Health-Seeking Nomads and Faith-Healing in a Medically Pluralistic Context in Mbeya, Tanzania
The popularity of faith-healing in sub-Saharan Africa has been widely acknowledged in research, but mostly treated as a phenomenon apart, instead of being viewed in relation to other modes of healing. In this article I focus on the reasons why believers choose faith-healing in a medically pluralisti...
| Published in: | Mission studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2018
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| In: |
Mission studies
Year: 2018, Volume: 35, Issue: 2, Pages: 245-264 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Tanzania
/ Nomad
/ Healing movement
/ Charismatic movement
/ Healing
/ Primary care (Medicine)
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| RelBib Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KDG Free church |
| Further subjects: | B
faith-healing
medical pluralism
Charismatic Christianity
health seeking behavior
Tanzania
vulnerability
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The popularity of faith-healing in sub-Saharan Africa has been widely acknowledged in research, but mostly treated as a phenomenon apart, instead of being viewed in relation to other modes of healing. In this article I focus on the reasons why believers choose faith-healing in a medically pluralistic situation and how they see other healing options available in a locally founded Charismatic church community, the Gospel Miracle Church for All People (GMCL), in the Southern Tanzanian city of Mbeya. I propose that, in order to see the medically pluralistic context in Tanzania through the journeys of health-seeking nomads, the focus must lie on two intertwined aspects of faith-healing: first, it is inevitably based on the need to be healed and speaks of a failure of biomedicine to explain illness and provide healing; and second, the long journeys that are made in search of healing mean traversing boundaries and switching between parallel healing systems: biomedicine, traditional healing, and faith-healing. While health seeking nomads are in many ways in a vulnerable position, I suggest that their ability to move from one healing option to another speaks of agency: not in the sense of full control over their life situations but, rather, as a way of coming to terms with their illness. 1 |
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| ISSN: | 1573-3831 |
| Contains: | In: Mission studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15733831-12341569 |