HIV/AIDS: an African theological response in mission.

Phiri, Isabel Apawo

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.

The interpretation of HIV/AIDS as a punishment for sin comes not only from the church but it is also internalized by the infected, thereby increasing their suffering. Moji Ruele has rightly argued that:

 Spiritually, HIV/AIDS sufferers experience a crisis. They ask why
 they are the ones affected. Whether God loves them. Whether they
 have sinned or are just unlucky. Is the disease a form of punishment
 from God? (4)

The church people's simplistic understanding of the existence and spread of HIV in Africa is where the church missed the mark and has remained a major issue that still interferes with the church in Africa's mission to those infected and affected with the HIV/AIDS. The fact that the church has preached about abstinence and faithfulness for a very long time and still is not winning with these messages has caused the ecumenical church in Africa to have a critical look at itself. This is reflected in the November 2001 action plan of the international and African ecumenical organizations that participated in a World Council of Churches global consultation on the ecumenical response to the challenge of HIV/AIDS in Africa held in Nairobi, Kenya. This consultation produced a plan of action as a guideline for African churches, para-church organizations and ecumenical partners in responding to the plague of AIDS.

At the consultation, the church admitted that knowingly and unknowingly it has contributed to the spread of the HIV. They acknowledged that the way scriptures have been interpreted and the emphasis on the theology of sin, among other issues, have helped to promote the stigmatization, exclusion and suffering of people with HIV or AIDS. They also came to the realization that HIV/AIDS is there in the church among the children of God. Therefore, they said,

 Given the extreme urgency of this situation, and the conviction
 that the churches do have a distinctive role to play in the
 response to the pandemic, what is needed is a rethinking of our
 mission, and the transformation of our structures and ways of
 working. (5)

The consultation outlined a plan of action in the areas of theology and ethics, prevention, care and counselling people living with HIV/AIDS, education, training support, treatment, advocacy, gender, culture, liturgy and resources. It also proposed the inclusion of HIV/AIDS in the theological curriculum. International and African church leaders recommended the formation of the Ecumenical HIV/AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) to coordinate the shift in the church's theology and mission on HIV/AIDS.

African women theologians have chosen to make HIV/AIDS the main issue for their work in theology from 2002 to 2007. This is the Circle's contribution to the ecumenical movement's response to HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The Circle and HIV/AIDS: a gender-based response

The Circle has highlighted the relationship of gender to HIV/AIDS. Philippe Denis has rightly said that "HIV/AIDS is ultimately a gender issue". (6) This statement is supported by the fact that in sub-Saharan Africa marriage is a major risk factor for any African woman to contract the HI-virns". (7) Teenage girls between the ages of 15 to 24 in sub-Saharan Africa are five times more likely to be infected than boys of the same age range. (8)

African women theologians' writings have shown that in Africa marriage is at the centre of the African community. (9) Yet marriage is also the centre of patriarchy, which constructs the subordinate position of African women. This position does not work well in the era of HIV/AIDS, when research shows that there are more new infections of HIV among married women than any other group. (10) It has been argued by the World Health Organization that the major reason why this is the case is because of "the sexual and economic subordination of women". (11) Articles in two of the Circle's publications, The Will to Arise (1992) (12) and Violence Against Women (1995) (13), have described very clearly the subordinate positions of women in Africa. As long as women continue to be put in subordinate positions through the literalistic interpretation of Bible teachings and African cultural practices, it will be difficult to control HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Women are also care-givers of the infected with HIV/AIDS and they take care of the orphans with minimum economic and social support. HIV/AIDS has brought us to a theology of praxis that looks at everyone as an agent of change to promote life. African women theologians have also agreed that research into religious, cultural and social practices that make women vulnerable to HIV/AIDS is an insufficient contribution. The African women theologians have taken upon themselves the task of engagement with the community to save lives. (14)

A challenge for a new theology

First and foremost, the creation of a new theology that deals with HIV/AIDS needs to acknowledge that HIV is more than a medical condition. It calls Christians to examine also their religious and cultural beliefs and practices in their understanding of mission. Since it is generally accepted among scholars of mission that the mission of the church models itself on the mission of Jesus Christ which had its origins in the mission of the triune God, (15) then reflection on a new theology is based on how the church understands itself as having been sent by God to bring wholeness to a broken world.

