Browsing by Author "Paul, Jal"

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    Beliefs and Practices of the Nuer Community Towards “Mokism” and Monorchidism in Wanthoaar Woreda and Itang Special Woreda, Gambella Region
    (Addis Ababa University, 2017-06) Paul, Jal; Hagos, Belay (PhD)
    This study was conducted in Nuer community in Itang special woreda and Wanthoaar woreda, Gambella region on “Beliefs and Practices of the Nuer Community towards “Mokism” and Monorchidism”. The study has used qualitative method with purposive and snowball techniques to collect relevant data. The tools used for data collection were semi-structured and unstructured interview with opened-ended questions. Study respondents were 28 (M = 23, F = 5); meaning, 4 community elders, 2 traditional healers, 1 lord of the land, 2 youth with inborn monorchidism, 1 non-disabled youth, 8 religious leaders, and 10 health professionals. The main objective of this study was to explore traditional beliefs about the community thinks causes inborn “Mokism”, Monorchidism, and Acquired Monorchidism as well as the applied cultural practices towards persons with these mentioned conditions in the Nuer community. Results obtained from respondents on traditional beliefs about the causes of both inborn “mokism” and monorchidism have fallen under three major sources of beliefs about disability in general: Traditional animalism, Christianity fatalism, and Medical determinism, respectively. Eighteen respondents on “mokism” followed by ten 10 respondents on monorchidism, have said that both inborn conditions are caused by “cultural-related factors” (traditional animalism), followed by medical determinism with 12 & 6 respondents for inborn monorchidism and “mokism”, respectively, and finally, Christian fatalism with 6 & 4 respondents for inborn monorchidism and “mokism” respectively). Study results (findings) have been analyzed using descriptive/narrative method. In general, study results have shown that traditonal beliefs about the causes of inborn disabilities are still predominant in the Nuer community. Though explanations on the causes of inborn conditions differ considerably, the results indicated that Nuer community believes their victims “possess” evil spirits, supernatural powers, and killing spirits/powers that can hurt or possibly kill non-disabled community members. In addition, the results have shown that the community has “unique” traditional healing rituals for both inborn victims performed by local traditional healers and lords of the land (leopard skin chiefs) on the one hand, and “simple” to “serious” harmful cultural practices such as “Extermination of Victims”, on the other. According to the study results, most of harmful cultural practices performed on the victims of inborn disabilities directly stemmed from the prevalent negative traditional perceptions and beliefs towards them on the account that the victims possess “perceieved” evil or killing spirits and, supernatural powers