Medecine and Literature: A Reading of Disease in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Healers

Abstract

Illness is no new subject in the history of african literature. It has fecunded the narratives of many generations. As a true metaphor of the state of the culture and society presented in the narrative, illness has become the symptom of a society that is sick of the corruption of its own cultural norms and values. In such a context, illness is metaphorized as an outlet for the patients to express their rejection of the prevailing social norms. Healing will consist in becoming aware of such a state of affairs and finding by oneself the ressources of one’s healing process with the help of the eponymous healers. Frantz fanon’s psychological findings of the link between society’s malfunctionning and its consequences on the individual’s mental state will be used to conduct that study. These theories will reveal the underlying social determinants of health condition.