Secondly, a mission-oriented theology of HIV/AIDS acknowledges that the Bible is central in Africa and is used as authoritative within the church. (16) Whenever the church is seeking direction, the Bible is consulted in all circumstances. Musa Dube has rightly stated that it is therefore not surprising that in this era of the HIV/AIDS pandemic the church has gone back to the Bible to search for knowledge concerning the disease, healing, stigma and isolation, guilt and fear, caring, death and dying. (17) The major problem of African Christians is their uncritical reading of the Bible, which becomes dangerous in the era of HIV/AIDS as it leads to wrong interpretations. Nevertheless, African theology has shown the similarities between the Old Testament and African beliefs and practices. Therefore Africa is now exploring new ways of reading and interpreting the Bible that equip the church to move away from a theology of HIV/AIDS as a punishment from God to a theology of God who is in solidarity with the HIV/AIDS-affected and infected people in the same way that liberation theologies have depicted God to be on the same side as the poor and the marginalized. God, Jesus Christ and the church in Africa are being described as present wherever one finds HIV/AIDS. (18)

Thirdly, HIV/AIDS is also causing African women theologians to revisit the question of why human beings suffer. I agree with Musimbi Kanyoro who has stated that

 "to do theology in Africa today is to do theology among a people
 with much suffering. There is so much death on our continent that
 reality makes a mockery of the bravery of Job, the biblical giant
 of tribulations". (19)

HIV/AIDS has just added to the intensity of suffering on the continent. African women agree that suffering is part of human life and it should not necessarily be interpreted to be a result of sin for not everyone suffers as a result of sin. This is particularly true in the case of HIV/AIDS. While it is true that having multiple sexual partners increases the chances of getting infected with HIV, it is also true to argue that there are a lot of spouses (especially women) who have been faithful to their partners but still have ended up being infected with the virus. In addition, there are also children who have been infected by their mothers at birth. So why would God want to punish this large group of people whose suffering is not associated with any sin of their own?

The theology that says people suffer because of moral failure is based on Augustine's theodicy that argues that there is a link between natural disasters with moral weakness. Nicolson has stated that the Augustine theodicy "believes that somehow pain, sickness, famine and death are entirely the consequence of the disobedience of Adam and Eve and their descendants. In this view, it is not God but humans who are responsible for all the suffering in the world." (20) In the context of HIV/AIDS, this view translates to blaming the infected for sinning. It can also be extended to include structural sins that create an atmosphere that is conducive to the spread of HIV. For example, poverty has forced many women to have multiple sex partners so that they can earn money for self-sustenance. The practice of migrant labour has also created an atmosphere of multiple sex partners that has made it easy to get infected with the virus. It can be argued that what is sinful is to accept unjust systems that cause people to suffer unnecessarily. This calls for a theology that goes beyond looking at the HIV pandemic as a moral failure or God punishing the infected and affected with stigma and death, for this theology does not explain why some people in Europe and America also practise the system of having many sexual partners but do not get infected with the virus. It also does not explain why some people in Europe and America live very long with the virus while in Africa they die quickly. Current research has revealed that HIV/AIDS is preventable, manageable and controllable if there is solidarity at individual, family, community, national and international levels, in taking responsibility and sharing of resources.

Fourthly, the issue of HIV/AIDS is also connected to conceptions of life. The theology of creation as depicted in Genesis 1-2 shows what is in God's plan for the sacredness of all life. There is interdependency and goodness of creation. The same image is depicted in African creation myths. God's image is found in both men and women. The world of HIV/AIDS is a broken world of Genesis 3, where quality of life does not exclude suffering. However, in the conception of quality of life, in the time of HIV/AIDS everyone is called upon to protect life as opposed to destroying life. This raises ethical and theological questions about denying a person with AIDS the right to a decent life through medication that reduces opportunistic infections. As mentioned already, this is done by some professional Christian service providers. It is also done at government level where medication is not made accessible to or affordable by the majority of the sufferers. Where is the message of the God of love and compassion for the oppressed and discriminated against? When Jesus was extending healing to all who needed it, he did not ask how the person got sick. His concern was to bring the kingdom of God on earth by restoring health. So why should the body of Jesus, the church, behave differently when met with the crisis of ministering to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS?

