Building Bridges: African Biomedicine in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow

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Revathy Sivasubramaniam

Assistant Professor of English, Chellammal Women’s College, Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: revathy.g.sivasubramaniam@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.09

Abstract

Using the insights provided by Professor Michael Worton and sociologist David Baronov, the paper strives to show that the cultural aspect of medicine is intrinsic to health and illness. This paper seeks to present the vibrancy of pluralistic medical practices in contemporary Africa through Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s novel Wizard of the Crow. It seeks to illustrate the pragmatic nature of African pluralistic medical practices that absorb and assimilate certain aspects from biomedicine, thereby paving the way for a distinctive blend that may rightly be termed as African biomedicine. It contends that African pluralistic medicine, biomedicine, and African biomedicine can coexist peacefully and contribute to the wellbeing of the African society in a highly globalized world.

Keywords: disease, culture, African pluralistic medicine, biomedicine, African biomedicine.