How African Customary, Social Practices Enhance Coping Strategies in Times of Crises Essay

How African Customary and Social Practices have been Utilized to Enhance Coping Strategies in Times of Crisis, focus on health pandemic

Background of the Study

Centuries before missionaries and colonialists arrived in Africa and centuries before the slave trade commenced, Africans in Africa had cultural and social practices and mechanisms to sustain their societies and to prevent the loss of lives during crises. The practices and mechanisms included health education practices, procedures for managing illnesses, and procedures for preventing the spread of illnesses through societies (Iganus & Haruna, 2017). In cases where African mechanisms helped to handle and manage health crises, it is believed that it was because the successful mechanisms took into account the socio-economic situation on the ground and wholesomely addressed the health crises and the related social and economic effects. Most of the mechanisms were initiated after elders or senior members of African societies met and discussed crises and suggested ways to handle them based on historical knowledge.

Traditional African societies had their understanding of the world and the different things in it. Most African societies across the continent believed that there is the seen world and the unseen world. The seen world includes everything that can be seen, while the unseen world includes the spirit world, spirits, magic, and so on. Many African societies believed that diseases were part of the unseen world (White, 2015). As per the WHO (World Health Organization), despite the introduction of new health care practices, procedures, and systems in African societies by missionaries and colonialists many years ago, many African societies still depend or heavily rely on various African traditional medicine (WHO, 2001). As per the WHO (2001), traditional health care/ medicine includes all the practices and knowledge, whether logical or not, which is used to prevent, diagnose, treat or manage any social, mental, and physical diseases. Traditional medicine was frequently learned through observation and experience and passed down generations orally and sometimes in written form.

Considering how big Africa is, it is no surprise that many different novels and old customary practices are encouraged and adhered to across the continent. Over the years, it has been noted that most customary practices have been modernized to reflect modern realities. Nevertheless, the purpose of customary practices is the same whether they are old or modernized, and that purpose is to promote the examples set by the ancestors. According to Worden (2012), customary practices in African societies can improve the survival and coping capabilities of individuals and communities as it has happened in the past. Improving survival and coping capabilities of African societies and communities through customary practices is quite important right now considering the volatile political and socio-economic conditions across the continent and the reports of starvation, extreme poverty, and violence in various areas throughout Africa.

Most studies on how crises were managed in traditional African settings focused on economic, political, and security crises. The overwhelming majority of the studies focus on conflicts and how they are managed via customary practices and strategies. There are not many studies that look at how health crises were managed to utilize social and customary practices. It is also important to note that African literature (written) does not include many works on how pandemics were managed. This situation justifies the need for more research into the customary practices and strategies that were used in Africa to cope with and to survive health crises and pandemics.

Problem Statement and Significance of the Study

Many social practices have remained unchanged for a long time and can, therefore, be regarded as customary social practices or customary practices in short. Some customary practices in Africa and elsewhere across the world are coping mechanisms; they help people to survive crises, e.g., pandemics, political turbulence, and economic downturns. These practices also help individuals to cope with health crises and can indeed help people cope with the current global coronavirus pandemic. This research is an attempt to find out social and customary…

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…purposeful sampling to ensure information is specific and not automatically generalizable; (b) it pursues new lines of investigations when they emerge; and (c) it is a naturalistic methodology (Patton, 2014; Stuckey, 2013). These characteristics, coupled with the fact that qualitative research methodology focuses on how people understand experiences, make this methodology the best for finding out customary and religious practices that negatively contributed to or helped restrain the Ebola pandemic from participants who have firsthand information.

Lastly, the qualitative research method is appropriate because it takes into account how people interpret their experiences individually and socially. Therefore, it is a methodology that has the potential to provide the in-depth information needed.

Definition of the Terms

Coping, according to VandenBos (2007, p.232), is the use of cognitive and behavioral strategies to manage difficult situations that are taxing or that surpass one’s ability to reduce negative emotions.

Community participation, according to Marsland (2006, p.67-68), is the empowerment of residents to engage in making decisions that affect them and to participate in activities that are meant to benefit them.

Cost-sharing, as per Abel-Smith and Rawal (1992), is a method that was utilized in several African states such as Tanzania to promote self-reliance and cut government spending.

Customary practices are established practices that are inherited from past generations that work as unwritten laws for many African communities. Customary practices touch on almost every aspect of life in African societies. Some of them are negative, while most are regarded as positive (Handler, 2016).

Social capital means factors such as interpersonal relations, a shared sense of identity, shared understanding, shared values, trust, cooperation, shared norms, reciprocity, and others that are common in functioning social groupings (Yama, 2020, p.170).

Summary and Organization of the Remainder of the Study

This section introduced the study, including the background of the study, the purpose of the study, and the research questions. The methodology of the study was also introduced, and the rationale for…