Abstract:
Religion-driven spirituality continues to be on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa,
especially in Nigeria. In spite of
advances in biomedicine, many Nigerians still seek spiritual means to overcome
not just their socio-economic challenges but also their physiological and
psychological health problems. Using selected Nigerian pathographies,
I examine the crisis of confidence exhibited by patients and caregivers in the
selected texts as they move between spirituality and biomedicine in their quest
for wellness. I use critical engagement with the texts to account for the
motivations and tensions generated in the quest for wellness, with a view to
helping us better understand the plight and attitude of the chronically ill and
their minders in the context of religiosity/spirituality.
Kazeem Adebiyi-Adelabu (PhD) is
a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria,
where he teaches African Literature. Recently, he has re-directed his research
interest to the intersection of literature and medicine, focusing on how
writers and characters negotiate wellness. He has published papers regularly in
this area in the last four years.