cf. Fernàndez, 2006) whereas Muslim remained doubtful whether they were good Muslims, thus they were uncertain of their ultimate fate either in heaven or hell. This pointed out that it was the anticipation of a reward for good living in the afterlife rather than the mere belief or religiosity that lowered death anxieties among Christians. such as Lakoff and Turner (1989) (Wang, 2009:44) From this dialogue, Wang adds that life and death are two sides of the same coin and this is evident in another example used by Wang, where he draws from the story titled THREE QUICK AND THREE DEAD, where three noble men who come from a pleasure outing enter a cemetery, only to find three dead corpses stand as if they are waiting for their arrival. The corpses utter the following words "As you are now, so once were we. As we are now so will you be". From the above discussions, it becomes imperative to examine the list of basic metaphors of life, death and time (see Appendix 1), which will enable us analyze death pictorial metaphors in section 4.0.
Besides the outlined conceptual metaphors death in Appendix 1, there are also metonymies of death as stated by Fernández (2007:13) such as THE SENTIMENTAL EFFECTS OF DEATH STAND FOR DEATH and THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF DEATH STAND FOR DEATH as captured respectively in the following examples Cut away, almost in the bloom of life…death has created a melancholy void to her husband, her children and many affectionate relations and The release from all earthly pain and suffering. Such metonymies, echo Lakoff and Turner′s thoughts that the way we feel about death will be conceptually manifested in expressions and mental images associated with death. This line of thought is consistent with the personifications of death as outlined by Wang (2009) and Golzadeh and Pourebrahim (2013). Further, there are images or personifications of death as an ontological metaphor which have been listed by Lakoff and Turner (1989), Wang (2009) and Golzadeh & Pourebrahim (2013) include amber beads, dance of death, sickle, scythe, sword, hour glass, withering of flowers, skeletons, skulls, rotten corpses, animals such as the owl, images of the final places of sleep such has the graveyard, stillness, darkness, silence, isolation, of release of peace as may she or he rest in eternal peace, grim reaper, a beast among others. It is such pictorial metaphors which will be investigated on in the HIV/AIDS campaign posters.

Metaphor and Variation
This paper is based on metaphorical cross-cultural variations and it draws insights from Zoltan Kövesces on the potential causes of metaphorical variation. Kövesces (2005) holds the thesis that metaphor, culture and cognition are To Iranians, the source domain associated with the same metaphor would be a chemical solution and not a puzzle. Second, range of the target domain presents differences in the range of conceptual metaphors, and suggests that there can be cultural differences in the range of source domains as shown in the case of ANGER IS A HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER is a near universal metaphor, yet other cultures perceive anger as either as being in the heart or the belly as seen among the Zulu and Dholuo or Chinese speakers. Third, preferential conceptualization suggests that two cultures may have the same conceptual metaphors for a given target domain, but speakers might prefer different sets for instance Christians might view DEATH IS A JOURNEY TOWARDS ONES MARKER or HEAVEN, while an atheist might simply view it as DEATH IS SLEEP because of they do not believe in God. Finally, unique metaphors are used in culturally peculiar ways as in the case of DEATH IS A CAMEL DRIVER in the Arabian culture as cited by Meshihedany and Al -Sammerai (2010), which apparently is the variant of DEATH IS A COACHMAN in the English language. From the outlined types of cross -cultural metaphors, this paper will particularly focus on congruent metaphors, range of the target domain, preferential conceptualizations and unique metaphors. Further, variations of HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphors will be explained in 2.1.

