Hospitals or Healers? An Attitude Survey in Ibadan Available to Purchase

Over the past twenty years the developing territories of Africa have experienced an enormous expansion in modern medical facilities. Everywhere the response to the establishment of new hospitals and treatment centres has been overwhelming on the part of patients who are apparently prepared to wait for hours in the hope of cure. Medical personnel have been understandably preoccupied with the problems which the sheer numbers of patients present and have had scant time to speculate upon the impulses which have prompted attendance or upon the place which the hospital holds in the total response of the sick African to disease. This paper describes an investigation carried out in Ibadan, Nigeria, into current beliefs and practices relating to illness and reveals the continuing reliance upon traditional modes of treatment and native healers in spite of the proximity of a large teaching hospital.