From the colonial days, the dibia (folk practitioner) in the Igbo-speaking southeast of Nigeria, ... more From the colonial days, the dibia (folk practitioner) in the Igbo-speaking southeast of Nigeria, as elsewhere, has been maligned by hegemonic Christianity and biomedicine. The consequent public reluctance to openly pursue indigenous healing remains a core part of the challenges to patronage the dibia has had to navigate. Drawing empirical materials from the Igbo town of Nsukka, this ethnographic account narrates how the dibia not only resists these hegemonic forces but even instrumentalizes their allures to advance folk healing. This I term forward or offensive agency, as against inclined or defensive agency along which lines decolonial and postcolonial discourses have ordinarily framed patterns of local reaction in much of today's South. In offensive agency, a smokescreen of change is projected by the locale, indicating, to an external eye, that change has happened while the core of the epistemic sphere in question remains shielded behind that façade of cosmetic change.
There is a growing view that for more success in mental healthcare, a contextual approach is nece... more There is a growing view that for more success in mental healthcare, a contextual approach is necessary either as stand alone or complimentary to the orthodox approach. In this inquiry, the autochthonous Nsukka psychiatric system was studied using ethnographic approach, and compared with orthodox health system. The principal data collection strategy used was the full participant observation technique. This was supplemented with focus group discussion and indepth interview techniques. The results showed that although the Nsukka traditional health system has been overlain with the received social institutions and their attendant values, the personalistic element is still a decisive factor in their health seeking attitudes. Our findings seem to suggest that for a mental healthcare program to be culturally acceptable and to succeed among any group, it has to be built on a thorough knowledge of the specifics of their own peculiar socio-cultural patterns.
Across postcolonial Africa, ethnic-, region- or faith-based hostilities are common, consuming liv... more Across postcolonial Africa, ethnic-, region- or faith-based hostilities are common, consuming lives and resources. Added to these are the false starts that many African nation-states keep making with the received political and economic systems. Many Africans prefer to keep blaming Europeans for bringing disparate groupings under common plural set-ups, although the blames have not made the issues to go away. Illustrating with the Nigerian case, this piece shows that ethnology has been the tool for getting around issues of social plurality occasioned by the current internationalism. However, some purveyors of the poststructuralist and postmodernist formulations would hold that no veridical symbolic systems exist; and that the ethnographers’ reports on social systems are only but representations of the reporters’ own views. This argument that dissuades people from taking the ethnographer’s report seriously renders such an inevitable option as ethnology useless. But why any society taki...
Despite the generally acephalous landscape of the Igbo society of southeastern Nigeria, forms of ... more Despite the generally acephalous landscape of the Igbo society of southeastern Nigeria, forms of hierarchy are noticeable, with certain criteria traditionally established to rank some villages higher than or ‘senior’ to others. This paper drew from ethnographic research in two Igbo towns to explore ways in which masks and oral tradition were deployed to advance the ranked orders of lineages and villages. Contemplating this scenario in such a place like the Igbo society well known for its acephalous landscape is the broader perspective the paper raised. In the village groups studied, oral tradition and ranking of masked performances were seen to co-extend from existing lineage- and village-based hierarchies. Masking and oral tradition were major tools that ritualized and ratified the prevailing hierarchies, endowing them with supernatural legitimacy, in order to ensure their sustenance. The benefits accruing to the advantaged lineages and villages would tend to motivate a tendency to...
Interventionists usually blame cultural factors and traditional attitudes for non-compliance of t... more Interventionists usually blame cultural factors and traditional attitudes for non-compliance of target populations, a framework Didier Fassin terms as culturalism. Despite their efforts, what the Roll Back Malaria employees find in southeastern Nigeria is a ‘troubling’ nonchalance towards the programme because target populations’ perceptions of malaria differ from the donor/programme perspective. The RBM employees cast the local attitude as culturalism, accordingly framing their exhortations in terms of this discourse. How the Roll Back Malaria employees deployed culturalism to fit with the neoliberal individualizing framework of current international health practices is one more nuanced analytical perspective the article brings to intervention literature.
