Healing: Cultural Fundamentalism and Syncretism in Buganda

bibliographic database
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Periodical article

Title:	Healing: Cultural Fundamentalism and Syncretism in Buganda
Author:	Obbo, Christine
Year:	1996
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:	66
Issue:	2
Pages:	183-201
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Uganda
Subjects:	Ganda (Uganda) traditional medicine Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft Health and Nutrition
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161316
Abstract:	This article is based on a six-month survey of healers and sources of everyday medicine in and around Kampala, Uganda, during 1992. Four case studies of healers and their lives demonstrate the range of healing practice available to the sick in Buganda. The article is concerned with the way Ganda diviner-healers locate their discourse within the postcolonial framework and legitimize themselves with personal narratives that stress a return to 'ebyaffe' (literally, 'our things'), a generic term current in Uganda which refers to traditions and entitlements. It shows that this cultural fundamentalism is combined with practical syncretism, as the healers remain Muslim or Christian and readily recommend hospital treatment whenever it seems more appropriate. They are in the forefront of what to some degree every Ugandan is doing: they are reinventing culture and interpreting it in ways relevant to the time. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French.