Perceptions of health and illness among the Konso people of southwestern Ethiopia

Persistence and Change

Bibliographic Data

ID4724965
AuthorsTebaber Workneh, Tebaber Chanie Workneh (University of Gondar, corresponding author), Guday Emirie (Addis Ababa University), Mirgissa Kaba (0000-0002-8093-5900), Yalemtsehay Mekonnen (0000-0001-8640-2171, Addis Ababa University), Helmut Kloos (0000-0002-5867-971X, University of California, San Francisco)
Year2018
Volume14
Issue1
Pages18-18
Publication date2018-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1746-4269 • E-ISSN: 1746-4269
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1186/s13002-018-0214-y
PMID29482630
OpenAlexW2792979029
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited14

BACKGROUND: Cross-cultural studies indicate that every culture has its own particular explanations for health and illness and its own healing strategies. The Konso people have always practiced indigenous medicine and have multifaceted accounts or multiple dimensions of illness perceptions and health-care beliefs and practices. This paper describes how perceptions of health and illness are instrumental in health and treatment outcomes among the Konso people in southwestern Ethiopia. Results may provide an understanding of the perceptions of health and illness in relation to the local cosmology, religion, and environment. METHODS: The ethnographic method was employed to generate evidence, complemented by focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and direct observation. Thematic analysis was employed to categorize and interpret the data. RESULTS: Findings indicate that the Konso people's worldview, particularly as it relates to health, illness, and healing systems, is closely linked to their day-to-day lives. Older people believe illnesses are caused by a range of supernatural forces, including the wrath of God or local gods, oritta (spirit possession), and karayitta (ancestral spirits), and they use culturally prescribed treatment. Young and formally educated members of the community attribute causes of diseases to germitta (germs) and factorta (bacteria) and tend to seek treatment mostly in modern health facilities. CONCLUSION: Perceptions of health and illness as well as of healing are part of Konso people's worldview. Local communities comprehend health problems and solutions within their cultural frame of reference, which has changed over the years. The Konso people associate their health situations with socio-cultural and religious factors. The individual's behavior and interactions with the social, natural, and supernatural powers affect the well-being of the whole group. The individual, the family, the clan leaders, and the deceased are intimately linked to one's culturally based health beliefs and are associated by the Konso with health problems and illnesses

Health care · Indigenous · Perception · Political science · Sociology · Sociology of health and illness · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agriculture · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology · Ecology

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