Exploring the potential for a culturally relevant HIV intervention project: a Swaziland example

Abstract

Typically, humanitarian workers view local conceptions of healing and disease as barriers to the prevention and treatment of HIV. This project aimed to engage Swazi traditional healers in discussions about the potential utility of conceptualizing HIV within the framework of Swazi traditional healing beliefs in order to determine the benefits and challenges of developing a locally-adapted HIV prevention model for Swaziland. Fieldwork was conducted in Swaziland from May through July 2006 to explore this hypothesis. The project evolved, through interactions with healers, to include observations on the dynamic nature of Swazi traditional healing beliefs and intervention practice. The study concludes that ethnographic approaches have the potential to enhance HIV intervention planning models by illustrating the complexities associated with collaboration. An anthropological perspective was able to facilitate an analysis of the diverse notions of ‘culture’ and the political and economic interests involved, which in turn proved useful in understanding what was at stake in this situation.

Keywords:

• traditional healing
• HIV
• collaboration
• Swaziland

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge David Napier, Roland Littlewood, Jane Anderson, David Stoll, Susie Kilshaw, Alan Abrahamson, Bogdan Albu, Justin Lazarus, Timothy and Thembi Shongwe, the Traditional Healers Organization for Africa staff, and Babe Mtshali for their help with the project. This project followed the ethical guidelines set forth by the University College London (UCL) Research Ethics Committee, the UCL Department of Anthropology, the Association of Social Anthropologists, and UCL Data Protection Policies. Funding was provided by the UCL Graduate School (Research Fund, 2006). The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Notes

1. A traditional form of divination in which Mtshali is an expert.

2. It has been observed elsewhere that living with placated spirits is a common solution of symbolic medicine (Obeysekere 1981, 24; Hunt 2000, 88), while Janzen (1982) has noted multiple cross-cultural examples of how chronic illness gets accommodated through the formation of an ambivalent relationship with the affliction.

3. A type of cancer inflicted by a witch trying to recover stolen property.

4. A group of senior traditional healers, of which Mtshali is a member.