Traditional African Mourning Practices Are Abridged in Response to the AIDS Epidemic: Implications for Mental Health
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Date
1999
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Transcultural Psychiatry
Abstract
This paper examines the psychological significance of traditional African mourning practices in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In Tanzania, untimely multiple losses through AIDS increasingly force communities to forgo traditionally prescribed mourning practices and rituals. An increase in psychiatric and psychological problems associated with incomplete mourning and unresolved grief has been observed in clinical settings. This may be due to the psychosocial inadequacy of these abridged mourning processes. It is unlikely that western forms of grief counseling can replace traditional mourning rituals, at least in terms of psychological efficacy. An approach is suggested that permits a wider elaboration of cultural psychic processes through the creation of new rituals.
Description
Keywords
Africa, AIDS epidemic, Traditional African Mourning
Citation
Kilonzo, G.P. and Hogan, N.M., 1999. Traditional African mourning practices are abridged in response to the AIDS epidemic: Implications for mental health. Transcultural Psychiatry, 36(3), pp.259-283.