Modernization of Health Practices in East Central :: essays research papers

The colonization of the western world brought on many changes for the indigenous people of Africa in every way of life. The Christian missionaries accomplished much more than just introducing their religion. They also exposed and converted Africans to western values and social beliefs. Health care practices were one of the things greatly influenced by the colonization. In my paper, I am focusing on the practices of the east central region of Africa, including the regions of Nigeria and (???). This region has common Bantu-speaking ancestors and commonalties among medicines and practices. The impact of the western world is easily recognizable because of the radical differences in thought between the Europeans and the Africans. At the time of colonization, European health care centered around science and reason. Most Africans, on the other hand, believed in more abstract, spiritual explanations for disease and illness. Religious practitioners had a big part in the healing process. The infiltration of western ideas sparked obvious changes and many times produced a combination of traditional healing along with western ideas. There were changes in health care practices even before the time of colonization and I will also give a brief history of this change to emphasize the fact that religion and practices are never stagnant. Brief history of people in East Central region African healing practices traditionally have strong ties with religion. They place an emphasis on holistic healing and believe in a mind-body connection. Divination is one technique that is often used to find the cause of a particular illness. "Since all human problems such as infertility, illness, and trouble in hunting, are ascribed to moral conflicts within the human community, the diviner's task is to disclose acts of immorality which have provoked the vengeance of the ancestors, and to reveal the destructive hand of witches and sorcerers." (Ray, 104). A diviner searches a person's past to find something that may be ascribed to the works of an outside source. They want to find the source of the problem before simply treating the symptoms. They also believe that once the source is found, a ceremony can be performed that may lead to the reversal of its effect. There is a strong belief that the cause of illness is in the mind, so when the treatment is foscused there, improvement in physical ailments may be seen. "Because illness and death are seen to be rooted in immoral acts, the diviner's role