Title: The Faith Sector and HIV/AIDS in Botswana: Responses and Challenges
Editors: Lovemore Togarasei, Sana K. Mmolai, & Fidelis Nkomazana
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Year: 2011
260 pages
An uneven professional anthology, but the unevenness was fascinating in and of itself, since it illustrated both organizational and linguistic differences between academic cultures. Several chapters were excellent, including one on evangelical churches and another on traditional healers' responses to HIV.
Because the majority of religions in Botswana are Christian-based (or Christian-based syncretic), there is little variation in the espoused definitions of sin (even if what constitutes a sin varies slightly). One chapter is from a Muslim perspective, and while better written than some, seemed more dogmatic. It was one of only two chapters, I think, to mention homosexual transmission, and I'm not sure that any discussed IV drug use (though iatrogenic transmission was). The only reference to substances I recall was about disinhibition, not about routes of transmission. This provides a very interesting cognitive dissonance for the reader of US-produced popular press materials on HIV, which historically have focused on men who have sex with men and IV drug users.
I'm looking forward to learning about which faith-based prevention and intervention strategies have worked in this country.
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