Politics, Culture and Medicine in Malawi

Politics, Culture and Medicine in Malawi PDF Author: John Lloyd Lwanda
Publisher: Kachere Series
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This book examines how politics - democratic and dictatorial, culture - traditional and modern, and medicine - African and western interact in modern-day Malawi. It places medical history into cultural and political perspective and illustrates how culture influences medical perceptions and expectations. It further contextualises culture, politics and medicine within a climate where the HIV/Aids pandemic permeates all aspects of life in Malawi.

Politics, Culture and Medicine in Malawi

Politics, Culture and Medicine in Malawi PDF Author: John Lloyd Lwanda
Publisher: Kachere Series
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines how politics - democratic and dictatorial, culture - traditional and modern, and medicine - African and western interact in modern-day Malawi. It places medical history into cultural and political perspective and illustrates how culture influences medical perceptions and expectations. It further contextualises culture, politics and medicine within a climate where the HIV/Aids pandemic permeates all aspects of life in Malawi.

Politics, Culture and Medicine in Malawi

Politics, Culture and Medicine in Malawi PDF Author: John Lloyd Chipembere Lwanda
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
From reflexive, theoretical, historical and fieldwork perspectives, this multidisciplinary work (using triangulated methodological approaches) challenges and interrogates current viewpoints on health promotion, in the context of HIV/AIDS, in Malawi. The thesis is presented in a number of steps, culminating in the explication of the dynamics of cultural socialisation among primary, secondary and tertiary school students, relevant to HIV/AIDS. First, a culturally based pre-colonial traditional framework of health promotion, medical service delivery and order maintenance is 'reconstructed', using a number of markers, which are later used to show the colonial and postcolonial persistence and continuity of this framework. Second, it is argued that this culturally based medical framework survived and minimised conflict (and epistemological and pragmatic dialogue) with colonial power and medicine by largely retreating into localities. This created localised indigenous communal medicocultural and welfare traditions, which continued to offer services to most Ahcans. Third, it is suggested that the framework' s postcolonial persistence reflects the limited colonial and postcolonial socio-economic change in Malawi, with elites now, as whites then, controlling limited western medical resources at the expense of the anthu wamba (peasantry). Fourth, a critical history of HIV/AIDS in Malawi shows how, having entered Malawi in this context, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was bound to be viewed through these vibrant localised traditional frameworks of beliefs. The localised beliefs affected the perceptions and responses to, as well as the extent of, the epidemic; some Malawians saw HIV/AIDS as mdulo or kanyela (wasting diseases caused by transgressing sexual taboos). Fifth, political, religious and economic factors also affected the explanations and interpretations of and strategies for dealing with HIV/AIDS, contributing to a donor-dependent National Aids Strategic Framework (2000 - 2004) predicated on assumptions of socio-economic, educational and developmental progress. Six, the fieldwork confirmed the vibrancy of and influential dynamic of indigenous culture towards health beliefs and practices among the general public, and school students in particular, despite a high level of awareness among school students (and the public) about the scientific aspects of HIV/AIDS. Seven, these high awareness levels, even in school contexts coexist with discourses, such as ufiti (witchcraft), which are influenced by localised cultural traditions. Eight, it is argued that, given the socio-economic constraints, these discourses may influence or dilute western HIV/AIDS awareness messages and influence the actual socialisation and social and sexual behaviour of students.

Cooking Data

Cooking Data PDF Author: Cal (Crystal) Biruk
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822371820
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
In Cooking Data Crystal Biruk offers an ethnographic account of research into the demographics of HIV and AIDS in Malawi to rethink the production of quantitative health data. While research practices are often understood within a clean/dirty binary, Biruk shows that data are never clean; rather, they are always “cooked” during their production and inevitably entangled with the lives of those who produce them. Examining how the relationships among fieldworkers, supervisors, respondents, and foreign demographers shape data, Biruk examines the ways in which units of information—such as survey questions and numbers written onto questionnaires by fieldworkers—acquire value as statistics that go on to shape national AIDS policy. Her approach illustrates how on-the-ground dynamics and research cultures mediate the production of global health statistics in ways that impact local economies and formulations of power and expertise.

