Zvinorwadza

Zvinorwadza, a very common formulation heard among patients in the Mberengwa district, Zimbabwe, means 'it is painful' or 'it hurts'. This book deals with patients in a rural area of southern Africa and poses two basic questions: What does it mean to be ill in this part of the world and what do patients' life-worlds look like? Patients' illness experiences are described with the word pain, anxiety and sometimes despair their social situations are often marked by vulnerability, exposedness and insecurity which apply to both genders, but particulary to women; their help-seeking behaviour is characterised by pragmatism, complementarity and plurality their conceptions about illnesses and aetiologies involve qualities of uncertainty, flexibility and multidimensionality and, finally, patients' treatment experiences can be depicted in three words: some experienced ease, others complete healing, while a significant group of the multi-episodical patients experienced non-deliverance. It is concluded that the phenomena illness and healing need to be regarded holistically and that it is of crucial importance to acknowledge patients' own ideas concerning these issues.