When a rash has two names: pese sorcery and kisigo spirits at Lake Tanganyika.
Anthropology & medicine August 1, 2018 DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2017.1308187 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 27 |
| Population | People in Kigoma, Tanzania |
| Duration | Two months of fieldwork |
| Keywords | Kigoma Skin Governance Illness construction Medical anthropology Witchcraft |
| Key findings | The skin affliction pese and the similar condition kisigo arise from different explanatory models—witchcraft and spirit possession, respectively—and government policies have driven witchcraft practices underground. |
Abstract
This explorative and qualitative study, based on 27 interviews during two months of fieldwork, describes pese, an affliction of the skin that has conspicuously stayed under the radar of medico-anthropological research in Kigoma, a rural city in the northwest Tanzania. The condition reminds of a locally better known condition labeled kisigo, raising the question why two concepts of the same affliction exist side by side. It seems indicative that the two illness concepts stem from different cultures and that each specializes in an explanatory model: the former witchcraft (sorcery) and the latter spirit possession. Moreover, a symbiotic relation seems to exist between the healing traditions of the Bembe and the Ha. Government policies prohibiting witchcraft and targeting traditional healers seem to have created a situation where witchcraft practices and beliefs have come to represent the periphery and survive there, clandestinely.