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Neoliberal Reform and Health Dilemmas
In this article, the author traces the links among neoliberalism, regional ecological decline, and the dynamics of therapeutic processes in rural Senegal. By focusing on illness management in a small rural community, the article explores how economic reform is mediated…
Modern marriage, men’s extramarital sex, and HIV risk in southeastern Nigeria
For women in Nigeria, as in many settings, simply being married can contribute to the risk of contracting HIV. This article considers men’s extramarital sexual behavior in the context of modern marriage in southeastern Nigeria. The results indicate that the…
Overlaps and Disconnects in Reproductive Health Care: Global Policies, National Programs, and the Micropolitics of Reproduction in Northern Senegal
This article explores three arenas of contemporary discourse about reproductive health and family planning. Using Senegal as a case study, it highlights the significant overlaps and disconnects among global reproductive health policy, national priorities and programs, and the biopolitics of…
Research paper
Taking chances, making choices: the tactical dimensions of “reproductive strategies” in southwestern Nigeria
Reproductive outcomes may be less a result of consciously pursued “reproductive strategies” than of other choices, and are subject to the influence not only of other individuals, but also of caprice and circumstance. Drawing on ethnographic research in southwestern Nigeria,…
Perspectives on polio and immunization in Northern Nigeria
Through the efforts of the global campaign to eradicate poliomyelitis, polio cases have declined worldwide, from 35,251 cases in 1988, to 1449 cases as of 28 October 2005. However, confirmed cases of wild polio virus continue to be reported from…
Research paper
Traditional healers in Nigeria: perception of cause, treatment and referral practices for severe malaria.
Malaria remains one of the main causes of mortality among young children in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria traditional healers play an important role in health care delivery and the majority of the population depend on them for most of their…
Research paper
Youth, sin and sex in Nigeria: Christianity and HIV/AIDS-related beliefs and behaviour among rural-urban migrants
In Nigeria, popular understandings of HIV/AIDS and individual risk assessment and behaviour unfold within an interpretative grid that draws on a religious moral framework. This paper reports results from a two‐year study of HIV/AIDS‐related beliefs and behaviour among adolescent and…
Discriminate biopower and everyday biopolitics: views on sickle cell testing in Dakar
Many physicians in Senegal and France, where most Senegalese sickle cell specialists are partially trained, assume that genetic testing that could imply selective abortion for people with sickle cell would run counter to the religious and cultural ethics of people…
Discriminate biopower and everyday biopolitics: views on sickle cell testing in Dakar
Many physicians in Senegal and France, where most Senegalese sickle cell specialists are partially trained, assume that genetic testing that could imply selective abortion for people with sickle cell would run counter to the religious and cultural ethics of people…
Patronage, per diems and the “workshop mentality”: the practice of family planning programs in southeastern Nigeria
This article examines the ways in which family planning program personnel in Nigeria appropriate population program resources and models of social change to suit local priorities.
‘It’s raining stones’: stigma, violence and HIV vulnerability among men who have sex with men in Dakar, Senegal
In Dakar, Senegal, a study conducted by researchers from Cheikh Anta Diop University, the Senegal National Council Against AIDS, and the Horizons Program elicited quantitative and qualitative data about the needs, behaviours, knowledge, and attitudes of men who have sex…
Imagining HIV/AIDS: morality and perceptions of personal risk in Nigeria
The disparity between people’s knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the extent to which they take measures to protect themselves is one of the most vexing issues for public health workers and social science analysts. This paper aims to explain some of…
