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‘We are seeing things’: recognition, risk and reproducing kinship in Botswana's time of AIDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2019

Koreen M. Reece
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Abstract

This article explores the ways in which families are reproduced in Botswana's time of AIDS. It argues that conjugal relationships are transformed into kin relationships through a gradual process of recognition in which they become visible, spoken about and known to ever wider spheres of kin. For women, this process is often catalysed by pregnancy; for men, by marriage negotiations – and for both, recognition is key to self-making. However, every shift in recognition is risky and tenuous, even reversible, and marked by dikgang – ‘issues’, conflicts or crises – the negotiation of which is crucial to its kin- and self-making capacity. Tswana kinship and personhood, in other words, are constituted in crisis, making them both highly fraught and highly resilient. In this context, HIV becomes one of many risks entailed in intimacy and kin-making – suggesting one explanation for persistently high rates of HIV infection in Botswana, and indicating an unexpected capacity in families to absorb crises such as the AIDS epidemic.

Résumé

Cet article explore les modes de reproduction des familles au Botswana à l’ère du SIDA. Il soutient que les relations conjugales se transforment en relations de parenté par le biais d'un processus progressif de reconnaissance dans lequel on voit ces relations, on en parle et on les connaît au sein de sphères de parenté de plus en plus larges. Pour les femmes, le catalyseur de ce processus est souvent la grossesse ; pour les hommes, les négociations de mariage. Et pour les deux, la reconnaissance est la clé de l'auto-réalisation. Cependant, chaque changement de reconnaissance est risqué et ténu, voire réversible, et marqué par le dikgang (« problème », conflit ou crise) dont la négociation est essentielle à sa capacité de production de parenté et d'auto-réalisation. Autrement dit, la parenté et la personnitude tswana se constituent dans la crise, les rendant tout à la fois fortement périlleuses et fortement résilientes. Dans ce contexte, le SIDA devient l'un des nombreux risques qu'impliquent l'intimité et la production de parenté, suggérant une explication aux taux constamment élevés d'infection par le SIDA au Botswana, et indiquant une capacité inattendue dans les familles d'absorber les crises comme celle de l’épidémie de SIDA.

Type
Gender, sexuality and kinship
Information
Africa , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 40 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2019 

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