spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

differs greatly from the social representations of HIV/AIDS by white female teachers in South
Africa (see Kaler 2004; De Kock & Wills 2007). Both social categories incorporate daily life
expressions, metaphors and experiences in their respective efforts to make sense of the
pandemic, but they do so in different ways.
The main functions of social representation are the establishment of a shared understanding
within the social category, the reduction of the sense of threat, and the protection of the positive
identity of dominant social categories within society (see Riley & Baah-Odoom 2010:600. Also
Joffe 1996; Joffe & Bettega 2003; Liddell & Barrett & Bydawell 2005; De Kock & Wills 2007).
By using concepts and metaphors from everyday life, and by linking these to the new threatening
phenomenon, people try to regain control over their life. This re-using of existing
conceptualizations (called anchoring) within daily life talk about HIV/AIDS often encourages a
process of ‘othering’: that is, in trying to understand a social threat like HIV/AIDS, social groups
protect themselves by blaming and stigmatizing other groups in society.
When people — whether adolescents (Joffe & Bettega 2003), men (Kaler 2004), women
(Rohleder & Gibson 2006), black Africans (Liddell, Barrett & Bydawell 2005), white Africans
(De Kock & Wills 2007), or people elsewhere in the world (Wenham, Harris & Sebar 2009) —
construct their understanding of HIV/AIDS in Africa, each social group undermines the identity
of the other for the purpose of protecting a positive self-identity. These self-preserving processes
of blaming others for the spread of AIDS seem to be a consistent factor in social representations
of HIV/AIDS, and thus begs the question whether the extensive public awareness campaigns
(including the many efforts by churches to move beyond stigmatization) considered that the
notion of ‘othering’ is a persistent, unavoidable and perhaps even necessary part of trying to
make sense of HIV/AIDS. Although lay people’s perceptions still needs to be explored even
more, it has become clear that any response to the powerful, destructive discourses that surround
HIV/AIDS needs to seriously address the universal need for self-preservation of all social groups
facing the threat of HIV/AIDS.
4.3.2 Christian religion informing social representations of AIDS
With an ever increasing number of Christian communities and churches in Sub-Saharan Africa,
it is important to address the relation of Christian faith and the way in which people make sense
of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Christian engagement with HIV/AIDS and the church’s responses to the
pandemic are no longer considered issues of marginal social interest. On the contrary, the
prominence of Christianity is acknowledged in policies and programs, in academic research, as
well as in daily life (e.g. Prince, Denis & van Dijk 2009).
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