Health in a Fragile State

John M. Janzen is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Kansas. He is the author of The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire; Lemba, 1650–1930: A Drum of Affliction in Africa and the New World; Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa; and many articles on health, healing, religion, and society in Central Africa and the Atlantic diaspora.

• List of Illustrations ixPreface and Acknowledgments xiiiList of Abbreviations xviiIntroduction 3Part I: A History of Population and Disease in the Lower Congo1 Population Decline and Rise 412 Postcolonial Population and Disease Trends 65Part II: The Social Reproduction of Health3 Health in Household, Family, and Clan 894 Public Health and Health Care Institutions, Reconfigured 1095 Rejoicing in Our Bodies: Popular Meanings of Health 145Part III: The Legitimation of Power and Knowledge6 Dumuna: Creating Authority from Below 1597 Science, Sorcery, and Spirit 1908 Legitimation and Disease Control 214Conclusion 229Notes 235Bibliography 243Index 251