Not You: Addiction, Relapse, and Release in Uganda

Area of Science:

• Medical Anthropology
• Global Health
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Alcohol abuse and dependence are significant concerns in Uganda.
• The dominant Western model of addiction as a chronic relapsing brain disease is not universally applied.
• Alternative understandings of addiction are prevalent, particularly within religious and spiritual communities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how Ugandan Pentecostals and spirit mediums conceptualize addiction.
• To investigate the implications of these alternative models for understanding and addressing alcohol dependence.
• To examine the potential for release and recovery offered by these non-biomedical frameworks.

Main Methods:

• Collaborative ethnographic fieldwork.
• Four years of in-depth qualitative research.
• Analysis of cultural idioms related to addiction and recovery (bondage, dedication, possession).

Main Results:

• Addiction is frequently understood as possession or control by an external spiritual entity.
• Pentecostal and spirit mediumship traditions offer distinct moral interpretations of these external influences.
• Idioms of bondage and possession, while severe, contain concepts facilitating release from alcohol dependence.

Conclusions:

• Cultural understandings of addiction in Uganda diverge significantly from the chronic relapsing brain disease model.
• Spiritual and religious frameworks provide alternative pathways to recovery, emphasizing release rather than chronic management.
• These culturally-grounded perspectives offer valuable insights for developing more effective, context-specific interventions for alcohol dependence.