Abstract
Most of the origin beliefs expressed to me during my fieldwork in Zimbabwe were conspiracy theories. Some theories implicated medical workers, just as did those discussed in the literature (e.g., van den Borne 2005:
61-62; Wilson and Hill 1998:57, 245). Conspiracy suspicions pointing
at healthcare providers have a long history, as I found out while reading
in the National Archives in Harare. I was surprised to learn that presentday responses to HIV/AIDS were similar to those of Zimbabweans during
the epidemic of Spanish influenza in 1918-1919. Across the country,
individuals desperately ill with flu had refused the healthcare provided by
British colonizers. The native Zimbabweans believed that the medicines
were poisonous, and administered with the intent to kill. It was generally
said that it was sure death to take such drugs.1 A certain Reverend Skold
reported nearly a century ago:
Suspicion of the early colonizers-who subjugated the ethnic groups
they encountered, appropriated their land, and relegated them to subordinate and inferior positions-is understandable. Their arrival brought
great loss to the indigenous people; naturally, anything provided by
the intruders could be seen as potentially harmful. Accounts related to
HIV/AIDS show the same pattern: negative experiences with dominant
outsiders resulted in mistrust and suspicion. The fact that many medical doctors currently in Zimbabwe are of European3 descent feeds into
perceptions that health professionals purposely further the spread of the
epidemic. Statements about this from people of diverse backgrounds featured prominently in my interviews:
The first quote implicitly connects “white people” to harmful practices
such as sorcery. It is another example of conspiracy theories closely related to sorcery beliefs. In this case, both the conspirator and the sorcerer
are secretly plotting to kill their unwitting victims in order to benefit from
their deaths. Thus the genesis of some conspiracy theories lies in distrust
of the medical profession.