HIS102Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Nyabinghi
Document Summary
Health, wealth and well-being are at the core of many african socieies. Knowing this, you understand trade, community, domesics (family arrangements), etc. The major challenge is how do we as researchers/scholars write a history of a people when we don"t understand or have a mono-understanding of concepts. When these concepts seem straighforward, these are reduced to mizimu spirits or to the realm of supersiion, witchcrat, etc. Concepts are understood in their mono form, that is only one way of understanding these concepts. Even among the people one is researching, these concepts are taken for granted. Histories of healing, well-being, wealth intersect with other histories, especially in moments that do not seem as obvious to us. Healing pracices relied on the power of speech. Healing and well-being are not isolated phenomenas. To look at situaions in an african context, one has to look back at the beginning of a word and see how its deiniion changed over ime.
