AIDS, intimacy and care in rural KwaZulu-Natal : a kinship of bones

Patricia C. Henderson, a South African anthropologist, resided from March 2003 to February 2006 in Okhahlamba, a municipality in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. In this book, she recounts her experience among this rural population who lived under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Spanning a period that starts before antiretrovirals were readily available to a time when these treatments were finally used to care for the ill, this powerful account of a terrible disease and the communities which it affects focuses on the ties between suffering and kinship in South Africa. "In 2003-2006, Patricia Henderson lived in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal where she recorded the experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS. In this illuminating study, she recounts the concerns of rural people and explores local repertoires through which illness was folded into everyday life. The book spans a period when antiretroviral medication was not available, and moves on to a time when the treatment became accessible. Hope gradually became manifest in the recovery of a number of people through antiretroviral therapies and 'the return' of bodies they could recognise as their own. This research implies that protracted interaction with people over time, offers insights into the unfolding textures of everyday life, in particular in its focus on suffering, social and structural inequality, illness, violence, mourning, sensibility, care and intimacy"--Publisher's description This book describes how HIV/AIDS became part of the lives of the people of the mountainous Okhahlamba in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. Based on extensive research in the area between 2003 and 2006, the author shows what impact the disease had - and still does - for adults and children, and the different ways people tried to find answers to the devastating presence of HIV / AIDS. Henderson focuses on informal care by family members and volunteers at a time when anti-retroviral drugs were not yet available. She also shows what it meant to the community once the drugs became available.

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