Death in a church of life: Moral passion during Botswana's time of AIDS

This deeply insightful ethnography explores the healing power of caring and intimacy in a small, closely bonded Apostolic congregation during Botswana's HIV/AIDS pandemic. Death in a Church of Life paints a vivid picture of how members of the Baitshepi Church make strenuous efforts to sustain loving relationships amid widespread illness and death. Over the course of long-term fieldwork, Frederick Klaits discovered Baitshepi's distinctly maternal ethos and the "spiritual" kinship embodied in the church's nurturing fellowship practice. Klaits shows that for Baitshepi members, Christian faith is a form of moral passion that counters practices of divination and witchcraft with redemptive hymn singing, prayer, and the use of therapeutic substances. An online audio annex makes available examples of the church members' preaching and song. Correction: The author wishes to correct a mistranslation of a Setswana proverb that appears on page 5 of the text. The proverb is rendered as "Jealousy is cooked together with the voice; when the voice emerges, jealousy is left behind." In Setswana, the saying is "Lefufa le apeetswe le lentswe, lentswe la butswa ga sala lefufa." The correct translation is: "Jealousy is cooked together with a stone; when the stone is fully cooked, jealousy remains behind." As difficult as it is to bake a stone, jealousy is even harder to cook away. The significance of the proverb is as related in the text, namely that there is no way to remove jealousy from persons or relationships. The author regrets having misconstrued the low-toned Setswana word "lentswe" (stone) as the high-toned "lentswe" (voice) in this instance.