Ethics of life in the context of death: the emergence of ethical fields in HIV prevention

Abstract

AbstractDiscussing the ethical positions of politicians and public intellectuals, mostly Christians, the article analyses the emergence of ethical fields through HIV prevention in the context of Botswana's proactive HIV politics since the turn of the millennium. I discuss the interaction between everyday experiences of death and suffering, activist engagements on the part of some leading figures in prevention, and various publics. All of these voices agree that people and institutions, such as the church, need to fulfil their responsibilities. In all these situations and among the public, kinship becomes a source of identity and of positive ethics of virtue to support behavioural changes. The virtue of responsibility becomes consensual, making it possible to bridge the apparent contestation between the imperative of safe sex, launched by public health discourses, and everyday practices, highlighting childbirth and the continuity of kinship as a way to connect to life and transcend death. These various public and private ethics feed into a political imaginary, drawing on ideas of kinship as guaranteeing social stability.