Connections and Transformations

Sub programme 3
Ideological technologies of connection: religious linkages in the transformation of African societies.

This component of the theme group on 'Connections and Transformations: linking technologies and society in Africa and beyond' comprises research that explores ideologies, religion in particular, as a social technology in the organization of social life in African societies. This problematic of religion as a social technology will be studied in terms of the ways in which religion connects to current transformations in African societies that take place under the influence of emerging new markets, new civic and public domains, but also pressing environmental issues, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the growing importance of all sorts of transnational movements and organizations. The research in this program will not be carried out on the basis of individual research projects by members of the ASC-staff and affiliates but will also take place in the context of two distinct yet related international research networks, one dealing with the issue of how religion connects to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, the second dealing with the increasing 'marketability' of religion in Africa whereby religion is connecting to the fields of economic power in ever growing yet unprecedented ways.

Research of ASC staff and affiliates will be carried out in: Botswana, Ghana, Cameroon, South-Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal and Italy.


Research Projects:

a. Nuptial connections: Pentecostalism, marriage and reproduction in Botswana in times of crisis
R.A. van Dijk and D. Setume

This project intends to address nuptiality as an ideology of connection. The waxing and waning of nuptiality in Botswana over time should be explored in relation to societal crises and religious responses. This is based on the premise that religion strongly influences, if not produces, nuptial ideologies of various sorts These ideologies have a bearing on societal crises related to poverty, wealth, AIDS, migration and citizenship. The project intends to elaborate on research findings of van Dijk's earlier work on the immigration of Ghanaians in Botswana, the rise of transnational Pentecostalism and the complexities surrounding the integration of foreigners in this small-scaled society whereby marriage, among other social relations, has proven to be a factor of dwindling importance. Yet, in the context of the AIDS pandemic in Botswana, many intervention programmes, particularly those run by faith-based organisations, emphasize marriage as a way of counteracting the spread and impact of the disease. This project explores the contradicting processes that occur with regard to marriage patterns in the country from the perspective of the significance of religious formations in this field of social relations.

b. Local and global religion
Wouter van Beek

c. Christianity, Awareness and Sexuality in Africa
Dr. Astrid Bochow, Prof. Dr. HJ Dilger, Prof. Dr. Musa Dube, Dr. Marian Burchardt, Dr. Eileen Moyer, Catrine Christiansen, D. Setume and L. van de Kamp

In Africa, Christian groups have become an important player in educating people about sexuality, relationships and health-related questions which are highly relevant in the context of HIV/AIDS. By engaging in a variety of outreach and counselling programmes Christian groups were forced to make sexuality a theological theme that critically questions current social patterns of relationships. These are formulated in an agenda of 'Christian awareness', which goes beyond HIV prevention and creates space for the individual to reflect on ideas, decisions and actions in the field of sexuality. It is operating on the assumption that self-consciousness leads to behavioural change. In so-doing, these groups connect local concerns with global agendas of reproductive and sexual health. Christianity has become important in transmitting this medical knowledge to people and in offering forms of care. The collaborators in this field of research are interested in exploring the disciplining force of Christianity with regard to local perceptions and practices of sexuality. Also, researchers are interested in exploring the activities of Christian organisations (FBO's and the like) in this field of intervention.

Research Networks:
These research projects will be contributing, in varying degrees of exchange and intensity, to the establishment of either of the two following research networks:

1. International Research Network Religion and Aids in Africa
2. International Research Network: Markets of morality in Southern Africa;
   Exploring new connections of religion and entrepreneurship

Main organizers:
Dr Rijk van Dijk, Chair, (African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands)
Prof. Dr. Hansjoerg Dilger (Free University, Berlin, Germany)
Prof. Dr. Susan Reynolds Whyte (Dept. of Anthropology, Copenhagen)
Dr. Ruth Prince (Centre for African Studies, Cambridge)
Catrine Christiansen (MA) (Dept. of Anthropology, Copenhagen)
Josien de Klerk (MA) (Dept. of Medical Anthropology, Amsterdam/ASC, Leiden)
Edward Baralemwa (PACANET, Kampala)

The general aim of these networks is to generate:

1. Opportunities for exchange on the basis of empirical fieldwork material by the organization of research workshops for which external funding will be sought; as a start each of the two networks organized a panel to take place at the AEGIS-Europe African conference, Leiden, July 2007.
2. Depending on the manner in which comparability of these exchanges leads to further insights that allow for discussion the organization of a conference pertaining to a matter of common interest.
3. In addition the pursuit of additional research funding by the submitting of joint research applications to external funders once the network has become truly operational and a shared research interest has been established. Applications of this sort are specifically meant to involve scholars from Africa as well as to be linked to research institutes/universities in Africa for mutual collaboration.