HIV/AIDS activism, framing and identity formation in Mozambique's Equipas de Vida

Abstract

This article ethnographically explores faith-based mobilization around HIV and AIDS in Mozambique. It explains mobilization strategies and their outcomes in the case of the community-based HIV response teams of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Niassa in Northern Mozambique. Engaging constructivist perspectives from social movement theory, especially those focusing on framing processes and collective identities, this article illustrates how such perspectives can be used in the study of African settings and shows the complexity of motivations behind volunteerism. While church leaders stress biblical frames and community agency to motivate involvement, this article argues that these frames compete against dependency and diverging attitudes within culture at large towards volunteerism. The primary theological frame that church leaders use to mobilize the HIV-response teams focuses on compassion and facilitates the participation of volunteers from other faith perspectives.