Variation on Death Metaphors
Literatures on metaphors of death confirm the existence of cross-cultural variations. According to Golzadeh Lakoff and Turner (1989). According to Meshihedany and Al-Sammerai (2010), in the Arabian culture, a camel driver is normally the leader of the caravan and he determines the destination of any journey. Likewise, metaphorically death also provides options for ones journey either towards ones marker or hell. For the case of DEATH IS A DESTRUCTIVE ARROW, the destructive arrow metonymically represents a killer′s execution weapon, which serves more or less a similar function as Grim reaper′s scythe. Therefore, variations can be seen in the execution styles of death and it can be deduced that the DEATH IS HUMAN metaphor is clearly a case of a congruent variation, where the said metaphor is at the generic level, whereas DEATH IS A CAMEL DRIVER and DEATH IS AN UNINVITED GUEST are at the specific level Ferdinárd (2006) also presents other metaphors of death from the Christian perspective, notably DEATH IS A JOYFUL LIFE. LIFE IS MISERY and DEATH IS REWARD are evidence of the range of the target domain. On one hand, DEATH IS A JOYFUL LIFE whereby Christians believe that the deceased will live in eternal glory in Heaven as expressed in lexical terms such as abode of peace, or joyful expectation of the resurrection of the just. DEATH IS REWARD and LIFE IS MISERY are variants of Lakoff′s and Turner′s LIFE IS A BONDAGE metaphor. Said differently, DEATH IS REWARD metaphor considers death as a kind of liberation from life′s tribulations, where the deceased will find hope and consolation in the afterlife, especially if he or she lived a virtuous life. In the same vein, LIFE IS MISERY construes life as riddled problems as shown in the following example in an Irish Obituary analyzed by Fernández (2006:119) …In the pious and firmly grounded hope that their darling has gone to eternal rest-and that in the fullness of time, when it shall please God to call there from that scene of wretchedness, they will join her in that abode of peace.
Here, Fernández singles out eternal rest and abode of peace as the rewards of eternal rest in the afterlife, whereas the scene of wretchedness evokes life′s miseries that only death can liberate man from. From the above literature, we have attempted to explore the various cross-cultural variations of death metaphors, and the same issue will be revised in section 4.

Methodology
This section describes the methodology designed for research. The study is premised on an analytical design. Data was purposively sampled from 11 websites which had 20 posters bearing the HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphor as listed in Table 1. Data collection involved browsing online for relevant websites which had the required metaphor. The websites and number of posters are indicated in Table 1.

HIV/AIDS is a Ferocious Monster/Beast
This poster was used to sensitize Russian citizens on the dangers of HIV /AIDS, using the message AIDS does not sleep!. Here, the pictorial metaphor of HIV /AIDS as a ferocious monster is portrayed using the image of the Sphinx. According to Sherman (2008) and Roman and Roman (2010), there is a male sphinx in the Egyptian mythology and a female sphinx in the Greek mythology. On one hand, the Egyptian sphinx is a male-headed winged lion that represents pharaoh or the sun god. On the other hand, the Greek sphinx is a female hybrid monster that is a woman-headed winged lion having a snake′s tail. The Greek sphinx is also labelled the destroyer, for she devoured any person who failed to solve her riddles. However, Oedipus is cited as the only person who solved her riddle and as a result of this she committed suicide. Our thesis is that probably the hybrid nature of the female sphinx metaphorically represents the asymptomatic nature of HIV/AIDS, as manifested in various ailments such as tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia and herpes. The poster sells its message on the epidemic using HIV/AIDS IS A FEROCIOUS FEMALE SPHINX THAT IS READY TO DEVOUR MANKIND conceptual metaphor.

HIV /AIDS is a Ferocious Snake
According to Sherman (2008), Anjomshoa and Sadighi (2015) the cultural conceptualizations of snakes are dynamic since snakes have a ray of positive and negative attributes ranging from being regarded as deities 6 , possessing healing powers, ancestral spirits, cunning, treacherous, intelligent, fertility, patience, rejuvenating, seductiveness and poison. However, as observed by Sherman (2008)  Here, HIV is perceived as a lethal venom which infiltrates the human body through 6 According to Sherman (2008) The Greek god of medicine called Ascelpious is depicted as holding the caduceus which is a staff having two intertwined serpents coined around it. Legend has it that he discovered medicine after watching serpents use herbs to resurrect other snakes. The Egyptians worshipped Renenulet, a cobra goddess who protected children and pharaoh. Egyptians also idolized Nehebkau a snake deity who guarded the entrance of the underworld. The Aborigines believe in Wollunqua a rainbow snake that is connected to both the rainbow and creation. Whereas in Judeo-Christian beliefs, snakes represent evil which has to be eradicated. unprotected sex that is metonymically represented by the male genitalia having the head of a snake. In the Kenyan poster (Poster 2), the monstrous python is a beast that will devour a person.

