Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe

David S. Simmons

Description

As subSaharan Africa continues to confront the runaway epidemic of HIV/AIDS, traditional healers have been tapped as collaborators in prevention and education efforts. The terms of this collaboration, however, are far from settled and continually contested. As Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe demonstrates, serious questions continue to linger in the medical community since the explosion of the disease nearly thirty years ago. Are healers obstacles to health development? Do their explanations for the disease disregard biomedical science? Can the worlds of traditional healing and modern medicine coexist and cooperate?

Combining anthropological, historical, and public health perspectives, Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe explores the intersection of African healing traditions and Western health development, emphasizing the role of this historical relationship in current debates about HIV/AIDS. Drawing on diverse sources including colonial records, missionary correspondence, international health policy reports, and interviews with traditional healers, anthropologist David S. Simmons demonstrates the remarkable adaptive qualities of these disparate communities as they try to meet the urgent needs of the people.

Sujets

• African Studies
• CAB Direct (database)
• Sexuality
• Anthropology
• Health
• Fitness

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 24 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826518095
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe

HIV/AIDS and Traditional Healers

DAVID S. SIMMONS

Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe

Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe

HIV/AIDS and Traditional Healers

David S. Simmons

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS NASHVILLE

© 2012 by Vanderbilt University Press Nasville, Tennessee 37235 All rigts reserved First printing 2012

his book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in te United States of America Design by Dariel Mayer

All royalties from tis book are being donated directly to te Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association for HIV/AIDS prevention, education, and counseling efforts.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Simmons, David S. Modernizing medicine : HIV/AIDS and traditional ealers in Zimbabwe / David S. Simmons. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8265-1807-1 (clot edition : alk. paper) 1. Traditional medicine—Zimbabwe. 2. Healers—Zimbabwe. 3. Medical antropology—Zimbabwe. 4. HIV infections— Zimbabwe. 5. AIDS (Disease)—Zimbabwe. I. Title. GR358.6.S56 2011 614.5′993920096891—dc22 2011003063

For Asha, Aria, and Aidan

Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Misfortunes without End: An Introduction to AIDS in Zimbabwe 1

Part I The State of Health and the Health of the State: A Social Demography of AIDS in Zimbabwe

1

2

Maladies of Modernity:Economic Structural Adjustment, HIV/AIDS, and the State of Health 25

Conspiracy Theories:The SoCalled AIDS Virus 51

Part II History and Modernity:The Historical Constitution of N’anga as Dangerous Subjects

3

4

Godly Medicine, Pagan Superstition, and the Colonial State 77

N’anga and the Workings of Vernacular Modernity 102

vii

viii

Part III Managing Modernity: N’anga Responses to HIV/AIDS

5

6

7

Translating Policy into Action: ZINATHA and HIV/AIDS Education

N’anga Theories of Infectious Diseases

149

131

Of Markets and Medicine:The Changing Significance of Zimbabwean Muti in the Age of Intensified Globalization 169

Conclusion:Vernacular Modernity, Explanatory Models, and HIV/AIDS 185

Notes

197

References

Index

219

203

Acknowledgments

I ave accumulated a great many debts of gratitude in te course of tis project.  My initial interest in working on te African continent was inspired by my mentor, te late D. Micael Warren, an expert in indigenous knowl- edge and participatory approaces to development wo worked primarily in West Africa. He and is wife, my adopted moter, Mary, cultivated a strong sense of responsibility and service to disenfrancised communities in me tat I ope I’m paying forward wit my own students. I also ave to tank Norma Wolff for er wonderful insigt and guidance early in my graduate experience. heir collective example illustrated te complexities and contradictions of community-based participatory researc and, ulti- mately, te tremendous reward of suc work in resource-poor settings.  Field researc in Zimbabwe was generously supported by a National Institutes of Healt Minority International Researc Training (MIRT) grant, administered troug te Institute of International Healt (IIH) at Micigan State University. I tank Evangelos Petropoulos (ten director of te IIH) and is staff as well as te late Harriette McAdoo for making me aware of tis funding apparatus and usering me troug te process.  Many individuals made researc in Zimbabwe possible. his project would not ave been possible witout te collaboration of te ealers temselves. Special tanks to Gordon Cavunduka, te Zimbabwe Na- tional Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA), George and Leander Kandiero and family, and Boniface Makoni for teir vast knowledge, gen- erosity, and camaraderie. Jameson Kurasa, cair of te Department of Religious Studies at te University of Zimbabwe, graciously negotiated institutional affiliation for me at te university. hanks to Larry Obi and Mrs. Maeresere and family for elping wit accommodations in Harare. Tatenda!

ix