Morality, Hope and Grief

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has been addressed and perceived predominantly through the broad perspectives of social and economic theories as well as public health and development discourses. This volume however, focuses on the micro-politics of illness, treatment and death in order to offer innovative insights into the complex processes that shape individual and community responses to AIDS. The contributions describe the dilemmas that families, communities and health professionals face and shed new light on the transformation of social and moral orders in African societies, which have been increasingly marginalised in the context of global modernity.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has been addressed and perceived predominantly through the broad perspectives of social and economic theories as well as public health and development discourses. This volume however, focuses on the micro-politics of illness, treatment and death in order to offer innovative insights into the complex processes that shape individual and community responses to AIDS. The contributions describe the dilemmas that families, communities and health professionals face and shed new light on the transformation of social and moral orders in African societies, which have been increasingly marginalised in the context of global modernity.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Morality, Hope and Grief: Towards an Ethnographic Perspective in HIV/AIDS Research
Hansjörg Dilger

PART I: GIVING HOPE? NETWORKS OF HEALING, TREATMENT AND CARE

Chapter 1. Beyond Bare Life: AIDS, (Bio)Politics, and the Neoliberal Order
Jean Comaroff

Chapter2. Spiritual Insecurity and AIDS in South Africa
Adam Ashforth

Chapter 3. New Hopes and New Dilemmas: Disclosure and Recognition in the Time of Antiretroviral Treatment
Hanne O. Mogensen

Chapter 4. Health Workers Entangled: Confidentiality and Certification
Susan R. Whyte, Michael A. Whyte and David Kyaddondo

Chapter 5. ‘My Relatives Are Running Away From Me!’ Kinship and Care in the Wake of Structural Adjustment, Privatization and HIV/AIDS in Tanzania
Hansjörg Dilger

PART II: MORALITIES AT STAKE

Chapter 6. The Social History of an Epidemic: HIV/AIDS in Gwembe Valley, Zambia, 1982-2004
Elizabeth Colson

Chapter 7. Living beyond AIDS in Maasailand: Discourses of Contagion and Cultural Identity
Aud Talle

Chapter 8. Politics of Blame: Clashing Moralities and the AIDS Epidemic in Nso’ (North-West Province, Cameroon)
Ivo Quaranta

Chapter 9. Gossip, Rumour and Scandal: the Circulation of AIDS Narratives in a Climate of Silence and Secrecy
Graeme Reid

PART III: EXPERIENCES OF GRIEF, DEATH AND PAIN

Chapter 10. ‘We are tired of mourning!’ The Economy of Death and Bereavement in a Time of AIDS
Liv Haram

Chapter 11. Purity is Danger: Ambiguities of Touch around Sickness and Death in Western Kenya
P. Wenzel Geissler and Ruth J. Prince

Chapter 12. Diseased and Dangerous: Images of Widows’ Bodies in the Context of the HIV epidemic in Northern Zambia
Johanna A. Offe

Chapter 13. Orphans’ Ties – Belonging and Relatedness in Child Headed Households in Malawi
Angelika Wolf

Chapter 14. The Widow in Blue: Blood and the Morality of Remembering in Botswana’s Time of AIDS
Frederick Klaits

Notes on Contributors
Index