HIV/AIDS is a Shark and HIV/AIDS is the Big Black Wolf
Besides the snake, and sphinx, other vicious animals such as sharks sand wolves have been used in unique ways in AIDS posters Denmark and Italy as in Posters 7 and 8 respectively. To begin with the Denmark poster (Poster 7) bearing the words AIDS written on a water mass with a shark's fin projecting from the ocean. The pictorial metaphor conceptualizes HIV/AIDS IS A LOOMING KILLER SHARK metaphor, where the shark′s fin operates under PART FOR WHOLE metonymy to stand in for a killer shark. In the poster, just like in the case of snakes, sphinx, and sharks are predatory killing machines and their sharp teeth enable them to mercilessly shred their prey to pieces. From this embodied experience with sharks, it is possible to compare HIV/AIDS to sharks, especially with reference to it as a lethal killer disease. With reference to the Italian poster (Poster 8) which uses a popular children′s storybook 7 titled the Little Red riding hood, where Jane escaped from the jaws of the cunning big bad wolf, which killed her ailing grandmother. In many cultures, wolves like snakes and sharks have positive and negative sides, with positive aspects being their ability to hunt in packs and their excellent tracking system. However, their negative connotations seemingly outweigh their positive aspects. Said differently, wolves like sharks are predatory, cannibalistic and are rapacious blood thirsty beasts. Bukowich (2004) asserts that in many cultures, wolves symbolize vengeance, evil, death and are rapacious killers of innocent animals. Moreover, in Greek mythology, the image of a wolf was associated with Hecate, the goddess of darkness presupposing she epitomized evil as a witch hence a harbinger of death and destruction. Just like sharks, wolves are excellent stalkers who capitalize on the element of surprise when attacking their prey. In English, there are expressions such as He is such a wolf to mean that one is a womanizer, don't wolf down your food to describe unacceptable eating habits and who is afraid of the big bad wolf? and this suggests a precarious scenario. From our embodied experience with wolves, it becomes crystal clear how the wolf′s rapaciousness, stalking, killing and destructives are mapped onto HIV/AIDS, hence the conceptual metaphor operating here is HIV/AIDS IS THE BIG BLACK WOLF as expressed in its linguistic metaphor Who is afraid of the big black wolf? to denote the grave nature of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Other Personifications of HIV/AIDS is Death
Source: http://www.graphicintervention.org Malawi respondent: Should an owl settle on the roof of a hut (house), it is regarded as a messenger of death. Even if it merely screams while flying near the hut/house, it is believed to be predicting some misfortunes.
Costa Rica respondent: Before my wife died, one owl was calling, several days and people kept telling me that someone will die.
Besides this, Enrique and Mikkola (1997) observe in both Costa Rica and Malawi, owls are perceived as emissaries of sorcerers 8  Given that crows and owls represent death, it therefore becomes imperative to explore other personifications of death such as skeletons, skulls, darkness, cemeteries and the hour glass as outlined by Lakoff and Turner (1989), Wang (2009), and Golzadeh and Pourebrahim (2013), Posters 11 to 20 present various dimensions of HIV/AIDS as death personified. First and foremost, there is need to understand that one has to die before they are placed in coffins and laid to rest. This means that there are AIDS posters coined under DEATH IS SLEEP metaphor, with the specific metaphor being DYING FROM HIV/AIDS IS ETERNAL SLEEP as shown in Posters 11 and 12, where Lakoff and Turner (1989: 19), use the analogy of the corpse on a portable autopsy table and a person asleep, especially inactiveness and inattentiveness. Therefore, both images of a corpse on the autopsy table in morgue with the feet bearing the tag written AIDS in red, all reinforce the message highlighting the cause of death as He didn't use a condom. Likewise, the body a famous musician Alicia Keys is in a coffin with the