The Way the World is "d0e7295"

Illness and Treatment

Once an individual has decided he or she is ill and that the illness is not going away by itself, the obvious issue is what to do about it. This second decision is almost always a choice among the following: do nothing and continue to wait, buy medicine from a shop, see a medical practitioner of some kind, or seek advice from someone. If the decision calls for anything other than waiting, further decisions are called for: what type of medicine, advice, or consultation to seek; which particular dispensers of these to use; when to make these visits; how much to expect from them; how much money will be called for; and, probably, others.

The decision about seeking help is partly based in the fact that a wide variety of kinds of medical care are available in Mombasa, and almost everyone knows about most or all of them. As table 14A shows, every one of those interviewed knew that there were at least two sorts of medical care available: that from herbal doctors and that from hospital doctors (daktari ya hospatali,

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Table 14. Choice of Medical Treatment (n = 40, see table 13 for sample description)
A. Knowledge of Medical Care Available
	Mention		Recognize		Mention or
	Yes	No	Yes	No	recognize
Herbal doctors	40	0	–	–	40
Hospital doctors	40	0	–	–	40
Spirit doctors	26	14	12	2	38
"Doctors" from other groups	19	21	15	6	36
B. Basis of Decision to Visit:
	Herbal doctor			Hospital doctor
Sent by "someone"	26			29
Know myself	2			6
Don't remember	4			2
	32*			37
C. Sent by Whom to:
	Herbal doctor			Hospital doctor
Parents	14			18
Spouse	7			6
Kin, friend, or person with similar illness	5			5
	26**			29
* These sums are less than 40 each and more than 40 together because some informants visited both herbal and hospital doctors and were advised about both sorts.
** These sums do not include those who chose on their own and those who do not remember who advised them.

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as they are called). Most also knew about "spirit doctors" (usually referred to as waganga, sing. mganga ) who, most informants agree, are also part of the Swahili "tradition." These practitioners control their own majini (sing. jini ), that is, spirits mentioned in the Koran, who help them stop the bad spirits that are causing the illnesses. As of 1988, there were at least three such spirit doctors practicing in Old Town.

Another generally recognized type of medical practitioner is from other African ethnic groups and is also called mganga, as spirit doctors are, as well as mchawi (pl. wachawi ). Such practitioners seem generally, but not exclusively, to be consulted by those who suspect sorcery and, thus, seem to be chosen according to intrinsically organized schemata.

A final category of curers can be formed of the more specialized practitioners, including midwives (mku'nga, pl. waku'nga ), bone setters (mkandaji, pl. wakandaji ), and teachers who treat illnesses with prayer (Mwalimu, pl. Walimu ).^[12] I did not systematically ask the forty informants about these specialists, but more than a quarter of them mentioned them and eight reported consulting one or more of them.