International studies of the health of Indigenous and tribal peoples provide important public hea... more International studies of the health of Indigenous and tribal peoples provide important public health insights. Reliable data are required for the development of policy and health services. Previous studies document poorer outcomes for Indigenous peoples compared with benchmark populations, but have been restricted in their coverage of countries or the range of health indicators. Our objective is to describe the health and social status of Indigenous and tribal peoples relative to benchmark populations from a sample of countries. Collaborators with expertise in Indigenous health data systems were identified for each country. Data were obtained for population, life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, low and high birthweight, maternal mortality, nutritional status, educational attainment, and economic status. Data sources consisted of governmental data, data from non-governmental organisations such as UNICEF, and other research. Absolute and relative differences were calculated. Ou...
International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 2012
This study aimed at ascertaining the connection between disease aetiology of the autochthonous ps... more This study aimed at ascertaining the connection between disease aetiology of the autochthonous psychiatric health system and the current mental health-seeking behaviors of the Nsukka people. Structured participant observation was the principal method of collecting data. In-depth interview sessions were also held with elders in the communities. It was found that although there has been social contact and change among the Nsukka, the personalistic elements in the aetiology of their traditional psychiatric system still largely determined their mental health-seeking behaviors. Thus, they were found to be more at home with traditional healers and syncretic churches than orthodox mental healthcare. To be successful, any mental healthcare program in Nsukka ought to consider how orthodox mental health practitioners, traditional healers, and those who run prayer houses could be incorporated in a comprehensive community mental healthcare program.
To identify key socio-demographic and knowledge factors associated with compliance with recommend... more To identify key socio-demographic and knowledge factors associated with compliance with recommended use of commodities for preventing malaria in pregnancy (MIP) in Enugu State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional study of 720 women who delivered within 6 months preceding the survey in three local government areas in Enugu State was conducted using a structured questionnaire. About half (51.6%) of the women used IPTp1 while 25.9% took IPTp2 as recommended during their most recent pregnancy. Forty-one percent of the women slept under insecticide treat nets (ITN) during the most recent pregnancy but only 15.4% did so as recommended every night. Socio-demographic and knowledge factors associated with compliance were identified. Compliance with intermittent presumptive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) recommendation was more common among those in the rural setting (26.9%) compared to the peri-urban (20.3%) and urban (17.3%) (P = 0.032). Those with good knowledge of the causes, effects and prevention of malaria during pregnancy complied more (23.7%) than those with poor knowledge (17.0%) (P = 0.020). With respect to sleeping under ITN, more of those with post secondary education, good knowledge of MIP and currently living with a partner used ITN every night during the last pregnancy. Knowledge about the MIP issues and having a partner influence compliance with relevant preventives. Efforts to increase compliance with recommended practices to prevent MIP should focus on providing health education to pregnant women and their partners, who reinforce what the women are told during antenatal care. More qualitative studies need to be conducted on this subject.
While anthropological studies of intervention typically argue that interveners usually misunderst... more While anthropological studies of intervention typically argue that interveners usually misunderstand local priorities, rarely do accounts illustrate clearly what this looks like on the ground. Based on my ethnographic observation in Nsukka, a locality in southeastern Nigeria, I narrate how local targets engaged malaria intervention with aims different from those of the interveners. I show that malaria is locally viewed as a routine issue unworthy of special intervention, with targets instead constructing the intervention as a chance to cultivate connections with government, NGOs and global actors in order to fulfill aspirations of benefiting from globalization more generally. How kinship relationships mediated this engagement in Nsukka is an interesting perspective the study uncovered. The narrative offers a lens onto the visions local targets hold about how their society is globalizing in the current neoliberal context, and shows how these visions conflate the state, elite NGOs, an...
