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Vol. 14 No. 2 (2010): African Sociological Review

3 - Negotiating the search for diagnosis and healing tuberculosis in Namibia. A case study of a Ju/’hoansi speaking man.

https://doi.org/10.4314/asr.v14i2.70235
Diana Gibson
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6846-603X

African Sociological Review, Vol. 14 No. 2 (2010): African Sociological Review

Abstract

This case study of tuberculosis among Ju/’hoansi speakers in a small village in Otjodzondjupa
district, namibia, shows how different notions concerning tuberculosis and TB-like complaints
become a area of uncertainty and even contention in a situation where tuberculosis education is
good but diagnostics, and by extension treatment, are not always easily accessible. The paper
argues that culturalism in the health services turns attention away from the socio-economic and
political aspects of tuberculosis. it furthermore shows that Ju/’hoansi speakers have to turn to
plant medicines to deal with their ill health when the interface with the health care ser- vices
become problematic. Plants are understood as standing in a particular relationship with humans andwith nature as well. Yet the use of plant medicines is also a terrain of medicinal knowledge andpractice contested by the health care services as potentially unsafe and counter- productive to TB treatment.

Keywords

Namibia Ju’/hoansi tuberculosis diagnostics medicines plants poverty
Diana Gibson. (2010). 3 - Negotiating the search for diagnosis and healing tuberculosis in Namibia. A case study of a Ju/’hoansi speaking man. African Sociological Review, 14(2), 47–61. https://doi.org/10.4314/asr.v14i2.70235
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Author Biography

Diana Gibson

Research in Anthropology and Sociology of Health (RASH)Department of Anthropology and Sociology University of the Western Cape South Africa E-mail:gibson.diana@gmail.com

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