HIV in Harare: The Role and Relevance of Social Stigma

ABSTRACT

HIV is a significant social; political and economic problem in Zimbabwe. However; few researchers have explored peoples' experiences of living with HIV in that country. Drawing on 60 qualitative interviews conducted with Zimbabweans living in Harare in 2010; this paper focuses on how people from four different urban communities cope with HIV-related social stigma. To provide theoretical context to this issue; we utilised the ideas of Erving Goffman for exploring the individual experience of stigma and the concept of structural violence to understand stigma as a social phenomenon. This paper considers the relevance and role of stigma in the context of a country undergoing significant social; political and economic crisis. We investigated the strategies adopted by the Zimbabwean state and the influence of traditional and religious interpretations to appreciate the historical roots of HIV-related stigma. We took into account the ways in which the articulation of HIV with gender has caused women to experience stigma differently than men; and more intensely; and how grassroots activism and biomedical technologies have transformed the experience of stigma