[afro-nets] AFRO-NETS is about malaria (41)

[Robert Karanja <RKaranja@kemri.org>]

AFRO-NETS is about malaria (41)
-------------------------------

Just a thought to add to Mensah's observations. Why was there no
public awareness on malaria prevention in his home town, and
mine for that matter? I believe we all need to come to grips
with the African mind, psyche or persona. Africans such as my-
self and the many others on this network, have learnt to operate
in a dual worldview, a phenomenon that I simply call African Du-
alism. The long and short of it is that in regards to malaria,
HIV, poverty etc., for every opinion, thought process and fac-
tors originating from my education and profession, I have an al-
ternative indigenous worldview complete with thought process and
"evidence-based" causal-effect factors pertinent to the same.

Unfortunately, the two worldviews are rarely complimentary to
each other and there is no synergy or synthesis between the two.
Ask us (Africans) what problems would we rate as #1 priority,
and the answer would be guided by whether you ask me in my pro-
fessional capacity or "just me". My professional capacity oper-
ates between 8am-5pm, with "just me" or indigenous worldview op-
erating the rest of the day. The matrix through which we view
the world also changes on that time frame.

For HIV the results are disastrous, as is evident from the high
prevalence - the behavioral change campaign regarding sexual be-
haviour are conceptualised and catapulted from official-dom
(western worldview oriented health experts), but sexual activity
occurs during the "just me" time when the innate African world-
view reigns supreme.

For malaria, everybody knows that it simply does not kill, so no
sense of alarm (African worldview)! In its place as I have
pointed out before, we have the evil tormenting child that keeps
dying and coming back to its mother's womb (Chinua Achebe:
Things Fall Apart). So really, are you surprised that there was
no bill board, no acknowledgement of malaria transmitting mos-
quitoes in the architecture and interior design?

Just a thought.

Robert Karanja
mailto:RKaranja@kemri.org