ADVENTURES IN NOSOLOGY

Dis-ease: underlying concepts used to explain instances of individual illnesses;

classificatory terms; social constructs, explanations. May not exist in the real world of
human biology (cultural differences, e.g.).
Illness: absence of disease? But not just this (can be ill or unhealthy with no diseases);
also sickness

Aug 28
Background of islam
o Mostly dealing with folk islam of northern Nigeria
o Derives from prophet Muhammad, lived in 4
th
century
o Written down to form the Koran
o Words of the Koran are the very words of God himself in Arabic (gods
language, transmitted to Muhammad)
o Hadith, connection of oral traditions
o In return for acknowledgement and submission to god, adhering to five
pillars of islam, god will grant to believers eternal life in paradise
o Believers must attempt to make the trek to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi
Arabia (the Hajj, al haji and hajiya for those who have completed it)
o Nigerian government subsidizes the pilgrimage for Muslims (creates
political turmoil, why isnt this being used for other things like education,
healthcare, etc.)
o Five pillars: belief in one god and the prophet, ritual prayer five times a
day, fasting during Ramadan, attempt to make the Hajj, and engaging in
acts of charity (2.5% of ones savings to the poor)
Hausa background
o Basic unit of society = Gida, a compound household with a man and up to
four wives (only the very wealthy have more than one wife) and children
(unmarried boys or girls), relatives, visitors, etc.
o Upon marriage, a girl will move in with husbands family (often the
household of the husbands father until the husband is financially stable
and the wife is a little older)
o Gida typically an enclosed space with high mudbrick walls and a gateway
that leads to an entryway hut/vestibule (where greeting, most social
activity takes placebut gender differences)
Each wife will have her own hut
Communal cooking area in the compound
Latrine and well may be included if they are lucky
Animal hut
Children sleep with mothers, husband will sleep in wives huts
equally
o Communal well in town
o Fundamental organizing principle: reproductive capacity is under the
control of males (father before she is married, husband while she is
married, male relative in case of divorce for a specified period of time)
o Custom of wife seclusion (called purdah in south asia, called auren kulle
in Hausa)
Not allowed outside family compound unless closely supervised
(except for young girls and old women)
o Women not allowed to go to the hospital unless given permission from
husband (but the creates problem if husband is out of town during
childbirth, for example)
o Agriculture, trading activities
o Women have far less opportunity to make money, but not without
economic resources
Average hausa woman can make about 25% of a man
Typically through selling fast food (prepared food)
Traditionally two meals a day, and anything during midday is up to
the individual to find, so women can prepare this and sell it
Hausa medicine
o Order, balance exists in life, individual, society
o Illness results from disruption of this order by some force
o There are repositories of power that can be used to combat disorder,
restore proper order, health
o Fundamental Hausa concept about health is called Lafiya
Arabic loan word
Ubiquitous in Hausa speech
Translated as health, but actually a broader conceptrefers to
health as the sense of wellbeing, balance, order, stability,
everything being right with the world (ok-ness)
Used in greeting as the polite response to any question
Medical context: Lafiyar jiki=body wellbeing
o State of illness is not a state, but rather the absence of Lafiya
Pathological state that should be corrected by the application of a
specific remedy (Ba na de lafiya = I dont have lafiya = Im sick)
o Lafiya also applies to community, social order (e.g., Ferguson has no
lafiya)
o Karfi = strength, vigor, energy
motive force or power behind the presence of Lafiya
o Ciwo = illness, disease; pain
Illnesses usually manifest themselves as discomfort, pain, unease
Lack of lafiya can be ciwo
Used in relation to a specific part of the body
o Hausa patient is more concerned with symptoms, specifics rather than
underlying pattern or disease
The Ciwo is the disease
dont have the tools to build amore extensive understanding of how
the body works and what can go wrong with it
unverifiable preconceived notions of metaphysical also prevent
diagnoses closer to western ideas of disease
o illness caused by inanimate disruptions of the physical environment, or
intrusion of conscious malevolent being
o ciwon allah = diseases of god
built into structure of world
natural causes
environmental illnesses
o ciwon miyagu
arise from intrusion of evil forces
o rai
life, life force
lives in the heart
o jini
blood
no concept of bloodflow
important to life and health