poster bearing the message ALICIA KEYS IS DEAD marks an online campaign meant to solicit funds or victims of HIV/AIDS by 'digitally 9 ' killing celebrities as a campaign tool, such images reflect our embodied experience with the dead who are unable to function normally as they have departed to the greater beyond. Once one dies, he or she is goes home or to their final destination, and for Lakoff and Turner (1989), the departure points are many such as heaven, hell, or graveyard. In the case of posters 13 and 14, focus will be on the graveyard as a final destination for the dead under DYING FROM HIV/AIDS IS DEPARTURE TO THE FINAL DESTINATION conceptual metaphor. On one hand, Canadian poster (Poster 13) has an epitaph inscribed with the following words Le SIDA circule toujours meaning HIV/AIDS is spreading every day, which is a linguistic metaphor hosting THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS IS A JOURNEY conceptual metaphor. This suggests that HIV/AIDS records high mortality rates as it spreads globally. On the other hand, Poster 14 reads A bad reputation isn't all 9 you can get from sleeping around, the poster implies that HIV/AIDS related deaths through unprotected sex is a reality. Both posters have a common denominator in that they use the graveyard pictorial metaphor with the second one having a wreath placed on the gravestone, the posters host DEATH IS GOING TO THE FINAL DESTINATION metaphor, Lakoff and Turner (1989) cite a Judeo-Christian belief in the book of Genesis 3:19, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Here, the earth is conceptualized as the cradle of birth and also man's burial place. Lakoff and Turner argue that the grave can be superimposed to the image of the house, where the roof of the house corresponds to the bulge of the earth, the cornice of the roof corresponds to the gravestone, with the interior of the house being the earth or the coffin and the latter rots to become part and parcel of the earth. In poster 13, the image of the gravestone, and a statue of a lady on top of the epitaph are all regarded as personifications of death. Moreover, the epitaph normally contains the deceased's names and details on his date of birth and death. In this case, prominence is given to HIV/AIDS as an agent of death and this is reflected in its message stating Le SIDA circule toujours (HIV/AIDS is continuously spreading) and also in the message A bad reputation isn't all you get from sleeping around. Both posters strongly suggest that death is inevitable in the context of HIV/AIDS and both posters metonymically represent HIV/AIDS related deaths using the graveyard pictorial metaphor. Closely related to the concept of the grave or earth is also the hourglass metaphor as shown in According to an article written by antonymous author titled Death as Metaphor, the grains of sand that drain away in an hourglass fuses time, life and death using various conceptual metaphors such as TIME IS A THIEF, TIME IS A CHANGER, LIFE IS PRECIOUS and DYING IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME (cf. Lakoff and Turner, 1989). According to the anonymous author life is represented by time, and with the passage of time, changes are bound to occur as one ages, eventually time runs out and death is inevitable. In the context of the above poster by Sidaction is accompanied by the message reading Dans le monde, une personne meurt du sida tout les 10 secondes. Protegez vous. (Every ten seconds, someone dies of AIDS in the world. Protect yourself). The hour glass metaphor uses images of nude men and women engaged in an unprotected sex orgy and just like sand that wastes away in an hour glass, such people risk contracting HIV/AIDS. Said differently, promiscuous seropositive persons are people living on borrowed time, for seropositive persons TIME IS A THIEF as it robs them of their good health and eventually their precious lives. Moreover, in the course of time, the opportunistic infections introduce changes that weaken the human body and eventually the person dies. The hourglass pictorial metaphor also hosts PROMISCUITY IN THE ERA OF THE PANDEMIC IS LIVING ON BORROWED TIME metaphor.
