Disease as Dwelling: Sustaining Life with HIV in Post-displacement Northern Uganda

In this article, I draw on an ethnographic study focused on the experiences of internally displaced people living with HIV/AIDS in northern Uganda between 2006 and 2013; in particular, I explore the ways in which they have navigated the effects of conflict, displacement, and post-conflict return movements. Here, I argue that disease, more than simply a vulnerability or a social identity, became a way of dwelling with displacement and in the post-displacement landscape. I argue here that a dwelling perspective, derived and adapted from the work of Tim Ingold, provides a lens into understanding the intertwined embodied, social and environmental concerns of people living with HIV in the post-conflict situation. Sustaining life with HIV requires securing food and medication, ensuring networks of care, but also orientation in a changing material and social landscape; without these the disease could be terminal even with access to treatment. This is a particular concern for HIV-positive women who are often denied access to land. In making these arguments I seek to move beyond a dominant public health perspective on HIV and post-conflict return - focused on 'vulnerability' and health services - and show that disease becomes integral to social and territorial relations. The perspective of disease as dwelling also aims to advance anthropological perspectives on HIV by focusing on the ways in which sustaining life with HIV/AIDS involves an embodied encounter with a wider landscape, itself formed through natural and political forces.