From the colonial days, the dibia (folk practitioner) in the Igbo-speaking southeast of Nigeria, ... more From the colonial days, the dibia (folk practitioner) in the Igbo-speaking southeast of Nigeria, as elsewhere, has been maligned by hegemonic Christianity and biomedicine. The consequent public reluctance to openly pursue indigenous healing remains a core part of the challenges to patronage the dibia has had to navigate. Drawing empirical materials from the Igbo town of Nsukka, this ethnographic account narrates how the dibia not only resists these hegemonic forces but even instrumentalizes their allures to advance folk healing. This I term forward or offensive agency, as against inclined or defensive agency along which lines decolonial and postcolonial discourses have ordinarily framed patterns of local reaction in much of today's South. In offensive agency, a smokescreen of change is projected by the locale, indicating, to an external eye, that change has happened while the core of the epistemic sphere in question remains shielded behind that façade of cosmetic change.
There is a growing view that for more success in mental healthcare, a contextual approach is nece... more There is a growing view that for more success in mental healthcare, a contextual approach is necessary either as stand alone or complimentary to the orthodox approach. In this inquiry, the autochthonous Nsukka psychiatric system was studied using ethnographic approach, and compared with orthodox health system. The principal data collection strategy used was the full participant observation technique. This was supplemented with focus group discussion and indepth interview techniques. The results showed that although the Nsukka traditional health system has been overlain with the received social institutions and their attendant values, the personalistic element is still a decisive factor in their health seeking attitudes. Our findings seem to suggest that for a mental healthcare program to be culturally acceptable and to succeed among any group, it has to be built on a thorough knowledge of the specifics of their own peculiar socio-cultural patterns.
Across postcolonial Africa, ethnic-, region- or faith-based hostilities are common, consuming liv... more Across postcolonial Africa, ethnic-, region- or faith-based hostilities are common, consuming lives and resources. Added to these are the false starts that many African nation-states keep making with the received political and economic systems. Many Africans prefer to keep blaming Europeans for bringing disparate groupings under common plural set-ups, although the blames have not made the issues to go away. Illustrating with the Nigerian case, this piece shows that ethnology has been the tool for getting around issues of social plurality occasioned by the current internationalism. However, some purveyors of the poststructuralist and postmodernist formulations would hold that no veridical symbolic systems exist; and that the ethnographers’ reports on social systems are only but representations of the reporters’ own views. This argument that dissuades people from taking the ethnographer’s report seriously renders such an inevitable option as ethnology useless. But why any society taki...
Despite the generally acephalous landscape of the Igbo society of southeastern Nigeria, forms of ... more Despite the generally acephalous landscape of the Igbo society of southeastern Nigeria, forms of hierarchy are noticeable, with certain criteria traditionally established to rank some villages higher than or ‘senior’ to others. This paper drew from ethnographic research in two Igbo towns to explore ways in which masks and oral tradition were deployed to advance the ranked orders of lineages and villages. Contemplating this scenario in such a place like the Igbo society well known for its acephalous landscape is the broader perspective the paper raised. In the village groups studied, oral tradition and ranking of masked performances were seen to co-extend from existing lineage- and village-based hierarchies. Masking and oral tradition were major tools that ritualized and ratified the prevailing hierarchies, endowing them with supernatural legitimacy, in order to ensure their sustenance. The benefits accruing to the advantaged lineages and villages would tend to motivate a tendency to...
Interventionists usually blame cultural factors and traditional attitudes for non-compliance of t... more Interventionists usually blame cultural factors and traditional attitudes for non-compliance of target populations, a framework Didier Fassin terms as culturalism. Despite their efforts, what the Roll Back Malaria employees find in southeastern Nigeria is a ‘troubling’ nonchalance towards the programme because target populations’ perceptions of malaria differ from the donor/programme perspective. The RBM employees cast the local attitude as culturalism, accordingly framing their exhortations in terms of this discourse. How the Roll Back Malaria employees deployed culturalism to fit with the neoliberal individualizing framework of current international health practices is one more nuanced analytical perspective the article brings to intervention literature.
