Dimensions of Vulnerability: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Livelihoods in Southern Zimbabwe, 1986–2007

In the last two decades, a huge body of literature has been generated on HIV/AIDS and its multi-dimensional and pervasive consequences, particularly on lives and livelihoods of households and communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Using village studies conducted in the 1980s as a baseline, this article investigates the long-term effects of HIV/AIDS on a sample of rural households in southern Zimbabwe over a 20-year period. My aim is to contribute to studies of the impact of HIV/AIDS that take a longitudinal perspective, by investigating whether the trajectories, impacts and responses are consistent with other findings in this growing literature. For instance, has the predicted ‘worst-case scenario’ of disintegrating coping strategies, household dissolution, orphanhood and progressive and massive decline in agricultural production and food insecurity, been realised? This study, predominantly based on in-depth and deeply personal accounts, shows that the impact did not follow the predicted linear pattern. The task of isolating the effects of HIV/AIDS from other deleterious effects also proved difficult in a context characterised by multiple shocks and stresses which often reinforced one another. Village-level studies based on longitudinal perspectives, however, allow us to glean numerous insights and effective strategies for reducing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa.