'Funeral Culture - AIDS, Work, and Cultural Change in an African Kingdom' (Indiana University Press), is the first and yet only comprehensive account of the AIDS epidemic in eSwatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy and the country with the world's highest HIV prevalence for more than 15 years. Through the voices of people in rural and urban communities, churches, businesses, and NGOs, Funeral Culture documents how grassroots responses to the epidemic drove innovations in everyday care practices that counteract the state's conservative cultural projects. The book shows how disease epidemics, whether AIDS or COVID-19, become grounds for citizens to engage in political reforms around aspirations for work.
