Reece, Koreen M., 1977-

Pandemic kinship : families, intervention, and social change in Botswana's time of AIDS / Koreen M. Reece. - 1 online resource (xiv, 308 pages) : digital, PDF file(s). - The international African library ; 67 . - International African library ; 67. .

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 16 Jun 2022).

Going up and down -- 'Ke a aga' : Lorato, building -- Geographies of intervention -- Children of one womb -- Taking what belongs to you -- Supplementary care -- Recognising pregnancy -- Recognising marriage -- Managing recognition in a time of AIDS -- Far family -- Living outside -- Children in need of care -- The village in the home : a party -- 'Lifting up culture' : a homecoming -- A global family -- Conclusion: 'We have a problem at home' : the ordinary crisis of kinship -- An epidemic epilogue.

Open Access.

Shaped around the stories of one extended family, their friends, neighbours, and community, Pandemic Kinship provides an intimate portrait of everyday life in Botswana's time of AIDS. It challenges assumptions about a 'crisis of care' unfolding in the wake of the pandemic, showing that care - like other aspects of Tswana kinship - is routinely in crisis, and that the creative ways families navigate such crises make them kin. In Setswana, conflict and crisis are glossed as dikgang, and negotiating dikgang is an ethical practice that generates and reorients kin relations over time. Governmental and non-governmental organisations often misread the creativity of crisis, intervening in ways that may prove more harmful than the problems they set out to solve. Moving between family discussions, community events, and the daily work of orphan care projects and social work offices, Pandemic Kinship provides provocative insights into how we manage change in pandemic times.

9781009150200 (ebook)


Families--Botswana.
AIDS (Disease)--Social aspects--Botswana.
Epidemics--Social aspects--Botswana.
Crisis management--Botswana.
Community life--Botswana.
Kinship--Botswana.


Botswana--Social conditions--21st century.

HQ693.9 / .R44 2022

306.85096883