Submitting Institution
Brunel UniversityUnit of Assessment
Anthropology and Development StudiesSummary Impact Type
HealthResearch Subject Area(s)
Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Summary of the impact
Six million South Africans are currently infected with HIV and two
million have died from AIDS- related diseases. Initially seen solely from
a medical perspective, there is now recognition of social and cultural
factors, such as witchcraft, that have shaped the pandemic. Niehaus's
research findings, which have been disseminated beyond the academic
domain, form part of a diverse body of social scientific literature on
HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Niehaus's work has (i) enhanced cultural
understandings; (ii) shaped public debate; (iii) contributed towards the
training of health personnel; (iv) assisted the work of legal
practitioners; and (v) assisted in the production of cultural artefacts.
Underpinning research
Niehaus (lecturer at Brunel University) has done in-depth, independent,
ethnographic research on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the South African
lowveld. He has visited the field site for at least one month each year.
Within the larger body of social scientific literature on AIDS, Niehaus's
work focuses on rural contexts and on deep cultural meanings. The
multi-temporal nature of the fieldwork has provided Niehaus with a unique
perspective on the local history of the pandemic. He has worked with the
active collaboration of Eliazaar Mohlala and Eric Thobela, two local
residents employed as research assistants, and he has collaborated with a
number of South African scholars, including Mary Crewe (Centre for the
Study of AIDS in Pretoria); Jonathan Stadler (School of Public Health,
University of the Witwatersrand) and Frazer McNeill (Department of
Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria).
The research findings have challenged several orthodoxies.
(i) Questioning AIDS Stigma. The central argument has been that
in the South African lowveld the stigma of AIDS is due not to its
association with promiscuous sexuality but to its association with death.
Niehaus suggests that persons living with AIDS are perceived as `dead
before dying' and as located in the liminal domain between the categories
of `life' and `death' — an outcome of health workers' emphasis on
prevention and their portrayal of AIDS as a fatal, untreatable condition.
(ii) Religion and AIDS Stigma. Niehaus suggests that Christian
churches, particularly Zionist Congregations, have actively contributed
towards stigmatising sick persons by constructing AIDS as a new, deadlier
kind of leprosy with all its overtones of divine punishment.
(iii) Gender and AIDS. Niehaus's research has illuminated the
gendered nature of AIDS, documenting how sexual violence has facilitated
the spread of HIV. He has shown that men are more likely than women to
resist biomedical paradigms and to accept conspiracy theories concerning
the origin and spread of HIV/AIDS. Men's commitment to political paradigms
is due to their location in the public sphere and their traumatic
experiences of deindustrialisation. This finding highlights the need for
health workers to be sensitive to men's gendered concerns.
(iv) Witchcraft, Culpability and AIDS. Niehaus has argued that a
reluctance to test for HIV antibodies relates to the issue of culpability.
Accepting that one is HIV-positive often amounts to an acknowledgement
that one might have infected sexual partners with a potentially deadly
virus. Hence people often respond to HIV/AIDs with silence. Otherwise,
they might deflect culpability by claiming that they had been victims of
witchcraft. In this sense HIV/AIDS has spawned an increase in witchcraft
accusations.
(v) Barriers to HIV Testing and Antiretroviral Treatment. Since
2004, the government has launched a public roll out of HAART (Highly
Active Antiretroviral Therapy). Through the use of life histories Niehaus
has explored different reasons for the late uptake of testing and
treatment, including the issues of poverty, stigma and treatment literacy.
He suggests that in an environment characterised by widespread blame, it
might be more appropriate to maintain confidentiality than to insist on
public confessions.
References to the research
Niehaus, Isak. 2013. Witchcraft and a Life in the New South Africa.
New York: Cambridge University Press. [Available from Institution:
submitted to REF2]
Niehaus, Isak. 2009:`Leprosy of a Deadlier Kind: Christian Conceptions of
AIDS in the South African Lowveld.' In Felicitas Becker and Wenzel
Geissler (eds.) AIDS and Religious Practice in Africa. Leiden:
C.J. Brill, 309-332. [Available from Institution: submitted to REF2]
Evidence of Quality of Research
The work has received extremely positive references from academic and
non-academic readers and has been published in prestigious academic
journals widely used in medical fields. In the period under review Niehaus
received small grants from the British Academy (£3,000 in 2007) and also
from the Centre for the Study of AIDS at the University of Pretoria
(R15,000 in 2009). The publications are regularly cited in academic
literature in diverse applied fields — including anthropology, health
sciences, development studies, law and African studies — and in different
countries — Europe, Africa and the United States. The sources entered
received 59 citations on Google Scholar. An official website of the Journal
of Southern African Studies lists the essay `Dead Before Dying' as
the sixth most regularly cited of all its articles.
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjss20/37/3#cited
Niehaus has received regular invitations to speak to academic forums
highly influential in applied fields. Talks have included presentations at
conferences entitled `Paradoxes of the Postcolonial Public Sphere',
(Johannesburg, 2008); `Making Sense of Health, Illness and Disease',
(Oxford, 2010); `Sexuality, AIDS and Religion in Africa' (Oxford, 2011);
and at the `AIDS and Silence' panel of the African-European Group for
Interdisciplinary Studies (Leipzig, 2009). Niehaus presented the AIDS
Forum Lecture hosted by the Centre for the Study of AIDS (Pretoria, 2008);
and read papers at departmental seminars the universities of Uppsala,
Sweden (2008), Pretoria (2009), the Open University(2009), Cambridge
(2010), Manchester (2010), Sussex (2011), Bergen (2013), Bern (2013),
London School of Economics (2013), and the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine (2013).
