01752nas a2200193   4500000000100000008004100001260003700042653000900079653001400088653002500102653001200127100001100139245006400150856019400214300001200408490000700420520110600427022002501533       2024                            d  bCambridge University Press (CUP)10aIgbo10acosmology10aculturial worldviews10aleprosy1 aEze OK00aCrossroads: leprosy, Igbo cosmology and cultural worldviews  uhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/88DAC47177EDAE5C42337DD9DC90D35B/S0001972024000573a.pdf/crossroads-leprosy-igbo-cosmology-and-cultural-worldviews.pdf  a556-5740 v943 a<p>This research examines the continuity and changes in Igbo thoughts on leprosy by exploring Igbo cosmology and its relationship with Christian and colonial ideas about the disease. The perception of leprosy in precolonial Igboland reveals a shocking similarity with the later Judeo-Christian identity and the perception of leprosy that dominated the area during colonialism. It argues that colonial and Christian missionary ideas did not radically transform the perceptions of leprosy in south-eastern Nigeria. Instead, what happened was merely an adaptation and continuity of prevailing thoughts about the disease. Using oral evidence, archival materials and existing anthropological works on Igbo worldviews and cosmology, this research shows the changes in the colonial socio-cultural knowledge of leprosy. After careful analysis, it concludes that, while colonial medicine and the missionaries’ idea of leprosy healed leprosy sufferers and transformed their identity, most Igbo people continued conceptualizing the disease as an aberration and maintained the stigmatization of sufferers.</p>
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