TITLE:
Anthropological, Cultural and Ethical Aspects of Caring for Patients in Africa
AUTHORS:
Joseph Sawadogo, Jacques Simpore
KEYWORDS:
Care For The Sick, Anthropology, Ethics of Care, Ancient Greece, Mystical Aspect of Caring, Traditional Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Anthropology,
Vol.13 No.2,
May
24,
2023
ABSTRACT: Nowadays,
faced with pandemic infectious diseases and incurable genetic pathologies with
unfavorable prognoses, the concepts of quality of life, quality of care, and
the challenges of the right to health for all are major challenges for global
public health. These health crises push for anthropological, cultural, and
ethical approaches that would promote good care for the sick in Africa. A
synthesis study based on specialized scientific literature was carried out to
present the different ways of providing care to patients. The objectives of
this research were to: present the philosophy of care in ancient Greece, expose
the anthropological and cultural aspects of care for the sick in Africa, and
finally, show the contemporary ethical challenges of therapeutic patient care.
The care of their sick counterparts is encoded in the genes of higher mammals,
especially in “Homo Sapiens”. Over
the years, care for the sick in ancient Greece, which was initially conceived
as a blurry artistic mixture of metaphysics and physico-naturalism, gradually
became rationalized and systematized to become “tekhnê”, the art and technique of modern medicine. Meanwhile, the
traditional African approach to care, which has not evolved much and is mainly
based on an agrarian civilization, has consisted of bringing together all
cosmic and supernatural elements into a totality, where nature is combined and
associated, and solidarity, caring, and empathy are combined, so that the
entire community is invested in the healing mission. Therefore, the patient is
never condemned to be alone in their hospital room to face their loneliness and
nothingness.