Counselling and Pentecostal modalities of social engineering of relationships in Botswana

Abstract

In African societies where HIV and AIDS are widespread, counselling is being used in an attempt to control people's sexual relationships and has become an important industry. Counselling is centrally placed in many AIDS-related policies in Botswana and is sponsored by both the government and religious organisations. Within the broad spectrum of Christianity, Pentecostal churches are very active. They emphasise the refashioning of relationships by mediating moral imperatives and by engaging with psychological knowledge on personal behaviour and on techniques of counselling in a changing context of sexuality. This paper explores the significance of religious counselling in terms of the disciplining effects concerning personal behaviour and the ways in which this form of communication is generating a wider interest in this society. This is particularly attractive to members of the educated classes who are engaging with Pentecostal counselling as a way of refashioning their domain of intimate relations. Yet, it does not only provide informed ideas on intimate relations--being often one of the proclaimed objectives of counselling - it also produces a communication about intimate matters that is intended to inform a critique of socio-cultural conventions. This is a counter-cultural dynamic of counselling, which has been little noticed in the academic study of counselling practices in Africa.

Premarital Counseling Practices among Christian and Muslim Lay Counselors in Ghana

“…In most parts of Africa, religious and faith-based organizations play an active role in providing relationship counseling (van Dijk, 2013; Burchardt, 2009). Values, beliefs, and normative standards that inform religious practices are often applied during counseling in these religious spaces (see Burchardt, 2009; Bochow et al., 2012, Nguyen, 2009, for review).…”

Event ethics and their elasticity: weddings in Botswana and the exploration of the tacit extraordinary

“…Unlike in other types of churches, during counselling sessions (van Dijk 2013) in Pentecostal churches, couples are required to express their choices regarding which elements of ‘culture’ they will allow during their wedding and how they will convince their families of such preferences. In the Pentecostal framing of the wedding, the marriage must now represent a ‘break with the past’ (Meyer 1998) by being different from the marriages of their elders.…”

The Dilemmas of Monogamy: Pleasure, Discipline and the Pentecostal Moral Self in the Republic of Benin

“…In their efforts to build monogamous unions, Pentecostals focus their attention on building bonds of love and affection between partners ( [18,19]; [20], p. 31). In doing so, they also seek to address certain dissatisfaction with polygynous unions where emotions such as jealousy and rivalries between co-wives tend to dominate.…”

“…In doing so, they have relied on the introduction of methods such as counseling and the publication and distribution of educational literature on these topics [10,16]. These methods have informed the way in which "born-again" converts learn to express affection in public [17,18], assimilate ideas of romantic love [19] and train their emotions [20] to achieve an ideal of companionate marriage. People in churches are encouraged to speak openly about matters of sexuality, thus transforming local practices of secrecy that prevail in traditional religious contexts [10,17,21,22].…”