[Sociocultural aspects of rheumatological practices in Sub-Saharan Africa]

Conceived by the patient as the result of a surnatural origin, rheumatism, as most diseases in Black Africa, justifies the consultation of a witch or a quack. This consultation occurring upstream or downstream that of the modern physician aims to determine the exact cause of the disease in order to prescribe a suitable treatment. The recourse to traditional medicine is far from being influenced by the level of instruction of the patient. It occurs frequently during rheumatic diseases of which the symptomatology is dominated by pain and the physiopathology often obscure. The patient while looking for a solution to his problem does not act alone. He must take notice of the advice and requirements of his family of which he constitutes an indissociable element. The theory of humours is still present in the minds and is expressed by the recourse to purgative and vomitive drugs and to bloodletting. Thus by some of its conceptual and practical features, traditional African medicine reminds that which had prevailed in the west before the scientific and technical discoveries or the 19th century.