Colour, Class and Culture

Colour, Class and Culture PDF Author: John Lloyd Lwanda
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Brain drain
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description


Malawi:

Malawi: PDF Author: Leslie B. Glickman
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781536183542
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Malawi is one of the smallest and economically the poorest countries in the world. Yet, its impact has given it the name: The "Warm Heart of Africa." In this text, we briefly explore multiple facets of the Malawian people including who they are, their roots, characteristics, and some of their history, culture, environment, education, and healthcare. A landlocked country in the lower southeastern quadrant of Africa, Malawi evolved from British explorers and Scottish missionaries in the 19th century. Since 1994, it has had a democratic form of government.This textbook covers diverse subjects important to the country's history, culture, environment, education, and healthcare. From personal reflections to research studies, we read about the contributions of the US Peace Corps and Health Volunteers Overseas to Malawi's infrastructure, the importance of maize production to the existence of the Malawian people, unique academic programming through US-Malawi partnerships at the College of Medicine and Chancellor Law College, a potential model to improve the continuum of care for people with stroke, and success stories for children with clubfeet and learning disabilities. Creativity and entrepreneurship have enabled drone use for the delivery of medical supplies and to "map" various undeveloped quadrants of Malawi.As one of the first textbooks on Malawi, this one has the unique distinction of showing selected aspects of the country, some of its strengths, limitations, and challenges. Many of the articles were written by Malawian professionals, those working in Malawi, or with intimate knowledge of the country and their chosen topic. Many of the authors have had distinguished careers in academia with substantial research experience, and in the volunteer sector. Nova Science Publishers recognized the importance of Malawi to the African fabric and is on the forefront of sharing it with the rest of the world.

Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi

Political Culture and Nationalism in Malawi PDF Author: Joey Power
Publisher: University Rochester Press
ISBN: 158046310X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Inspired by the events leading up to the overthrow of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda's Life Presidency, this book explores the deep logic of Malawi's political culture as it emerged in the colonial and early post-colonial periods. It draws on archival sources from three continents and oral testimonies gathered over a ten-year period provided by those who lived these events. Power narrates how anti-colonial protest was made relevant to the African majority through the painstaking engagement of politicians in local grievances and struggles, which they then linked to the fight against white settler domination in the guise of the Central African Federation. She also explores how Dr. Banda (leader of independent Malawi for thirty years), the Nyasaland African Congress, and its successor, the Malawi Congress Party, functioned within this political culture, and how the MCP became a formidable political machine. Central to this process was the deployment of women and youth to cut across parochial politics and consolidate a broad base of support. No less important was the deliberate manipulation of history and the use of rumor and innuendo, symbol and pageantry, persecution and reward. It was this mix that made people both accept and reject the MCP regime, sometimes simultaneously. Joey Power is Professor of History at Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.

A Democracy of Chameleons

A Democracy of Chameleons PDF Author: Harri Englund
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Malawi
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description


Cooking Data

Cooking Data PDF Author: Crystal Biruk
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
ISBN: 9780822370741
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
In Cooking Data Crystal Biruk offers an ethnographic account of research into the demographics of HIV and AIDS in Malawi to rethink the production of quantitative health data. While research practices are often understood within a clean/dirty binary, Biruk shows that data are never clean; rather, they are always “cooked” during their production and inevitably entangled with the lives of those who produce them. Examining how the relationships among fieldworkers, supervisors, respondents, and foreign demographers shape data, Biruk examines the ways in which units of information—such as survey questions and numbers written onto questionnaires by fieldworkers—acquire value as statistics that go on to shape national AIDS policy. Her approach illustrates how on-the-ground dynamics and research cultures mediate the production of global health statistics in ways that impact local economies and formulations of power and expertise.

Politics, Christianity and Society in Malawi

Politics, Christianity and Society in Malawi PDF Author: Ross, Kenneth R.
Publisher: Mzuni Press
ISBN: 9996060780
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
With the death of John McCracken in 2017, Malawi lost a pre-eminent historian. This book celebrates McCracken’s contribution to the study of Malawi’s history and seeks to build on his legacy. Part of his genius was that he identified themes that hold the key to understanding the history of Malawi in its broader perspective. The authors contributing to this volume address these themes, assessing the progress of historiography and setting an agenda for the further advance of historical studies. The book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and all who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of Malawi’s past and present.

A Heart for the Work

A Heart for the Work PDF Author: Claire L. Wendland
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226893286
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Burnout is common among doctors in the West, so one might assume that a medical career in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, would place far greater strain on the idealism that drives many doctors. But, as A Heart for the Work makes clear, Malawian medical students learn to confront poverty creatively, experiencing fatigue and frustration but also joy and commitment on their way to becoming physicians. The first ethnography of medical training in the global South, Claire L. Wendland’s book is a moving and perceptive look at medicine in a world where the transnational movement of people and ideas creates both devastation and possibility. Wendland, a physician anthropologist, conducted extensive interviews and worked in wards, clinics, and operating theaters alongside the student doctors whose stories she relates. From the relative calm of Malawi’s College of Medicine to the turbulence of training at hospitals with gravely ill patients and dramatically inadequate supplies, staff, and technology, Wendland’s work reveals the way these young doctors engage the contradictions of their circumstances, shedding new light on debates about the effects of medical training, the impact of traditional healing, and the purposes of medicine.