The theology of the sacredness of life also includes taking responsibility to protect life that has already been infected so that the infection is contained. It involves the protection of life that has not been infected yet. The methodology of protecting life has been riddled with theological debates as to how this may best be done. The majority of the churches in Africa have stuck with the message of abstinence and faithfulness and fought vigorously against the use of condoms on the understanding that condoms promote promiscuous behaviour. For some African women theologians, the process of protecting life does not exclude the responsible use of condoms despite the protest of some African church leaders. This is because African women are aware that despite the constant message of abstinence and faithfulness, the majority of Christians are not following the church's message. Therefore, while we are sorting out our power games surrounding patriarchy and the sanctity of marriage as originally intended by God, life has to be protected by whatever means is available today.

Although some from the women of faith group suggested dependence on prayer for the protection of the life of married women from HIV/AIDS, the experience of other women from the same group has shown that this cannot be achieved by prayer alone. Praying women have been infected with HIV/AIDS by their spouses, but not because they did not have enough faith to prevent the infection. Prayer without appropriate knowledge is dangerous (21) and has led so many Christians to death. This is where one has to apply wisdom as given by God. As stated in the book of James, (22) if people lack wisdom, let them ask for it from God. God is the one who gives appropriate wisdom for each crisis because God has not stopped revealing God-self in each situation that confronts humanity.

Fifthly, HIV/AIDS has also raised the issue of corporate sin that calls for all people to reexamine their private and public lives in order to protect life. It does not make sense that one part of humanity can have a quality life even after infection with HIV, while the other half dies quickly due to poverty and curable opportunist infections. This is where the message of Jesus in Luke 4:18-19 deirmes the mission of the church to deal with all forms of oppression that include social injustice, disease, and poverty, racial and sexual discrimination and to promote liberation, social justice, life and healing. Globalization has not promoted equal distribution of drugs to all the infected people of the world.

Sixthly, healing was central in the mission of Jesus and it is important in the African worldview. This explains why the churches that have taken seriously physical healing in Africa are very popular. (23) In such churches, Jesus is the healer, even though the medical world has not yet found a cure for HIV/AIDS. It is a common sight in Africa to see desperate cases of people with AIDS being taken to churches that practise the ministry of healing. Despite the fact that many people who are critically ill die at the churches, people do not lose hope in a God who is a healer. They still go to church in droves to seek Jesus the healer. Jesus becomes their last hope. They hope for physical healing. Hope in Jesus as healer is what gives them motivation to face another day, even up to the deathbed. They cling to hope for healing. These cases show that, while it is important to understand the medical side of HIV/AIDS, the spiritual side is equally important. Nicolson has also rightly argued: "While not pretending that there are easy solutions, a major contribution which the churches can make to the issue is to hold fast to the hope that solutions will be found and that in the end God is victorious (John 16:33)." (24)

Conclusion

The way forward for all the theologies of Africa is to unite and take the current context of HIV/AIDS into theological reflection. It has been argued in this paper that the theology that views HIV/AIDS as a punishment from God ought to be rejected, for it is life-denying and contrary to the kolistic message of the mission of God. Real church involvement in the combat against HIV/AIDS needs to recognize that sexual sins are not the sin that brings the wrath of God on humanity. Every sin is the same before God. Bad things happen to good and bad people alike because of the existence of evil in the world. However, that does not mean God has lost control of the world. God is in the world, siding with the oppressed. God is on the side of those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS. How they got the virus is immaterial to Jesus. Therefore it should not be an issue for the body of Christ. What is required from the church, the body of Christ, is commitment to fight against the spread of the virus with all the available resources. Presenting a God of compassion rather than a God of wrath is central when dealing with the infected and affected. Jesus came to establish the reign of God on earth. It is the responsibility of the church to work in conjunction with God to realize the reign of God now as the church continues to hope for the final realisation of the reign of God for the whole creation and the whole human community. While HIV/AIDS brings fear and desperate actions, the message of the church should continue to promote life in all its fullness. The reign of God on earth entails peace and justice, healed relations between individual people in the broader society, between the people of God, as well as peace between humankind and nature. HIV/AIDS is now forcing the church to develop a comprehensive theology that addresses all areas of human suffering with the aim of bringing hope in the midst of suffering.

