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ABSTRACT
Based on ethnographic work conducted recently in the city of Abidjan where religious pluralism and medical pluralism intersect, this paper lays out the foundations of Christian healing legitimacy as perceived by some key stakeholders. Against the background of the legal recognition of biomedicine and traditional medicine which with religious healing constitute the three major healing systems in Abidjan, the paper explores the anchorages of the legitimacy of Christian healing which lacks such explicit legal backing. Data are collected through semi-structured interviews of about 240 religious practitioners, medical professionals and beneficiaries of Christian therapies in the city of Abidjan. The major theoretical framework of this paper is the Weberian theory of the triple sources of legitimation complemented with historical and political economy approaches which attempt to link the development and functioning of therapeutic systems in Côte d’Ivoire with broader political, economic and historical processes. The main argument is that Ivoirians construct the legitimacy of alternative therapies in general, and religious therapies in particular, by building on the perceived limits of biomedicine, and its inability to respond to all their therapeutic needs. From a medical pluralism perspective, the pluralisation of offers signals the plurality of needs which has determined in our Ivoirian ethnographic context the appropriation of biomedicine, the resilience of traditional medicine and the current rise of Christian healing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dr Ludovic Lado is research director and lecturer of Social Anthropology at the Centre de Recherche et d’Action pour la Paix in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Email: [email protected].
Dr Coulibaly Navigue Félicien is lecturer in the department of history at the University Felix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Email: [email protected].
Dr Jacquineau Azetsop is associate professor of ethics and public health at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, Italy. Email: [email protected].
Notes
1 Chinese medicine could be the fourth system. It has slowly gaining more ground since the recent surge in Chinese migration towards Africa. But this article focuses on Christian healing while acknowledging that the religious therapeutic system in Côte d’Ivoire is itself plural. Each religion, including traditional religions and Islam, tends to have a therapeutic component.
2 The framework of this research is the social science component of the ‘Christianity and social change in contemporary Africa’ in Africa generously supported by Templeton foundation and managed by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity. The authors are grateful to the leaders of the program and to all the other grantees for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. The authors are also grateful to their research assistants Mr Glode Boris Olivier and Mr Coulibaly Yves Olivier for their valuable contributions to this paper.
3 See, Law n° 60–284 of 10 December 1960 establishing a national order of medical doctors in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire; the law n°62–248 of 31 July 1962 establishing the Code of Ethics for the practice of medicine; law n°62–249 of 31 July 1962 instituting pharmaceutical Code of Ethics; law n° 76–818 of the 26November 1976 establishing the Code of Ethics for dental surgeons.
4 For more on the modernity of witchcraft in Africa, see contributions in Moore and Sanders Citation2001.
5 William Wade Harris (1860–1929) is a Liberian evangelist who migrated to Côte d’Ivoire in 1913. His mission blossomed and gave birth to several independent churches, long after he returned to Liberia.
6 Naomi is the name of the prophetess of the Patmos Church.
7 Created by ministerial decision n° 409/cab/MSPH of 28 December 2001 by the Ivorian ministry of health and public hygiene.
8 Cognitive atheism as intellectual confession of the inexistence of God remains marginal in Africa.