Course: AFRS370 Health, Medicine, and Nutrition in the Black Community

Days: TuTh 12:35PM - 1:50PM

Location: Burk Hall 210
Meeting Dates: 01/23/2017 - 05/16/2017

Professor Obafemi Origunwa

Theoretical and practical implications of health and healing in the Black community
today. Personal and community perspectives. Cultural and spiritual sources of health
and illness. Includes interactive class activities and presentations from people in the
community working to address these issues.
Course Description
Most of the health-related classes that are offered in American universities focus on
WESTERN disciplines (e.g., Psychology, Nutrition, Biology, etc). Within the ongoing
National dialogue on multiculturalism in such curricula there has been an increased
focus on looking at cultural issues as they affect health and the healing process within
the Black community. Very few programs, however, include classes that focus on NONWESTERN HEALING when it comes to theories of wellness, psychological functioning
or medicinal interventions. This is true, in spite of the fact that Dr. Martin Luther King,
Malcolm X and other leaders of the African American community are known to have
made use of Hoodoo and rs healing modalities. In this class we will explore the field
of non-western health and healing practices. Students will be introduced healinginformed approaches to mental, physical and ancestral well being from an African
perspective. Topics that will be covered include: Meditation, prayer, dreams, death and
dying, the near-death experience, divination, sacrifice, Jungian psychology and
symbolism, drumming, dancing, spirit possession, and ethnobotany.
Course Goals and Objectives

Students will examine how culture has influenced their health, worldviews and
realities and how this influences their understanding of and interactions with
health, sickness and healing.
Students will be able to describe the various cultural and spiritual realities of
health, according to Africans on the Continent and in the USA.
Students will be challenged to consider the alternative perspectives of health
and healing the ancestors, as well as the unborn.
Students will engage in respectful and intellectual discussions with their peers
on various topics of health, healing, sickness and death.
Students will explore their affective reactions to the topical information
presented during the semester.
Students will develop a familiarity with possible health concerns and healing
issues of African Americans.
Students will begin to develop a set of appropriate skills to help them
competently understand health within various African cultural groups in the USA.

REQUIRED TEXTS/READINGS:
Ademuleya, Babasehinde, A. The Concept of Ori in the Traditional Yoruba Visual
Representation of Human Figures. Nordic Journal of African Studies 16 (2): 212-220

(2007)
Ogundele, Samuel Oluwole. Aspects of Indigenous Medicine in South Western Nigeria.
Ethno-Med., 1 (2): 127-133 (2007)
Awojoodu, O. and Baran, D. Traditional Yoruba Medicine in Nigeria: A Comparative
Approach. Bulletin of Transilvania University of Brasov V 6 (51) 2009
Morakinyo, Aina. Culture-Bound Syndromes and the Neglect of Cultural Factors in
Psychopathologies Among Africans. African Journal of Psychiatry. September 2011
US Department of Health and Human Services. Culture Counts: The Influence of Culture
and Society on Mental Health, Mental Illness
US Department of Health and Human Services. Mental Health for African Americans
US Department of Health and Human Services. A Vision for the Future
AYODELE SAMUEL JEGEDE. (2002) THE YORUBA CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF
HEALTH AND ILLNESS. Nordic Journal of African Studies 11(3): 322-335 (2002)
Aina, O Morakinyo. (2011) Culturebound syndromes and the neglect of cultural factors
in psychopathologies among Africans. Afr J Psychiatry 2011;14:278-285.
OLADELE ABIODUN BALOGUN. (2007) The Concepts of Ori and Human Destiny in
Traditional Yoruba Thought: A Soft Deterministic Interpretation. Nordic Journal of African
Studies 16(1): 116130 (2007)
Akomolafe, Adebayo Clement. (2009) Decolonizing the notion of mental illness and
healing in Nigeria, West Africa
Course Evaluation
Response Papers (in class) ...................

25%

First Submission of Intro & Literature Review

15%

Mid-term Paper (Folk Medicine Ethnography)...

10%

Class Presentation

25%

...

Final Project (Models for African American Healing) .

25%

Grading Scale
100-95 = A
94-90 = A89-87 = B+
86-84 = B
83-80 = B79-77 = C+
76-74 = C
73-70 = C69-67 = D+
66-64 = D
63-60 = D-