6 - Healing Insanity: Skills and Expert Knowledge of Igbo Healers
Corresponding Author(s) : Patrick Iroegbu
Africa Development,
Vol. 30 No. 3 (2005): Africa Development: Special Issue 'All knowledge is first of all local knowledge'
Abstract
This paper gives insight into how Igbo healers of Southern Nigeria conceive of insanity and apply endogenous knowledge and expertise to heal it, contrary to the belief that cosmopolitan orthodox medicine only can provide efficacious cure for insanity. Resort to community support and culture remains people's widely shared way of dealing with insanity and related disturbances. While phar maceutical drugs are being made available to health seekers, local herbal and ritual resources as well as communicational and bodily skills do constitute the asset for holistic healing. Although research shows tensions between the local, Christian and biomedical views, the paper argues that effective healing tends to be successful when the etiology and treatment include due ancestral compliance work in harmony with people's views, emotions and life-worlds. The paper of fers an endogenous theory of symbolic release underlying a genuinely Igbo cosmological and epistemological strategy, side by side with the ritual of tying and untying for releasing the forces hampered by intrusion, and for achieving treatment based on culturally meaningful herbal and animal resources. To res cue the help-seeking individual and kin-group, as a first principle, the forces that tie the afflicted need to be rusticated before effective results can be obtained with treatment.
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- Ademuwagun Z.A., 1979, 'The Challenge of the Co-existence ofOrthodox and
- Traditional Medicine in Nigeria. In: Ademuwagun Z. A. et al., (eds), African Therapeutic Systems,
- Walthan, Mass: Crossroads.Press, pp. 165-170.
- Anezionwu, N.O., 1988, Chukwu ka Dibia, Ahiajoku Lecture, Owerri, Culture Division.
- Ahyi, G.R., 1997, 'Traditional Models of Mental Health and Illness in Benin', In: Hountondji P.,
- (ed.), Endogenous Knowledge: Research Trails, Dakar: Codesria.
- Bloch M., 1998, 'Why Trees, too, are Good to think with: Towards anAnthropology of the Meaning of
- Life', In: Rival L., (ed), The Social Life of Trees, Anthropological Perspectives on Tree
- Symbolism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- De Boeck F., 1994, OfTrees and Kings: Politics and Metaphors Among the Aluund
- of Southwestern Zaire, American Ethnologist, 21(3):451-473.
- Devisch R., 1993, Weaving the Threads of Life: The khita gynecological healing cuit among the Yaka,
- Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
- Feierman, S. and Janzen, J.,eds., 1992, The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa, Berkeley:
- University of California Press.
- Janzen, J.M., 1978, The Quest for Therapy. Medical Pluralism in Lower Zaire,
- Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.
- Kleinman, A., 1980, Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: an Exploration of the
- Borderline between Anthropology, Medicine, and Psychiatry, Berkeley: University of California
- Press.
- Last, M. and Chavunduka, G.L., eds., 1986, The Professionalisation of African Medicine, Manchester
- University Press and International African lnstitute
- Lambo, T.A., 1961, 'A Plan for the Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Nigeria. The
- Village System of Aro', In: L. Linn, (ed.), Frontiers in General Hospital Psychiatry, New York:
- University of New York Press, pp. 215-231.
- Myss, C., 1996, Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing,
- New York: Three Rivers Press.
- Turner, V., 1967, The Forest ofSymbols: Aspects ofNdembu Ritual, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
- Press.
- Zelter, A., 1998, 'Grassroots Campaigning for the World 's Forests', In: Rival L., (ed.), The
- Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree 5ymbolism, Oxford: Oxford University
- Press.
References
Ademuwagun Z.A., 1979, 'The Challenge of the Co-existence ofOrthodox and
Traditional Medicine in Nigeria. In: Ademuwagun Z. A. et al., (eds), African Therapeutic Systems,
Walthan, Mass: Crossroads.Press, pp. 165-170.
Anezionwu, N.O., 1988, Chukwu ka Dibia, Ahiajoku Lecture, Owerri, Culture Division.
Ahyi, G.R., 1997, 'Traditional Models of Mental Health and Illness in Benin', In: Hountondji P.,
(ed.), Endogenous Knowledge: Research Trails, Dakar: Codesria.
Bloch M., 1998, 'Why Trees, too, are Good to think with: Towards anAnthropology of the Meaning of
Life', In: Rival L., (ed), The Social Life of Trees, Anthropological Perspectives on Tree
Symbolism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
De Boeck F., 1994, OfTrees and Kings: Politics and Metaphors Among the Aluund
of Southwestern Zaire, American Ethnologist, 21(3):451-473.
Devisch R., 1993, Weaving the Threads of Life: The khita gynecological healing cuit among the Yaka,
Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Feierman, S. and Janzen, J.,eds., 1992, The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa, Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Janzen, J.M., 1978, The Quest for Therapy. Medical Pluralism in Lower Zaire,
Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.
Kleinman, A., 1980, Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: an Exploration of the
Borderline between Anthropology, Medicine, and Psychiatry, Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Last, M. and Chavunduka, G.L., eds., 1986, The Professionalisation of African Medicine, Manchester
University Press and International African lnstitute
Lambo, T.A., 1961, 'A Plan for the Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Nigeria. The
Village System of Aro', In: L. Linn, (ed.), Frontiers in General Hospital Psychiatry, New York:
University of New York Press, pp. 215-231.
Myss, C., 1996, Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing,
New York: Three Rivers Press.
Turner, V., 1967, The Forest ofSymbols: Aspects ofNdembu Ritual, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press.
Zelter, A., 1998, 'Grassroots Campaigning for the World 's Forests', In: Rival L., (ed.), The
Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree 5ymbolism, Oxford: Oxford University
Press.