Facing HIV/AIDS in rural Africa

Deborah Fahy Bryceson is an economic geographer who has worked at the Afrika-Studiecentrum since 1992. Her publications relevant to this seminar’s theme include: Food insecurity and the social division of labour in Tanzania (Macmillan 1990), Women wielding the hoe: Lessons for feminist theory and development practice from rural Africa (Berg, 1995), Farewell to farms (Ashgate, 1997, co-edited with Vali Jamal) and Disappearing peasantries?: Rural labour in Africa, Asia and Latin America (IT Publications, 2000, co-edited with Cris Kay & Jos Mooij).

Risking death for survival: Peasant responses to famine and HIV/AIDS in rural Malawi.

Malawi registers the 8th highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world and is one of the continent’s least urbanized countries with 85% of the population living in rural areas. Much of the countryside has a reputation for being ‘deep rural’ in the sense that it is characterized by a patchy road network and poor physical, economic and social infrastructure. Banda’s long reign as president supported the continuation of village-based customary tribal leadership and cultural practices throughout the Malawian countryside. In the 1990s, following his death, government democratization, reduced male out-migration and increasing urbanization marked promising new trends. However, a serious famine hit the country in 2001-2003. The interactive effects of famine and HIV/AIDS raised morbidity and mortality levels. Why has a conservative, risk-averse agrarian population become highly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS? This seminar probes the nature of risk-taking amongst peasant farmers in relation to the twin threats of famine and HIV/AIDS.

Discussant: Francine van den Borne

Francine van den Borne is a medical anthropologist. She has worked over 18 years in international public health, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa. She defended her PhD thesis in January 2005 at the University of Amsterdam, entitled Trying to survive in times of poverty and aids. Women and multiple partner sex in Malawi (Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam, Series Health, Culture and Society).