Convulsões, medo e estigma: epilepsia, ejile-jile, nhoka yi kulo no bairro central "C", Maputo

Abstract

The present research project fits into social anthropology with a particular focus on "everyday anthropology". We intend in this work to analyze how the residents of the central neighborhood interact with seizure sufferers. The problem results from the fact that the consulted authors list as a consequence for the patient suffering from epilepsy, stigma, discrimination and social exclusion. The disease is conceived as a malignant entity within the person, which causes seizures causing fear in the surrounding people who interact with the patient, a fear that anticipates the stigma. On the other hand, there are opinions contrary to the cause of the disease, which conceive seizure as a natural disease. A nervous psychosis or a disease that affects the nervous system. People in their daily relationships with the seizure sufferer are moved between fear and stigma. The seizure is perceived among residents as epilepsy, ejile-jile, or Nhoka yi Kulo and, it is described in the present work as a complex disease, in that, it affects not only the patient's body but the rest of his life. precisely in their social and affective relationships, the patient represents in his daily relationships a danger, a threat and an attack on health at the time of seizure crises, in the face of this phenomenon, residents have an immediate response to the manifestation of fear and stigma that can be seen in the way of think and act. By observing on the ground, the participants' way of thinking and acting in interaction with patients who suffer from a seizure that is expressed in fear and stigma is the result of the stereotype established among the participants in what can cause the disease. (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)