Details of the impact
i) Enhancement of Cultural Understanding. The research findings
have been disseminated beyond conventional academic institutions. With
Fraser McNeill, Niehaus wrote a review for the Centre for the Study of
AIDS in Pretoria, entitled Magic. The Centre distributed 3,500
copies to libraries, organisations, and funders in the AIDS Industry (such
as Oxfam). This study can be accessed on internet and has to date
registered 2,229 downloads, which is more than any other review published
by the Centre. The monograph, Witchcraft and a Life in the New South
Africa (2013) is written in popular, accessible language. In June
2013, it was reviewed in the London Review of Books (by Jeremy
Harding), and the Times Literary Supplement (by Tanya Luhrmann).
Niehaus gave interviews to the English service of South African FM Radio
in 2008 and to HBO television in the United States in 2013. The latter
show draws over 1 million viewers.
(ii) Shaping of Public Debate. The media have cited Niehaus's
argument that in an era of deindustrialisation male sexual violence
dramatises the ideal of lost masculine dominance. This suggests that
women's empowerment alone is unlikely to curb the spread of HIV, and
highlights the need for prevention campaigns to address men's gendered
concerns. A colloquium on violence against women and the structural
drivers of HIV/AIDS, hosted by the organisation 30/30 in Johannesburg on
11 August 2010, debated Niehaus's work. He is also listed as an expert on
the gender and security research hub of the Social Sciences Research
Council in New York. The Hub provides researchers, policy shapers, and
practitioners with the evidence needed to advance their work and
contribute to increasing women's security. An influential research report
by the South African AIDS Foundation, entitled `Towards the Development
of an Integrated Model for the Effective Provision of Heath Care on
Community Level' (2009), refers to Niehaus's arguments on AIDS
stigma and on the connections between AIDS and witchcraft.
(iii) Contribution to the training of academic and health personnel.
Niehaus' work regularly features in syllabi of courses taught at prominent
universities, some with a strong applied element. These include courses in
political anthropology at Galway in Ireland; African History at Maryland
(US); religion and society in Denmark; and anthropology in Aberdeen and
Illinois. A course offered by the Centre for Faculty Development at Emory
University in Atlanta called `Viral Cultures' devotes a full week to
Niehaus's research on death and dying. Pearson Holdings South Africa
recently requested permission from Niehaus to reproduce sections of Magic
in the influential volume, HIV and AIDS: Education, Care and
Counselling (5th edition). The volume is used as a
training manual for nurses and AIDS counsellors.
(iv) Assistance in the Work of Legal Personnel. Niehaus has
participated in two influential workshops geared towards empowering legal
personnel to deal more effectively with cases involving witchcraft. In
August 2010 he worked as an instructor in a course organised by FAHUMA and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The course examined
different means of assisting the victims of witchcraft related violence,
and determining their entitlement to refugee protection and human rights.
In 2013 he was also a discussant at a workshop entitled `Witchcraft,
Spirit Possession and Anthropological Expertise in Legal Contexts' at the
London School of Economics. The workshop involved lawyers, social workers
and police. Niehaus is currently listed as a specialist on witchcraft by
the FAHUMA Refugee for legal AID Network.
In February 2013, Niehaus advised Ian Nichols, the chief lawyer
representing the families of 34 deceased miners at the Farlam Commission
of Enquiry in South Africa. In 2012, police killed the miners whilst they
engaged in a strike near Marikana mine. He wrote a critique of a report
submitted by an anthropologist suggesting that the police acted in
self-defence. The report contends that the miners had used a potion called
intelezi, which they believed rendered them invulnerable, invisible
and invincible, should they attack the police. Niehaus disputes the claim
on the ground of insufficient evidence, contending that miners simply used
intelezi to ensure the success of their wage demands.
(v) Assistance in the Production of Cultural Artefacts. Niehaus
contributed two chapters to the catalogue of an exhibition at the
Johannesburg Art Gallery called Dungamanzi/Stirring Waters. The
innovative exhibition displays items used by Shangaan diviners and
healers. The exhibition stood from 2007 to 2013. Niehaus granted an
extensive interview on the topic of conspiracy theories and AIDS to HBO
Public Television from New York. The programme is to be screened on the
popular Vice Show throughout the United States.
Sources to corroborate the impact
(i) Enhancement of Cultural Understanding. For downloads
registered by the Centre for the Study of AIDS, see: http://www.csa.za.org/resources/doc/download/16-aids-review-2009
On reviews of Niehaus monograph Witchcraft and a Life in the New South
Africa (2013) see:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n12/jeremy-harding/interview-with-a-dead-man
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/tlssearch.do?querystring=niehaus§ionId=1809&p=tls
(ii) Shaping of public debate. For citations of Niehaus work in
media reports and in government reports see:
http://30years30lives.org/2010/08/11/violence-against-women/
http://genderandsecurity.researchhub.ssrc.org/isak-niehaus/person_view
(iii) Contribution to the training of academic and health personnel.
On the listing of Niehaus research in syllabi for course to academic and
health personnel see:
Corroborating evidence of request to cite material in a training manual
for nurses and health personnel is available.
(iv) Assistance in the Work of Legal Personnel.
For listing as an expert as by the FAHAMU network see:
http://www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/victims-accusations-witchcraft
Details on course presentations and also details of correspondence with
Jim Nichols, lawyer representing families of the deceased miners at the
Farlam commission of enquiry in South Africa are available.
v) Assistance in the Production of Cultural Artefacts: On the
catalogue for the Johannesburg Art gallery exhibition on Shangaan
traditional healers, see:
http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/dungamanzi/
Correspondence on the production of the HBO television programme is
available.