Once one dies, naturally the body is interred and eventually it decomposes with a skeleton remaining in the coffin. There are some HIV/AIDS campaign posters that use skeletons and skulls, to personify HIV/AIDS related deaths as shown in Posters16, 17, 18 and 19. The first poster Kenyan (Poster 16) reading what you see in not what you get, uses the LIFETIME IS DAY metaphor with particular reference to DEATH IS NIGHT and NIGHT IS CONCEALMENT metaphor, whereby from a far and under the cover of darkness is a male client who is approaching a seropositive commercial sex worker. Here, HIV/AIDS is personified as a skeleton mounted on the human body of the commercial sex worker. Apparently, this is evident to the audience but not the man in the poster. In this context, HIV/AIDS IS DEATH PERSONIFIED IN THE IMAGE OF A SKELETON metaphor features here. Poster 18 was used in France to sensitize the gay community on the dangers of unprotected sex in its message protegez-vous (protect yourselves). The image uses explicit imagery of nude women engaged in an orgy of unprotected sex. Interestingly, their positioning assumes the shape of the skull. The skull metonymically represents the human skeleton, as such the poster also propagates HIV/AIDS IS DEATH PERSONIFIED IN THE IMAGE OF THE SKULL and also DARKNESS IS DEATH conceptual metaphor is employed in the background of this poster. Besides the skull, skeleton's phalanges have been extensively used in Russia to metonymically present the skeleton particularly in contexts where HIV/AIDS is spread through syringes used by injecting devices users (IDUs) such as drug addicts. Here, poster 18 used in Australia, reads AIDS, sharing needles is just asking for it, it uses the EVENTS ARE ACTIONS metaphor, whereby needle sharing is the norm among drug addicts, and transmission of HIV/AIDS is caused by an agent who is personified metonymically using Grim reaper′s phalanges or image of the phalanges passing a contaminated syringe to another unsuspecting individual who has stretched his hand to receive the syringe. The Ukraine poster (Poster 19) shows the phalanges of the hand which has been injected by a contaminated needle and with blood oozing from the phalanges. This contradicts reality since skeletons are incapable of bleeding. The other possible metaphor operating here is SHARING CONTAMINATED NEEDLES IS REQUESTING FOR HIV/AIDS FROM GRIM REAPER or SHARING CONTAMINATED NEEDLES IS ASKING FOR DEATH. From the foregoing, it is clear that even death personified is varied, some cultures would use skeletons, others would use sections of the human skeleton such as the skull, the phalanges or even the image of grim reaper with his scythe and also silence. All these types of personifications are meant to convey their varied conceptualizations of the personifications of death in HIV/AIDS posters.

Conclusions
The analyzed posters affirm the existence of cross-cultural variations, first and foremost, the presence of congruent metaphors is realized in metaphors such as HIV/AIDS IS A The same can be said about HIV/AIDS IS A LETHAL SNAKE as a generic metaphor or near universal metaphor captured in its usage in various countries such as Brazil, Kenya, Netherlands and even in South Africa, there are culture specific conceptualizations of lethal snakes, for some cultures it is the python, a monstrous green snake, black mamba or even a green snake can serve as potential target domain. The same can be said about ferocious creatures whereby in the Netherlands AIDS poster, HIV/AIDS IS A LOOMING KILLER SHARK conceptual metaphor is used whereas the Italian poster uses HIV/AIDS IS THE BIG BAD WOLF conceptual metaphor. Finally, on the question of unique metaphor, the Russian HIV/AIDS in Poster 1 has HIV/AIDS IS A FEROCIOUS FEMALE SPHINX culturally unique pictorial metaphor rooted in the Greek culture. The same can be said about the hourglass pictorial metaphor which is a European concept of showing TIME IS A CHANGER metaphor and how the passage of time can eventually lead to one's death, especially with reference to HIV /AIDS. DEATH IS SLEEP/REST: Rest in Eternal peace. (Fernández, 2006) DEATH IS DELIVERANCE: Death broke at once the vital chain and freed his soul (Lakoff and Turner, 1987:24) DEATH IS NIGHT/NIGHT IS CONCEALMENT: Sunrise: 20 th January 1979 Sunset : 14 th February 2016 ( Daily Nation, Obituary Page) DEATH IS A REAPER: Death took him away (own example) DYING IS LOSING A CONTEST AGAINST AN ADVERSARY/DEATH IS SURRENDER: He could not escape the jaws of death (own example) DEATH IS DEPARTURE He has gone to be with his maker (own example) PEOPLE ARE PLANTS She is a late bloomer, young sprout-early stages of life, in full bloom -mature, wither away (approaching death) (Lakoff and Turner, 1987: 6) DEATH IS LOSS OF A PRECIOUS POSSESSION: He lost his life in a fatal road accident. (Own example)