Different Culture's Perceptions of Chronic and Terminal Illness and Death

Culture of Illness
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Culture of Illness
Culture plays a significant role in determining whether members of a particular community visit hospitals when they become sick or stay at home, believing that spiritual powers will intervene and heal them. Individuals from different cultures or ethnicities have their own beliefs about chronic illnesses, death, and terminal diseases. For example, many westerners believe that a person should use painkillers to eliminate headache or sore muscles, and they do not hesitate to buy over-the-counter drugs, such as Tylenol or Advil, to deal with such health problems. However, they visit hospitals if the issue persists. This paper will focus on the psychological, social, cultural, and religious effects of death, chronic, and terminal illnesses on the Bukusu, a sub-tribe of Abaluhya, living in the western part of Kenya.
Psychological effects of death, chronic, and terminal illnesses entail the beliefs or mindset that promote or hinder members of a specific culture from seeking medical attention when they become sick. As with many African American communities, Bukusu people do not visit hospitals at the onset of any disease (Whaley, 2001). Only a small percentage of them who live in urban areas consider visiting medical facilities when their illnesses bother them. Bukusus believe that supernatural powers control healing and that visiting hospitals do not help. When members of this community are chronically or terminally ill, they remain at home and seek their gods’ intervention. They believe that death is inevitable and that if one’s time to die arrives, nothing can stop that since supernatural powers determine who to live or not.
When it comes to the social effects on death, chronic, and terminal illnesses, Bukusus believe that healthy people should not interact with severely sick individuals. When individuals have chronic or terminal diseases, they are advised to visit witchcraft in their neighborhoods and determine if their illnesses can be healed or not. Community members abandon terminally or chronically ill patients since they believe that the illness can affect some of their family members after the affected person dies (Maithya, 1992). When it comes to the death of such individuals, witchcraft are called to stop the curse of a particular disease affecting the family lineage, where they ask for possessions of the deceased as a way to appease the supernatural powers.
The cultural belief of Bukusus is that people become terminally or chronically sick for specific reasons. The supernatural powers are the ones who determine whether a person will die or survive. Bukusus are not the kind of people who rush to pharmacies to get painkillers when they experience headaches. Instead, these individuals look for ways to appease supernatural powers since they believe that chronic or terminal sicknesses indicate that gods are unhappy (Chikati, 2016). Some of the Bukusus end up taking all their possessions to witchcraft, thinking that the gods will be happy and heal them in reward. In some cases, they become healed, and if gods are not appeased, the terminally ...