Risking death for survival: Peasant responses to hunger and HIV/AIDS in Malawi

SummaryMalawi registers the eighth highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world. The rural population’s increasing HIV prevalence is analyzed in relation to the impact of the country’s 2001–02 famine. Villagers are assessing survival risks on the basis of perceptions of relative manageability. A sense of powerlessness concerning their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS leads to concentration on the more immediate concern of trying to ensure their day-to-day staple food needs. Changing rural land and labor patterns are militating for more transaction-based rural livelihoods, some involving high-risk sexual encounters, as a means of alleviating hunger.