International studies of the health of Indigenous and tribal peoples provide important public hea... more International studies of the health of Indigenous and tribal peoples provide important public health insights. Reliable data are required for the development of policy and health services. Previous studies document poorer outcomes for Indigenous peoples compared with benchmark populations, but have been restricted in their coverage of countries or the range of health indicators. Our objective is to describe the health and social status of Indigenous and tribal peoples relative to benchmark populations from a sample of countries. Collaborators with expertise in Indigenous health data systems were identified for each country. Data were obtained for population, life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, low and high birthweight, maternal mortality, nutritional status, educational attainment, and economic status. Data sources consisted of governmental data, data from non-governmental organisations such as UNICEF, and other research. Absolute and relative differences were calculated. Ou...
International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 2012
This study aimed at ascertaining the connection between disease aetiology of the autochthonous ps... more This study aimed at ascertaining the connection between disease aetiology of the autochthonous psychiatric health system and the current mental health-seeking behaviors of the Nsukka people. Structured participant observation was the principal method of collecting data. In-depth interview sessions were also held with elders in the communities. It was found that although there has been social contact and change among the Nsukka, the personalistic elements in the aetiology of their traditional psychiatric system still largely determined their mental health-seeking behaviors. Thus, they were found to be more at home with traditional healers and syncretic churches than orthodox mental healthcare. To be successful, any mental healthcare program in Nsukka ought to consider how orthodox mental health practitioners, traditional healers, and those who run prayer houses could be incorporated in a comprehensive community mental healthcare program.
To identify key socio-demographic and knowledge factors associated with compliance with recommend... more To identify key socio-demographic and knowledge factors associated with compliance with recommended use of commodities for preventing malaria in pregnancy (MIP) in Enugu State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional study of 720 women who delivered within 6 months preceding the survey in three local government areas in Enugu State was conducted using a structured questionnaire. About half (51.6%) of the women used IPTp1 while 25.9% took IPTp2 as recommended during their most recent pregnancy. Forty-one percent of the women slept under insecticide treat nets (ITN) during the most recent pregnancy but only 15.4% did so as recommended every night. Socio-demographic and knowledge factors associated with compliance were identified. Compliance with intermittent presumptive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) recommendation was more common among those in the rural setting (26.9%) compared to the peri-urban (20.3%) and urban (17.3%) (P = 0.032). Those with good knowledge of the causes, effects and prevention of malaria during pregnancy complied more (23.7%) than those with poor knowledge (17.0%) (P = 0.020). With respect to sleeping under ITN, more of those with post secondary education, good knowledge of MIP and currently living with a partner used ITN every night during the last pregnancy. Knowledge about the MIP issues and having a partner influence compliance with relevant preventives. Efforts to increase compliance with recommended practices to prevent MIP should focus on providing health education to pregnant women and their partners, who reinforce what the women are told during antenatal care. More qualitative studies need to be conducted on this subject.
While anthropological studies of intervention typically argue that interveners usually misunderst... more While anthropological studies of intervention typically argue that interveners usually misunderstand local priorities, rarely do accounts illustrate clearly what this looks like on the ground. Based on my ethnographic observation in Nsukka, a locality in southeastern Nigeria, I narrate how local targets engaged malaria intervention with aims different from those of the interveners. I show that malaria is locally viewed as a routine issue unworthy of special intervention, with targets instead constructing the intervention as a chance to cultivate connections with government, NGOs and global actors in order to fulfill aspirations of benefiting from globalization more generally. How kinship relationships mediated this engagement in Nsukka is an interesting perspective the study uncovered. The narrative offers a lens onto the visions local targets hold about how their society is globalizing in the current neoliberal context, and shows how these visions conflate the state, elite NGOs, an...
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