The Management of Disease in a Traditional Medicine Perspective: The Case of Nampula, North of Mozambique

Abstract

Within a province (Nampula) of one of the world's poorest countries, Mozambique, the spread of traditional medicine is particularly significant. This study aims to delve into the main figures of traditional medicine as well as the way in which they manage the care pathways in Nampula City. This treatment must be framed within a very specific cultural, cosmological, and ethical context, that of the Makhuwa culture, the largest language group in Mozambique. The research was carried out through direct observation work between 2015 and 2018, with the advantage that the author is a Nampula-born researcher and a native Emakhuwa speaker. This circumstance allowed her to understand the dialogues and interviews done on site without the need for interpreters. The result was that important local cultural elements, together with the almost total absence of modern hospital facilities and conventional doctors made the city of Nampula an urban center where traditions of medical care related to traditional knowledge still prevail, and where caregivers perform social, pedagogical and medical functions. Keywords: local knowledge, Emakhuwa Culture, medical dialogue, diseases