HIV/AIDS: an African theological response in mission

Every first Saturday afternoon of the month a group of twenty ecumenical women from different parts of Africa meet at my house in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, to discuss issues that affect women in the church and society. We call ourselves "Women of Faith", who are implementing the mission of Jesus as described in Luke 4:18-19. As participants in God's mission, we equip ourselves with knowledge of what is happening in our churches and societies so that our responses may be contextual. On 6 March 2004, we chose to talk about HIV/AIDS and African women. One of us passionately argued that we need not worry about being infected with the virus, because as long as we remained faithful to our husbands and prayed for our protection, God was going to hear our prayers and protect us from the virus. She equated the HI-virus with punishment from God for the disobedient. Yet within our group there was one woman who had shared with us that she was living with the HI-virus, which she got while she was already a committed Christian and faithful wife. Her husband died in 2002 of AIDS and she lamented over why her husband did not disclose his status soon enough to take advantage of availability of anti-retroviral therapy in South Africa as she has done. She also told us how every day she wakes up at 4.00 in the morning to go to her Pentecostal church to pray for healing.

The discussion of this day left us divided in our responses to HIV/AIDS because it raised deep issues that required a theological reflection that is contextual to the continent of Africa; ecumenical in nature and dealing with the problems of African women. The central theological issue that the women battled with was: "Why do human beings suffer and how does one conduct mission in the context of suffering?" While it was clear to the women that our role is to participate in God's mission to the oppressed and the poor of our communities so that all people can experience the presence of God's reign here on earth, which is also yet to come, questions were raised around the status before God of people who are already infected. If one believes strongly that HIV/AIDS is a punishment from God for the disobedient, then what kind of mission is directed to the infected? Is HIV/AIDS a punishment from God or is suffering necessarily a result of sin? Does God use HIV/AIDS and suffering to bring people to God-self? Why does God allow the faithful partners, who are committed to prayer, to get infected? Is there room for the justification of unjust systems that cause people to suffer unnecessarily? Why is there still stigma among the people of God towards people with HIV/AIDS? Can faithful married women protect themselves from the virus? Why do some people get infected and not others, yet they are all praying to God for protection? Is there hope for the infected and affected of HIV/AIDS? This paper is too short to deal adequately with all the questions raised above. Before dealing with some of these challenging questions that take us into a discussion of theodicy, it is very important that I locate myself so that the reader understands what is influencing my theology of mission and HIV/AIDS. I locate myself within African women's theologies as propagated by the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (hereafter, the Circle).

African women's theologies

African women's theologies belong to a wider family of feminist theology, which is further categorized under liberation theology. Both theologies are different varieties of Christian theology and they acquired their names on the basis of context and approach. On the African continent, we have a number of liberation theologies. The African Christian women have called their theological reflection of the African context "African women's theologies".

Why theologies and not just theology? The word theologies is used in its plural form because African women theologians want to acknowledge the fact that even within Africa, there is diversity of women's experiences due to differences in race, culture, politics, economy and religions. Despite the differences in terminology, all women would like to see the end of sexism in their lives and the establishment of a more just society of men and women who seek the well-being of the other. The African women theologians are seeking restoration of the present life from death-promoting activities. African women's theologies actively engage with the society to bring holistic healing in today's world that is polluted with HIV/AIDS. (1)

HIV/AIDS as an urgent issue for theology of mission in Africa

The theological issues raised by the "women of faith" group represent an ongoing theological discussion on the mission of the church in Africa in the context of HIV/AIDS. Since the advent of HIV/AIDS in Africa, which was more than twenty years ago, the church in Africa has struggled in reading the signs of the times as far as HIV/AIDS is concerned. The statement that "HIV/AIDS is a punishment from God" was the predominant initial theological stand of the church. Why? This was linked to the mode of transmission of the virus in Africa. While in Europe and America the spread of HIV is mainly through homosexual relationships, in Africa it is predominantly through heterosexual multiple relationships. It therefore became easy for the church in Africa to argue that abstinence from pre-marital sex and faithfulness in marriages is the solution to the spread of HIV. People who do not follow such church teaching are the ones who get infected with the HIV as punishment from God for their disobedience. (2) This belief was further strengthened by the African world-view that individual sins affect the whole community. (3) This approach promoted the HIV/AIDS stigma and prevented the church from reaching out in mission to the affected and infected. Discrimination went further to the extent that some Christian doctors and nurses did not see that it was their mission to treat patients with AIDS. The Christian doctors and nurses justified their actions by stating that they did not want to interfere with God's punishment of people with AIDS.