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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Show panel list
"A Scripture a Day Keeps the Devil Away": Religion, Global Politics, and HIV/AIDS
| Panel |
15. Reconfiguring the Religion-HIV/AIDS connection: challenges and opportunities
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| Paper ID | 699 |
| Author(s) |
Dilger, Hansjoerg
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Anthropologists and policy-makers have emphasized the ambiguous role religion plays in relation to HIV/AIDS in Africa. While religious organizations have initiated programs of care and support for those who are most affected by the epidemic, they have also undermined the messages of public health campaigns by reinforcing stigmatizing attitudes towards people infected with HIV and - at least in the case of the Pentecostal churches - by claiming to be able to heal HIV/AIDS.
In this paper I describe how the Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church in Tanzania has responded to HIV/AIDS and processes of globalization by establishing networks of healing, care and support for its followers. In particular, the church is functioning as a community of solidarity for younger and middle-aged women who have migrated to Dar es Salaam from the rural areas and who are most affected by the erosion of kinship networks and the growing hardships of urban life in the context of structural adjustment programs and HIV/AIDS. I will argue that the FGBFC situates its followers' lives at the intersection of tradition and modernity, the local and the global, and the moral struggle against satanic powers who aim to divert church members from the path of salvation. In conclusion I discuss how the growing focus on religion and AIDS among anthropologists is related to the revived interest of international AIDS politics in faith-based organizations and how a more differentiated understanding of "religion and AIDS in Africa" can be achieved. |
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