Blood, sweat and semen: The economy of axé and the response of Afro-Brazilian religions to HIV and AIDS in Recife

Abstract

This article provides an ethnographic analysis of Afro-Brazilian religious responses to the HIV epidemic in Recife. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted with Afro-Brazilian religious leaders and public health officials, it highlights the importance of the axé – a mystical energy manipulated in religious rituals that is symbolically associated with blood, sweat and semen. In an analysis of the relationship formed between the state AIDS programme and Afro-Brazilian religious centres, we conclude that the recognition of native categories and their meanings is one of the key elements to a fruitful dialogue between public health programmes and religious leaders that in the case studied, resulted in the re-signification of cultural practices to prevent HIV. Although the Afro-Brazilian religious leaders interviewed tended to be more open about sexuality and condom promotion, stigma towards people living with HIV (PLHIV) was still present within the religious temples, yet appeared to be more centred upon the perception of HIV as negatively affecting followers’ axé than judgement related to how one may have contracted the virus. We discuss the tensions between taking a more liberal and open stance on prevention, while also fostering attitudes that may stigmatise PLHIV, and make suggestions for improving the current Afro-Brazilian response to the epidemic.

Keywords:

• Afro-Brazilian religions
• HIV
• AIDS
• sexuality

Acknowledgements

This article is based on data collected from the study Religious Responses to HIV/AIDS in Brazil, a project sponsored by the US Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant number 1 R01 HD050118; principal investigator, Richard G. Parker). This national study is conducted in four sites, at the following institutions and by their respective coordinators: Rio de Janeiro (Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS/ABIA – Veriano Terto Jr.), São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo/USP – Vera Paiva), Porto Alegre (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul/UFRGS – Fernando Seffner) and Recife (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco/ UFPE – Luís Felipe Rios). Additional information about the project can be obtained via e-mail from [email protected] or at http://www.abiaids.org.br. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.

Notes

1. One of the major elements of Africanist traditions is the nature of spiritual entities worshiped. While deities and spirits are worshiped in both matrices, in the Africanists matrices, only the deities can incorporate their followers in a trance. In the religions with more Christian influence, the spirits of the dead are understood to be the ones with this power.

2. http://religrafosaude.blogspot.com/

3. To preserve the anonymity of the interviewees we are using fictitious names.

4. Here it is important to remember that male homosexuals were, at the beginning of the epidemic, identified as a risk group and remain one of the populations most vulnerable to HIV. For a review of the debate about homosexuality in the field of Afro-Brazilian studies, see Fry (2010).

5. Soap opera shown in the late afternoon, directed at adolescents and broadcast on one of Brazil's primary television stations.

6. For a more detailed analysis of the relationship between individual risk, security and responsibility in the religious context, see Rios et al. (2008).