Navigating AIDS in Rural Malawi

Susan Watkins, University of Pennsylvania

Navigating AIDS in Rural Malawi Susan Cotts Watkins University of Pennsylvania In this paper, I describe how rural Malawians are attempting to navigate safely the rapids of AIDS. Although it seems reasonable to expect that those living in high-prevalence countries of sub-Saharan Africa would be both willing and able to avoid death from AIDS, there is considerable pessimism about the future of these populations in the media as well as by academics. Our longitudinal study (described at www.pop.upenn.edu/networks) suggests that this pessimism is premature. Prevention programs define only two harbors as places of safety: strict marital fidelity (or chastity for the unmarried) or consistent condom use. Both these rules are considered difficult to follow and incompatible with the good life. However, in informal networks men and women are moderating these rules and formulating unexpected strategies of prevention.