Local Perceptions of Epidemics in Ethiopia: The Case of the Bayso Community of Gidicho Island, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract The effect of epidemic diseases on the lives of rural communities in Ethiopia was more severe than those in towns and cities, as the majority of such rural communities still have no access to modern health facilities. If not for the effort such rural communities made to maintain infectious diseases via sociocultural knowledge, approaches, and local resources, it may had overwhelming consequences. The study attempts to examine the perception of the Bayso on epidemic diseases, focusing on causes and approaches to control epidemic diseases. The study employed a qualitative research design. Accordingly, ethnographic data was collected by interviews, focus group discussions, and observation using semi-structured questions. The fieldwork was conducted between December 2020 and May 2022. A total of 78 informants; 43 in interviews and 35 in 4 focus group discussions participated in the study. Findings revealed that the laymen Bayso associate sources of disease with supernatural forces, such as Wa’a, (Supreme Being) and spirits (ancestral and evil), whereas the educated linked it to natural factors including environmental and personal hygiene. Accordingly, the laymen Bayso used local mechanisms such as religious rituals and sacrifices, communication bans, isolation of patients, and the use of animal and plant products for the protection, prevention, and heal infected ones, whereas the educated were reliant on modern health services. But, currently, the perception of layman Bayso on health/disease has been changing owing to the expansion of modern health services, the decline of their indigenous belief system, and the introduction of Christianity. In essence, because of the decline of their ritual system, they lost their traditional health system. Therefore, documentation of mechanisms of healing, and plant and animal products that had a substantial role in treating illness will have the utmost role in devising a policy that endorses alternative and complementary use of traditional healing mechanisms with the modern one.