Conference Report: Imaginaries of Affliction, Healing and Medicine: Sickness and the Representation of Africa
Duane Jethro
The conference ‘Imaginaries of Affliction, Healing and Medicine’ was hosted at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (StIAS) from 20 to 24 September. This is one of a series of conferences held under the Point Sud Programme, aimed at promoting exchange between German and African scholars from Anglo and Francophone regions. Funded by the Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main and the German Research Foundation (DFG), this edition of the Point Sud programme was jointly organised by Prof. Rose Marie Beck, Prof. Abdullah Daar, Prof. Birgit Meyer and Prof. Joseph Tonda.
The conference examined relationships between imaginaries and ‘affliction and healing’, in order to connect broader narratives around health, medicine and healing ‘but also the body and how life matters’. Following Birgit Meyer’s formulation, “Imaginaries are conceptualized as socially authorized reality producing formations of collective representations shaped by, and evoking historically situated, socially grounded and context specific practices of imagination”. The framework made for lively debate and discussion, with a bio-medical and Science and Technologies Studies (STS) focus.
The first day of the conference focused on theory and theoretical approaches to understanding health, healing and wellbeing. Birgit Meyer opened the conference with an outline of imaginaries and the mediation of affliction in Ghana and Nigerian films, discussing the utility of a materialized concept of imaginaries for understanding health practices in these regions. The late morning sessions were dominated by STS approaches to health and healing, with Rose Marie Beck exploring ‘space suits’ and Ebola, followed by Celine Lafontaine looking at Mary Shelly and reproductive health choices in South Africa. The afternoon session saw Peter Geschiere and Joseph Tonda deliver presentations on health, healing and mystery cults in Gabon and Cameroon. The evening session closed with a viewing and discussion of a health video focusing on Ghana produced by Nancy Rose Hunt, looking at health care practices and access to health in 2001.
Day Two’s discussion revolved around questions of possession, spirits and healing, with a strong southern African focus. Thomas Kirsch presented a fascinating paper on spirits, fragmentation and psychological wholeness, that was complemented by a paper on vitality and value by Thomas Cousins, who looked at food consumption, the gut and power in timber plantations of Kwazulu Natal. The theme was driven home by Janneke Kroersbergen-Kamps’ discussion of self narratives of conversion, satanism and healing in Zambia. The day closed with a viewing and discussion of the controversial spiritual healing documentary, Les Maitres Fous, by Jean Rouch.
The third morning kicked off with an energetic presentation by Akwatu Kenti from Toronto, who reflected on the public racial stigmatization, Western epidemics and the image of black homicide mortality. APC post-doctoral fellow Duane Jethro followed with his re-presentation of the revival of Khoisan indigenous identity, colonial violence and healing in post-apartheid South Africa. The focus shifted to medicine, biomedicine and religious notions of health and wellbeing in Kodjo Senah’s presentation of the history of traditional medicine in Ghana, and Peter Lambertz’s paper on science, religion and healing in Kinshasa.
The afternoon session comprised a tour through Kayamandi on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, with a visit to a HIV Aids clinic, and a local church. Focusing on questions of healing and disease, delegates heard about the religious and biomedical challenges faced by residents in the township and the different approaches presented by these institutions. The trip made for much food for thought, which was timeously engaged and discussed over dinner at Solms Delta, a wine farm pioneering a unique land reform policy and a critical engagement with its slave history.
Visual cultures and imaginaries of disability dominated the set of morning sessions the following day. The first paper was delivered by Leslie Swartz, who discussed “unspeakable bodies”, mainly sporting bodies in South Africa, followed by Ulf Vierke’s paper entitled Inspiration Porn and the Double Othering—Images of Africa and Disability. Ulf Vierke provided a forensic analysis of photos of disabled Africans as they circulate online in memes, engaging with the social dynamics and discursive possibilities they presented. The outcomes and challenges of engaged healthcare practice were taken up by Janina Theron and Christine Anthonissen, in their presentations on HIV testing and counselling sessions in South Africa. Nancy Rose Hunt instigated a wonderful intervention to close the afternoon, first presenting the kinds of historical work she engages with her students at the University of Florida. She then opened up a series of online historical databases and organized the scholars in to groups to engage in collective research and then report back at the end of the day.
The conference concluded on 24 September, Heritage Day, with presentations covering the bio-politics of cervical cancer, by Liandri O’Callahan, images of and contemporary imaginaries of African global health by Michelle Pentecost, and healing responses to the Ebola Pandemic by Ibrahim Murtalla.