Being old in times of AIDS: aging, caring and relating in northwest Tanzania

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in northwest Tanzania has profoundly shaped the experience of growing old. Older men and women take on new care tasks, such as caring for orphaned grandchildren and nursing dying patients. Yet, at the same time, while the elderly grow older, their own old-age care becomes increasingly uncertain. Situating older people’s stories in debates around kinship and relating, this detailed ethnographic account captures the diverse experiences of growing old in the era of AIDS and shows how this process implies a tension between the increased necessity to forge relations of care and the confrontation with the aging body.