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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Show panel list
Testing (before) marriage: politics of pastors, parents, and ‘pockets’ in Uganda
| Panel |
15. Reconfiguring the Religion-HIV/AIDS connection: challenges and opportunities
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| Paper ID | 663 |
| Author(s) |
Christiansen, Catrine
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Religious leaders, Christian as well as Muslim, regard the request that a couple performs HIV tests before the wedding day as a key component of their efforts to reduce the further spread of HIV. In eastern Uganda, Christians and Muslims, married as well as unmarried, consent to the principle of testing before marriage and that a person who is HIV+ cannot marry a HIV- person. In practice, however, testing has become part of family politics about marital arrangements and false test results may be the official reason for cancellation immediately before the wedding. For the individual person, the family, and the wedding committee a ‘positive’ result can thus lead to embarrassment and accusations of immorality.
Religious leaders are aware that the request of HIV tests could lead to loss of members who can afford to wed. In a religiously pluralistic context with high competition between Christian leaders, especially between the numerous Pentecostal pastors with small congregations, theological and economic interests may be considered of more value than HIV prevention efforts. The discrepancies between the policy and the practices of testing HIV before marriage thus reveal insights into the contemporary religious competition over souls and ‘solid pockets’. Furthermore since the example is not a donor funded HIV prevention method, it highlights strife over locally mobilized resources and power balances between kinship and religious networks.
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