Student Introductions

Favorite or Difficult Student Readings

• Vaughan- The theoretical nature of this piece was enjoyed by some students, while it confused a greater number

Do not worry about the Vaughan reading too much. It was meant to provide a theoretical framework from which you might take some overriding themes of how the construction of stereotypes, binary oppositions, and power/knowledge discourse can help us in understanding colonial encounters between Western culture and Africa. We don’t expect you to be well-versed in Foucault or Homi Bhahba, or the intricacies of post-colonial discourse. Hopefully, this reading allowed you to appreciate the social constructionist stance that knowledge, be it medical or otherwise, is constructed and distributed in ways that are dependent upon other greater social and cultural contexts. Western science and colonial medicine were not developed in a value-free laboratory, but must be seen in light of the distributions of power, social climates, economic interests, cultural assumptions, and personal biases of its creators and participants.

• General Difficulty in Unifying Readings and Lectures

Expect this difficulty to occur throughout the course. This is not only a function of this course being newly born, but is also due to the incredible diversity of the subject matter and the disciplines we are attempting to unite. We want to see you grapple with how encounters with differences (racial, gendered, political, medical, religious, etc.) are historically represented, repeated, and often pathologized in medical terms. This takes time, so be patient and don’t be afraid to ask for assistance from those around you.

If you are expecting one coherent narrative on Health and Illness in Africa, you should reconsider why you expect one such story exists. Always be on the look out for parallels, common themes, and historical trends, but not every reading or lecture will fit in neatly. Try not to get too frustrated by this. As you continue to read more and hear more and reflect more, patterns will eventually emerge. However, learning to appreciate the coexistence of contradictory voices and cultures not only between populations, but within them as well, should be a goal for all of us. Recognition of the multiplicity of voices and viewpoints within local worlds forms much of the foundation of post-colonial discourse. It's a challenging new perspective for anyone trying to appreciate living in a post-colonial world, but don't be afraid to experiment with news ways of intellectural observation and critique.

Approaching Western Biomedicine as a Cultural System

• Emphasis on natural, physical causation/ foreign agents that invade and result in INTERNALIZED illness
  • Pathogens (viral, bacterial)
  • Environmental sources
  • not spiritual agents that cannot be located in the material world, let alone the body
• INTERNAL causation as well as INTERNALIZATION exists in:
  • Cancer (body losses capacity of self-regulation often without known external factors)
  • Mental illness, depression
  • HIV/AIDS (loss of auto-immunity with external causation--the virus incapacitates the body’s means of defending itself rendering it vulnerable to opportunistic infections)
  • Other common chronic conditions
• This differs from many of the EXTERNALIZING systems that emphasize ancertral spirits or forces external to the body as the active source of illness; how different is it really?

Is there a place for God/spiritual causation in western biomedicine?

• As a last resort when materialistic means of explanation and cure are exhausted
• HIV/AIDS
  • a sexually transmitted disease whose initial appearance in homosexual men is seen by many as a punishment from God.
• Look at the Livingstone dialogue with the rainmaker for a relevant discussion of God’s role

   

Approaching the Beatriz Story

• Christian Influence, how was it negotiated?
  
• Why did people believe in Beatiz’s possession by St. Anthony? Why follow her?
  • She spoke in an esoteric language sometimes
    • Like speaking in tongues is common in many Baptist Churches
    • Inheritance from her earlier membership in Kimpasi Society?
  • She was said to heal women of infertility
    • Restoration of reproductive power and social value to women (the wealth in people idea)
    • Infertility as spiritual illness needs a spiritual cure
  • St. Anthony was recognized by most people as patron saint of Portugal, and a patron of Kongo
    • Who would have paid attention if it were St. Ignatius?
  • Possession by a male spirit endows Beatriz with more authority as political actor
    • Why haven’t we read of a male nganga being possessed by a female spirit?
    • Fewer female political actresses (Queen Ana, but not many others)
      
• What was her message?
  • Apocalyptic at points, like other prophets
  • Unite Kongo, peacefully
  • Speak out against selfish and greedy leaders, stress the importance of good kindoki, power to operate with assistance of Other World
  • Self-Empowerment in her revisionist history, reclaiming Catholicism from a Kongolese perspective
    • She was proof that the Kongolese could have saints of their own
    • Spoke of the true Kongolese identity of Jesus and Mary; Jesus born in Sao Salvador, Mary’s mother was a slave of Marquis Nzimba Mpangi
      
• Different Methods of Understanding this story
  • Believe in her possession and message as a true spiritual phenomenon?
  • Anthropological perspective?
    • Perhaps this is a tale of resistance to colonialism, religious authority, patriarchy, violence, political instability; unconscious use of locally accepted possession state as a means of voicing her resistance
  • Beatriz as a deft political actress?
    • used knowledge of cultural practices and religious imagery to suit her own political agenda
  • Pathologize her story?
    • she went crazy and some people who needed something to believe in actually believed her rantings
  • Other Methods?