September 2, 2014
ciwon allah
o balances are very important
e.g., balance between sweet and salty foods
o cold samyi
o cupping
o sjawara = yellow (jaundice, hepatitis)
o amosani = rheumatism; increase in accumulation of too much phlegm
along internal organs
witchcraft (maita)
o different from sorcery (sammu, use of black magic)
o inherent characteristic or power of a witch
o refers to substance that resides in the body of the witch
o in hausa thought, withcraft is an evil power inherent to individual inherited
through mothers milk or ice or flint that resides in stomach (can be
vomited up and ingested by others)
o unease about rural hausa, those who havent converted to islam, hillbilly
hausa
o if you have witchcraft (if you have the substance), you can see
somebodys soul and attack it, cause sickness and even death by disrupting
life force
o nosebleeds are thought to be external signs of witch attack
o the soul in hausa is a spiritual substance that resides in each one of us that
is sort of connected to body; invisible, related to breath
o said to be hot (need hot peppers to feed hotness)
o said to have penetrating eyes
o cancelled out by adoption of islam, allah
bori
o cult.pagan spirit worship? I think
dodo
o owning one (?) like joining the republican party wtf>?
o Evil spirits maybe
Evil apirits
o Aljannu
Arabic load word, comes from djinn
o Iskoki
Magani
o ~medicine, but more like remedy, more like magani is that which brings
lafiya
o prophylaxis against trouble
o not ony physical relam, has implications in other areas
o can refer to anything which corrects or prevents an undesirable condition
or situation
presuppositions of hausa medicine
o ability to live in harmony with surroundings
o for each illness, allah has ordained a remedy according to his will
success in the treatment of illness come from knowledge of these
remedies
more sever illness: knowledge of proper medicines becomes harder
to obtain, will be known by fewer
o ingredients of successful medicines lie in repositories of power in this
world (trees, plants, animals created by god)
essence of medicine is knowledge of interrelations of these and
how they can be applied to treat sickness
may be revealed by spirits
may be gained by gaining access through secrets of other traditions
(passing down recipes; apprenticeship to owner o fsuch secrets like
bori cult of spirit possession)
o most important aspect of hausa medicine: god is the worlds medicine
islam, particularly hausa folk islam, god controls everything
everythwere and everything happens bc of will of god
September 4, 2014
Hausa medicine has fatalistic streak (everything that happens to you is gods will)
But also a god-given remedy for everything
If youre being treated but not getting better, maybe the Boka (herbal healer)
doesnt know what youre doing
Themes in hausa medicine
o Power
Idea of secrets and power
Essence of medicine is searching for power (power to cure
sickness, gain popularity, gain sexual
potentcy/attractiveness, eliminate rival, economic success,
etc.)
Power of words in arabic
Belief that drinking the ink used to write certain verses, for
example, can cure ailments (etc.)
Power of number 99
Muslim rosary has 33 beads, you go through it 3 times
Power of zamzam water
Often found in possession of al-hajjis, used as cure-all
Water from the well of zamzam, supposedly is on
pilgrimage mecca and remains miraculously full
Power from fire
Carrying torches, burning tree bark when about to harvest
herbal medications (idea that fire charges, empowers
medicine)
o Hot and cold
(similar to how we have a cold that is not actually a cold, just
more often occurs in the cold)
idea that cold produces excess phlegm, mucus, makes us ill
same logic as in our culture applies in hausa
kayan yaki=hot spicy stuff
yaji can be used for illness, as poultices, for erectile dysfunction,
within realm of cupping (in cuts)
women who have just given birth are kept in hot rooms and fed hot
things to fend of cold
extreme: sleep on top of brick oven things
hot baths
domestic burns are a big problem; problems with
dietheart failure rates are high
o imbalance
illness thought to be an imbalance, treated by restoring balance
(theoretically fine)
need to know how to recognize imbalance, what causes it, wwhat
will restore it, how much of whatever substance restores it to use,
for how long, etc.
o strength and toughness
health depends on having adequate strength or vigor
lack of strength is an early sign of sickness
some of the worst diseases you can get in hausa culture are ones
that cause severe weakness
this can be cause by tons of things though
tsimi = tonic
toughness is associated with invulnerability to injury; strength is
associated with vigorideally you would like to have both
lots of medicines that supposedly increase toughness (prevents
injury from hoes, snakebites, etc.)
o daji vs gari (bush vs town)
wilderness v civilization
paganism v islam
spirits v islam
danger v safety
hidden/secret v open/welcoming
harvesting medicines
o height
medicines from high places are seen to be best for spirits,
association between spirits and heights
in trees, out of vultures nest
o rural areas
the more difficult it is to find, the better the medicine probably is
o symbolism
fertility, erectile dysfunction treated by phallic things, e.g.
getting things near something that flows is seen to be better for
menstruation, e.g., than the same thing from somewhere far from
flowing things
sympathetic magic
from Frasiers the golden bough
tafiya ruwa=going away in the rainy seasonchildhood disease
o colors
red, white, and black mostly (sometimes yellow)
white: associated with fertility and goodness; color of breast milk
and semen; (sidenote nono=breastmilk; fermented cows milk;
madara=cows milk (raw)-most hausa villagers are lactose
intolerant and have to drink fermented milk) associated with light,
happiness, etc.
red: color of blood, lifeforce, power, strength, severity;
black: death, excrement, sorrow, repulsion, evil
o attraction/repulsion
attraction: sticky, pretty, good smelling, sweet;