LAY COMMUNITY USES OF PLURAL MEDICAL SYSTEMS KODJO SENAH DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF GHANA LEGON kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 1
POPULAR PERCEPTIONS OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE They serve the fetish like all Negroes in this area. The only remarkable thing about them is that on this mountain, there is a number of cheap harlots who cannot marry. The fetish they say, has initiated them into this sinful life. The religion of the people is really nothing less than a devil s institution, a cover for all evil and sin. (Rev. Stanger, 1851) kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 2
POPULAR PERCEPTIONS OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE (Contd( Contd) Indigenous or traditional medicine is fundamentally based on primitive theories which over the years have been condoned by ignorance, sanctioned by superstition and sustained by belief in magic and witchcraft. (Fmr. Head, Dept of Medicine, UGMS) kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 3
HEALTH AND CULTURE Every human society designs its belief systems and ways of behaviour and mindset in response to the perceived threats and challenges of the environment. Culture encapsulates all these. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 4
THE GHANAIAN COSMOLOGY The Ghanaian world is divided into two often inseparable compartments: The natural and spiritual worlds. The natural world: events of daily occurrence. The spiritual world has the following entities: God; the nature gods; the malevolent/benevolent forces; the living-dead; the individual Ghanaian has both physical and spiritual properties. All spiritual elements have the capacity to punish wrong doing. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 5
PUNISHMENT DISEASES AND DIS-EASES Diseases meted out as punishment are often chronic and highly incapacitating: Epilepsy; blindness; impotence/infertility; swollen penis; monstrous hernia and goitre, etc. Dis-eases include lack of personal progress; alcoholism; unemployment; etc. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 6
QUESTIONS ON THE SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE CAUSE What is the meaning of this development? Who caused it and why? Why me? Why at this time? The Aristotelian principle of noncontradiction has no application in the Ghanaian context. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 7
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TYPES OF HEALERS Herbalists (fixed and itinerant) Neo-herbalists who run clinics with interesting names kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 10
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TYPES OF HEALERS (Contd( Contd) Also there are soothsayers/diviners; Shrines of titular gods (Akonedi; Nogokpo; Antoa; Kweku Fri; etc); Bonesetters and circumcisers; and Faith healers kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 14
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HIERARCHY OF RESORT Ghanaians just as many other Africans shop around for health in different medical domains without experiencing any sense of contradiction because to us the units within each domain occupy a mental continuum; they enjoy the best of two worlds. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 20
CONCLUSION Plural medicine derives its sustenance from the cosmology of our people. What can a doctor do to a patient who thinks his problem is caused by witchcraft? What can a doctor do to a patient who thinks his fracture can best be handled at Aponchi Clinic? kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 21
CONCLUSION (Contd( Contd) Issues of religion/health are matters which defy any systematic analysis or rationalization. Religion evokes emotions and thrives on faith and an unflinching belief which must not be called to question even when it does not apparently make sense. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 22
QUOTABLE QUOTES If you want to know why mosquitoes bite, think like one (Benjamin Paul) Though this be madness, yet there is a method in t. (Shakespeare in Hamlet) kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 23
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR ATTENTION I REST MY CASE. kamesenah@yahoo.co.uk 24
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