HIV/AIDS and religion in sub-Saharan Africa: an emerging field of enquiry

Abstract

In 2000 Robert Garner, a British anthropologist who became an AIDS activist, prefaced an article on the effect of religious affiliation on sexual behaviour in an AIDS-stricken South African township with the comment that the religious perspective was a “virtual foreigner” in the literature on AIDS (Garner, 2000: 41). In a review article on religion and HIV/AIDS policy Jill Olivier noted the longstanding “invisibility of religious organisations to the view of public health and policy makers”. ...