Abstract:
This article elaborated specifically on the research journey in arriving at the development of an
alternative narrative, which points beyond the local community, with reference to a broader
study which aimed at addressing uncertainties about the type and nature of the relationship
between HIV and AIDS and adolescent male orphans affected by this disease and all its
aspects, such as poverty, exposure to crime and stigmatisation and lack in parental figures,
more specifically the lack of the father figure. Subsequently, this study aimed at dissecting
the orphan’s life experiences in the midst of HIV and AIDS and how these experiences will
influence his sexual and power relations with women and his role as future father and husband,
in the absence of a father figure. The researcher wanted to explore ways in which these past
and future narratives influence or affect the male orphan’s view of and relationship with
God and assess whether it is it just this view of and relationship with God that influence and
affect his relationship with his past narrative and writing of his future narratives. This article
described and explained the research process as it utilised the epistemological viewpoints
of a postfoundational notion of practical theology and the methodological tools of the seven
movements of a postfoundational practical theology. With the use of the metaphor of Tree
of Life and the David narrative, the researcher journeyed with the co-researchers (i.e. the
children who took part in this research) in the construction of a preferred alternative narrative,
which, in turn, functions as a guiding metaphor, for aspiring to the future and living their
lives in a preferred and satisfying manner. This article concluded with an alternative narrative
as developed by one of the co-researchers, as an example of how these theoretical viewpoints
can be used in praxis in developing alternative narratives which frees the persons from the
constraints of a problem-saturated narrative, with special reference and acknowledgement to
Professor Julian Müller, who introduced the researcher to the world of possibilities.
