Cosmologies in turmoil: witchfinding and AIDS in Chiawa, Zambia
Yamba, C.B.
Africa London 67(2): 200-223
1997
DOI: 10.2307/1161442Document Number: 532595
Written from the perspective of HIV/AIDS prevention research in Zambia, the article argues that rural Africans now find themselves the target of 3 competing and contradictory discourses about responsibility, each of which claims to tell them how to lead safe lives free from AIDS. The first, represented by the biomedical paradigm, professes sure knowledge about the aetiology and epidemiology of HIV/AIDS but is unable to cure it; the second, the missionary discourse, preaches abstinence and encourages a revival of traditional beliefs and rules of morality as the only way to manage and survive AIDS; while the third is the traditional discourse-represented by traditional healers and witchfinders-which professes sure knowledge and the ability to eradicate evil. The conjunction of these discourses results in a confusion that has led to the ascendancy of what is termed traditional African discourse, characterized by a resurgence of witchcraft accusations and witchfinding activities. The article focuses on the third discourse, illustrating the tragic consequences of practices associated with belief in witchcraft as the cause of evil and as a causal agent in HIV transmission in Chiawa, a Zambian village.