‘Transparent sexualities’: sexual openness, HIV disclosure and the governmentality of sexuality in South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, responses to HIV and AIDS have been accompanied by calls to ‘break the silence’ and to openly talk about aspects of intimate life, otherwise considered private. These calls have been followed by the production of new bodies of knowledge about sex, and projections of transparent sexualities. In this context, the concept of counselling has taken on particular significance in terms of re-conceptualising diverse institutional sites as places of education, advice giving and moral inculcation with a view toward behavioural change. In this paper, I trace a series of processes and practices of negotiation whereby in a big church in the city of Cape Town sexuality has been rendered an object of knowledgeability and inquiry. The same processes work as conditions of possibility for the emergence of counselling practices by facilitating the circulation of concepts such as ‘responsible relationships’, ‘responsible choices’ and so on through the sites of faith-based health activism. Adopted from public health discourse, but inflected by religious idioms, these concepts allowed for the dissemination of new vocabularies of sex in which counselling is construed as a key mechanism.

En Sudáfrica, al igual que en otras partes del mundo, las respuestas al VIH y el sida han estado acompañadas de llamamientos a “romper el silencio” y hablar abiertamente sobre los aspectos de la vida íntima, que normalmente se considera que pertenecen al terreno privado. Estos llamamientos se han traducido en la producción de nuevos conocimientos sobre el sexo y proyecciones de sexualidades transparentes. En este contexto, el concepto de asesoramiento ha tenido especial relevancia en lo que se refiere a reconceptualizar los diferentes lugares institucionales como centros de educación donde se ofrece asesoramiento y se inculcan valores morales en aras de un cambio conductual. En este artículo, he llevado a cabo un seguimiento de una serie de procesos y prácticas de negociación que han transformado una importante iglesia de la Ciudad del Cabo en un centro de conocimiento e investigación. Los mismos procesos funcionan como condiciones para la posibilidad de que se desarrollen prácticas de asesoramiento al facilitar la circulación de conceptos tales como “relaciones responsables”, “decisiones responsables”, etc. a través de los centros donde se fomenta la salud basándose en la fe. Estos conceptos, que han sido adoptados de los discursos de salud pública pero influenciados por modismos religiosos, han permitido la divulgación de nuevos vocabularios sobre el sexo en los que el asesoramiento se interpreta como un instrumento fundamental.

En Afrique du Sud comme partout ailleurs dans le monde les ripostes au VIH/sida sont accompagnées d'appels à « rompre le silence » et à parler ouvertement de certains aspects de la vie intime, considérés comme privés dans d'autres circonstances. Ces appels sont suivis d'une production de nouvelles connaissances sur les rapports sexuels et de nouvelles projections sur les sexualités transparentes. Dans ce contexte, le concept de counselling revêt une importance particulière en contribuant à la reconceptualisation de sites institutionnels divers comme les espaces consacrés à l'éducation, à la dispensation de conseils et à la transmission de principes moraux, ayant pour objectif la modification des comportements. Dans cet article, je passe en revue une série de processus et de pratiques à travers lesquels la sexualité a été transformée en objet de connaissance et de recherche. Les mêmes processus opèrent comme des conditions devant permettre l'émergence de pratiques de counselling en facilitant la circulation de concepts tels que les « relations responsables », les « choix responsables » etc. à travers les organismes confessionnels engagés sur les questions de santé. Puisés dans les discours de santé publique mais imposés par des textes religieux, ces concepts ont permis la diffusion de nouveaux vocabulaires en rapport avec la sexualité, dans lesquels le counselling est interprété comme un mécanisme-clé.

Keywords::

• sexual openness
• disclosure
• HIV/AIDS
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

This article is inspired by panel discussions on ‘Speech and contestations over family, health and the body’ at the European Conference on African Studies in Leipzig in 2009 and an expert meeting on ‘Counselling and cultural change in Africa’ at the University of Amsterdam in 2010. For inspiring and critical comments I wish to thank Eileen Moyer, Rijk van Dijk, Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Ann Swidler and Susan Watkins.

Notes

^1.Fikelela is the Xhosa term for ‘reach out’.

^2. Motswako is a women-oriented TV show presented on South Africa's public television and often features debates on love, relationships, sexuality and sexiness.

^3. See, for instance, the special issue of this journal entitled ‘Sex and Secrecy: A Focus on African Sexualities’ (Reid and Walker 2005)

^4. On these findings see Burchardt (2010). For a broader African perspective on religion, sexuality and AIDS see the volume edited by Becker and Geissler (2009).

^5. All names in this paper have been changed.

^6. Thornton (2008) makes a similar point explaining how Mandela's declaration that his son died from AIDS gave the disease ‘a public face’ (149).

^7. Churches were explicitly encouraged to apply for funds by the PEPFAR management.

^8. At the time of research, 92 out of the 132 church communities within the Cape Town diocese had set up an HIV/AIDS task team.

^9. In one case, a pastor who already put up the sign board promoting the church as HIV-friendly felt compelled to take it down again after criticisms became so vocal that he was not convinced of this friendliness anymore.