(1) Isabel Apawo Phiri, "Contextual Theologies of Southern Africa", in John Parratt eds, An Introduction to Third World Theologies, Cambridge, Cambridge Press, 2004, p.151.

(2) Dorothy Scarborough "HIV/AIDS: The Response of the Church", in Journal of Constructive Theology, vol. 7, no. 1, July 2001, pp.3-16.

(3) Stuart C. Bate, "Responsible Healing in a World of HIV/AIDS", in Stuart Bate ed., Responsibility in the Time of AIDS: A Pastoral Response by Catholic Theologians and AIDS Activists in Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster Publ., 2003, pp. 158-159.

(4) Moji A. Rude, "Facing the Challenges of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa: Towards a Theology of Life", in Musa Dube ed., HIV/AIDS and the Curriculum: Methods of Integrating HIV/AIDS in Theological Programmes, Geneva, WCC Publ., 2003, p.79.

(5) See Plan of Action: The Ecumenical Response to HIV/AIDS in Africa, Report, November 25-28, 2001, p.3.

(6) P. Denis, "Sexuality and AIDS in South Africa," in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, no. 115, March 2003, p.75.

(7) S. Baden and H. Wach, Gender, HIV/AIDS Transmission and Impact: A Review of Issues and Evidence, Brighton, Institute of Development Studies; 1998, no.7.

(8) Hunger Project, 2001, no.1.

(9) For example see Mercy Amba Oduyoye ed., Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1995; ch. 6 is on marriage and patriarchy, pp.131-153.

(10) van Woudenberg, J.V.W., Women Coping with HIV/AIDS, Amsterdam, Bulletin 344, Royal Tropical Institute, 1998.

(11) Pieterson G. Women in the Time of AIDS: Health and the Challenge of HIV, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1996.

(12) Mercy A. Oduyoye and R.A.M. Kanyoro eds, The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2001.

(13) G. Wamue and M. Getui eds, Violence against Women: Reflections by Kenyan Women Theologians, Acton Publ., Nairobi, 1996.

(14) Isabel Apawo Phiri, "African Women of Faith Speak Out in an HIV/AIDS Era", in Isabel Apawo Phiri, Beverley Haddad and Madipoane Masenya eds, African Women, HIV/AIDS and Faith Communities, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster Publ., 2003, p.8.

(15) Gabriel L. Afagbegee, "Responsibility and Media in a Time of HIV/AIDS" in Stuart Bate ed., Responsibility in the Time of AIDS: A Pastoral Response by Catholic Theologians and AIDS Activists in Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster Publ., 2003, p. 124.

(16) Sam Oleka, "The Authority of the Bible in the African Context" in Samuel Ngewa Mark Shaw and Tite Tieno eds, Issues in African Christian Theology, Nairobi, East African Educational Publ., 1998, pp.75-103.

(17) Musa W. Dube, "HIV and AIDS Curriculum for Theological Institutions in Africa", in I.S. Phiri, B. Haddad and M. Masenya eds, African Women, p.224.

(18) Ronald Nicolson, God in AIDS, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster Publ., 1995.

(19) Musimbi Kanyoro, Introducing Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics: An African Perspective, Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press, 2002, p.24.

(20) Ronald Nicolson, God in AIDS, p.26.

(21) In Hosea 4:6 the Lord is quoted to have said "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

(22) James 1:5 and 3:17.

(23) Isabel Apawo Phiri, "African Women in Mission: Two Case Studies from Malawi", in Missionalia, vol. 28, nos 2/3, Nov. 2000, pp.267-293 and Isabel Apawo Phiri "Healed from AIDS: The testimony of Pastor Fridah Mzumara-Ngulube of Barak Ministries Lusaka Zambia", in Journal of Constructive Theology, vol. 7, no. 1, July 2001, pp.63-81.

(24) Ronald Nicolson, God in AIDS, p.42.

References

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Isabel Apawo Phiri is professor of African theology at the school of theology and religion of the University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and the general coordinator for the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.