List of Appendices
3.7 Yoruba and Illness (Disease) Aisan
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at as caused by moral impurity, e.g. atosi – gonorrhea, siphillis – “ako – atosi”, “daho” – women’s discharge etc. Diseases in the Yourba context are seen, not necessarily as of a physical, but of a deep spiritual and metaphysical nature and causation. Hence the state of wholeness to a Yoruba man involves spiritual physical and psychological health. This is the fact believed that such diseases could only be cured or subverted by certain ritual preparations to hence good health and to word off misfortunes and sufferings (Omoyajowo 1982:169-183).
Diseases and sicknesses are seen as direct influences of spiritual beings who may have been offended especially if certain taboos are broken. There are vicarious taboos, eewo, which if broken will result in certain moral evils. Taboos in Yoruba context are not to be seen as an attempt to socialize the society but as sacred duties to divinities (Thorpe 1972). Certain ritual taboos like eating of port, wearing of shoes inside the Church, eating of okete (a kind of large rat), preventing menstruating women from entering the church are imposed in some traditional churches (Awolalu and Dopamu 2005:282). Some of these clearly show the attitude of the Yoruba christian to people infected with HIV and AIDS at the outset.
87 Naturally-Caused Diseases
These are ordered types of diseases which affect individuals. It may result from unwholesome food or water intake, over-indulgence in work or pleasure, change in weather, impure blood and activities of worms in the body, such diseases constitute minor common health problems whose cause and effect are quickly known and treated.
Such diseases to mention a few include:
Malaria (aisan iba) Cough (iko)
Cold and Catarrh (otutu ati ofinkin) Stomach ache (inu-rirun)
Craw-craw (kuruna) Dizziness (ooyi-oju) Convulsion (giri)
Supernaturally-caused diseases:
These are diseases associated with some spiritual forces. It is a concept that is non- empirical which is recognized in Yoruba medical practice, and it is always associated with cultural beliefs. Supernaturally caused diseases include:
Airomobi (infertility) Abiku (born to die) Arun opolo (Insanity)
Diseases under this class are anxiety-provoking and constitute lots of problems both socially, economically and psychologically to the afflicted and infected persons, his family and the society at large.
Mystically-caused diseases
In this group are diseases associated with the gods, ancestors, spirits, taboos and ritual errors. For example among the Yoruba people of Southern Nigeria, smallpox (sanponna) is an epidemic disease traced to either a sorcerer or the god of smallpox. A disease can
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also be caused through a curse (epe) which is a statement said with strong belief by someone who has been angered to an enemy such that it produces a desired effect.
In the Yoruba Cultural context, there are some health-related taboos (eewo) and norms, which are not codified in the actual sense but transmitted through oral transmission from generation to generation. Taboos vary from person to person and from one culture to another and breaching of a taboo is a strong factor in disease causation. For example in the Yoruba culture there are some observable health-related taboos, one of such is the believe that it is forbidden for a man to have sex with a woman during her menstruation since conception from such will give birth to a spotted child or an albino. Also to promote the sanctity of marriage and prevent sexually transmitted diseases, girls are not to have sex with a man before marriage. However with civilization, education and changing societal values this custom is declining today.
According to Jegede (1994) aisan is an external factor to man. The Yoruba believe that at the point of creation, man was made whole. This fact was substantiated by an Ifa verse Eji Ogbe which states as follows:
Eji Ogbe fere ni mo pe o ni ojo ti Olodumare ara ati eje lo da ko da arun mo Translation Eji Ogbe I call on
When God Created body he created only body and blood he did not create ill-health with them.
The argument is that ill-health came into the body due to man’s disobedience to the counsel of the witness of destiny (Jegede 1998:8).
Among the Yorubas, aisan (disease) depicts that something is not well and to be well does not only means biological wellbeing but holistic condition of the individual and the society. It has been argued that the ‘social well-being’ referred to in the World Health Organizations’ (WHO) definition of health does not question the appropriateness of
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different value systems to foster individual health. Kleinman (1978) said that disease which is reseved for the abnormalities in the structure and functioning of the organs is a pivot of the biomedical model. “Illness to him refers to an individual experience of diseases and other related conditions”. Richman (1987) has, however, explained that when sickness is applied cross-culturally the categories can “fracture” and that some traditional societies locate disease outside the body. Halm (1995) emphasized the importance of differentials in cultural perception, definition and interpretation of phenomena. According to him, the more direct power of social relationships and cultural expectations in the production of events of sickness and healing, societies and their relationships and beliefs sicken, kill and heal as well. Richman further opined that the patterns of diseases and treatment distinguished by each culture reveals the practical reasoning on which its wider social order is based. Aisan in Yoruba conceptulaization is therefore a broader concept for all expressions of ill-health, disorderliness, displacement, disorganization or frail, weak, infirmity and anything that makes a person or society unwholesome. The Yorubas perceive every departure from social expectations as aisan;
as a result the concept of aisan is viewed as personal and non-personal phenomenon.
For anyone to be labeled sick means that person is socially unfit for the role expected of him or her. And a such, the person needs to be taken care of and be brought back to normal condition (Turner 1988:87). To be sick is to have a specific social identity, a perspective on the world and to be in case of illness, a member of a community. According to Talcott Parsons (1951:90), the sick role commits an individual to pass from community of the healthy to the world of the sick. To Parsons, the sick role demands a temporary ‘exemption’ from social roles.