AIDS, religious enthusiasm and spiritual insecurity in Africa

Abstract

The connection between the AIDS epidemic and the efflorescence of religious 'enthusiasm' (construed in both classical and contemporary senses) in Africa in recent decades is best understood, this paper argues, by reference to a concept of 'spiritual insecurity'. The article offers a general description of the condition of spiritual insecurity and argues that it is best studied within a relational realist paradigm. The article presents a critique of the concept of 'belief' as commonly used in the social science of religion, arguing instead for an opening of the study of social relations to include the universe of relations within which people experience the world, including their relations with entities such as spiritual beings that might otherwise be considered virtual.

Incomplete adherence among treatment-experienced adults on antiretroviral therapy in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia

“…About three-quarters of the 253 participants who reported having ever visited a traditional healer or herbalist were from Tanzania. During data collection, a famous healer in the Manyara District of Tanzania was offering a liquid cure for chronic illnesses including HIV/AIDS [44,45]. Although our questionnaire did not investigate details regarding the healer, this finding does contribute to a growing body of research on the role that traditional healers and alternative medicines may have in delaying HIV testing and care-seeking behaviours [46–48] and influencing sustained HIV ART adherence [49–52].…”

Reduced Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Among HIV-Infected Tanzanians Seeking Cure From the Loliondo Healer

“…It also possible that some who reported not attending Loliondo did actually attend. However, given the popularity of the healer (29), the absence of stigma attached with attendance, and an emphasis on confidentiality during the survey process, it seems doubtful that participants would mischaracterize participation to surveyors. Finally, the data were collected using structured survey instruments, and qualitative interviews were not performed.…”

“…The remedy, for which he charged 500 Tanzanian shillings (approximately 0.31 US dollars), was prepared by saying a prayer, boiling the root of the Mugariga tree ( Carissa spinarum ), cooling the brew, and dispensing it in cups to participants. As media reports spread across Tanzania and East Africa, tens of thousands of individuals sought healing, and by March 2011 traffic to the village was backed up for 15 kilometers (29). As part of the Coping with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania (CHAT) study (30), a longitudinal cohort study initiated in 2008 to explore associations between psychosocial characteristics, HIV medication adherence, and health outcomes among HIV-infected individuals in Moshi, Tanzania we observed a high proportion of study participants traveling to Loliondo to receive the cure.…”

Other‐than‐humans and the remaking of the social

“…While Bardi and Jawi people continue to speak about such beings, evidence suggests they are becoming increasingly less differentiated; knowledge of some has contracted, and others are considered to have disappeared completely from formerly inhabited locations. Like Ashforth (), I take relations with these beings to be real relations that have social effects. As these beings are associated with particular places, the social effects produced in relation to them also have a geospatial dimension.…”