Bewitching sex workers, blaming wives: HIV/AIDS, stigma, and the gender politics of panic in western Kenya

ABSTRACT

Since access to HIV testing, counselling, and drug therapy has improved so dramatically, scholars have investigated ways this ‘scale-up’ has interacted with HIV/AIDS-related stigma in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on data collected during ethnographic research in a trading centre in western Kenya, this paper critically analyses two violent and localised case studies of panic over the ill health of particular community residents as a nuanced lens through which to explore the dynamic interplay of gender politics and processes of HIV/AIDS-related stigma in the aftershocks of the AIDS crisis. Gaining theoretical momentum from literatures focusing on stigma, gender, witchcraft, gossip, and accusation, we argue that the cases highlight collective anxieties, as well as local critiques of shifting gender roles and the strain of globalisation and legacies of uneven development on myriad forms of relationships. We further contend that these heightened moments of panic and accusation were deployments of power that ultimately sharpened local gender politics and conflicts on the ground in ways that complicated the social solidarity necessary to tackle social and health inequalities. The paper highlights one community’s challenge to eradicate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS during a period of increased access to HIV services.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• stigma
• panic
• gender
• Kenya

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Local politics always surround who can and cannot reasonably make claims of having been bewitched (see Thomas, 2008).

2 The largest ethnic group in Kenya.

3 A linguistic, sometimes political, social category that actually incorporates several different ethnic groups (Lynch, 2011).

4 Njeri and all other names are pseudonyms.

5 A term used to describe an HIV-negative partner of a discordant couple and/or a person capable of spreading the virus, but who does not get sick.

6 The actual number of names in the list cited by locals varied widely, ranging from over 100 to as many as 600.

7 A term used in HIV/AIDS literature to emphasise the everyday norm of economic exchanges for sex in sub-Saharan Africa and to eliminate the stigma associated with notions of prostitution (Hunter, 2002; Kaufman & Stavrou, 2004; Poulin, 2007).

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by support from the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, the NIH/NCRR-Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute-TL1 Program [TL1 RR025759; A. Shekhar, PI], and fellowship support and grants from the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology, and African Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. The project described was also partially supported by Award Number [T32AI007637] from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases or the National Institutes of Health.