Canadian Social Science
Wellness Syndrome in the Era of Coronavirus in Nigeria
Abstract
There is abroad in Western society a phenomenon known as wellness syndrome. Wellness syndrome is like a moral imperative. The moral aspect is based on biomorality which is anchored on the axiom that a person who feels good (and is happy) is a good person; a person who feels bad is a bad person. It is a moral obligation rather than a choice because people should actively pursue healthy living which means that wellness of the body becomes an imperative command for everybody in the society. In Nigeria with the COVID- 19 pandemic people have embraced wellness syndrome by taking care of their bodies through certain herbal/alternative medicine called concoction. Churches also have joined the train in which some pastors claim they can heal or drive COVID- 19 away through prayers. Native “Babalawo” (Herbalist) have also claimed through incantations they can extirpate coronavirus. The people have bought into all these.
Before COVID- 19, the middle class embraced wellness syndrome by buying all kinds of wellness tablets manufactured in Europe, the United States of America, and Asia - Mason, Nature, Alliance Global, and a myriad of them for the well-being of their bodies. These wellness tablets advertise in their products that they could fortify people in terms of antidote against all kinds of diseases. Most of the people that buy these tablets are middle-class people. Some of them form a sort of group where they are taught about all kinds of healthy living so that they can be physically and mentally healthy. They also engage in physical exercises and the groups meet to be educated about what promotes good healthy living whereby they are told about some particular tablets that could help them to be healthy and be fit so that they are not a burden to themselves and the society in general.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adeeko, A. (2014). Incantation, Ideophone, Reduplication, and Poetry. The Savannah Review, No. 3, May, Ilorin: Kwara State University Press.
Adeniji, D. A. A. (1980). Ofo Rere: Agba Oogun. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
Ang, L., Song, E., Lee, H. W., & Lee, M. S. (2020). Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9, 1583.
Bhaskar, R. (1989). Reclaiming reality. London: Verso.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of a practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cederstrom, C., & Spicer, A. (2015). The wellness syndrome. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Eagleton, T. (1991). Ideology: An introduction. London and New York: Verso Books.
Feyerabend, P. (1975). Against method. London: New Left Books.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.
Fuller, S. (2012). Social epistemology: a quarter-century itinerary. Social Epistemology, 26.
Grimshaw, J. (1996). Philosophy, feminism and universalism, Radical Philosophy, 76.
Gutherie, S. (2000). “On Animism.” Current Anthropology, 41(1).
Gyekye, K. (1995). African technology and culture in a developing country. In Philosophy and Technology, Royal Institute of Philosophy Series no. 38, ed. Roger Fellows, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gyekye, K. (1997). Tradition and modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hallen, B., and Sodipo, J. O. (1997). Knowledge, belief, and witchcraft: Analytical experimentsin African philosophy (2nd ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Haraway, D. (1991). Situated knowledge. In Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. London: Routledge.
Harding, S. (1986). The science question in feminism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Herbrechter, R., Beltran, L. R., Ziemba, P. M., Titt, S., Lashuk, K., Gottemeyer, A., Levermann, J., Hoffmann, K. M., Beltran, M., Hatt, H., Stortkuhl, K. F., Werner, M., & Gisselmann, G. (2020). Effect of 158 herbal remedies on human TRPV1 and the two-pore domain potassium channels KCNK2, 3, and 9. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcme.2020.04.005 accessed 15th July 2020.
Irele, D. (1996). Rationality and essentially contested concepts. Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies. 6.
Jegede, O. J. (1999). Science education in nonwestern cultures: Towards a theory of collateral learning. in what is indigenous knowledge? Voices from the academy (L. M. Semali & J. L. Kincheloe, Eds.). New York: Palmer Press.
Jegede, O. J. (2010). Incantations and herbal cures in IFA divination: emerging issues in indigenous knowledge. Ibadan: African Association for the Study of Religion.
Kellert, S., Longino, H., & Waters, C. K. (2006). Introduction: The pluralist stance. Scientific Pluralism, Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science, 19. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kuhn, T. S. (2012). The structure of scientific revolutions (4th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Le Grange, L. (2004). Western science and indigenous knowledge. South African Journal of Higher Education, 18(3).
Mani, J. S., Johnson, J. B., Steel, J. C., Broszczak, D. A., Neilson, P. M., Walsh, K. B., & Naiker, M. (2020). Natural product-derived phytochemicals as potential agents against coronaviruses: A review. Virus Research.
Odora Hoppers, C. A. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and the integration of knowledge systems: Towards a conceptual and methodological framework. In C. A. Odora Hoppers (Ed.), Indigenous knowledge and integration of knowledge systems: Towards a philosophy of articulation. Claremont: New Africa Books.
Odora Hoppers, C. A. (2005). Culture, indigenous knowledge, and development: The role of the university. Johannesburg: Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD), Occasional Paper No. 5.
Olaoluwa, S. S. (2008). Between magic and logic: Globalization and the challenge of medical collaboration in Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology.
Onwu, G., and Mosimege, M. (2004). Indigenous knowledge system and science and technology education: A dialogue. African Journal of Research in SMT Education, 8(2).
Opefeyitimi, A. (1988). Iwure: Medium of communicating the desires of men to the gods in Yorubaland. Journal of Religion in Africa, 18.
Osunwole, S. A. (1988). Osanyin (Yoruba God of Herbal Medicine): from religion to medicine. African Notes, 22(1/2).
Osunwole, S. A. (1992). Healing by incantation: The Yoruba experience. African Notes, 26(1/2).
Popper, K. (1959). The logic of scientific discovery. Berlin: Julius Springer.
Quine, V. W. O. (1969). Ontological relativity and other essays. New York: Colombia University Press.
Rorty, R. (1979). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rorty, R. (1987). Consequences of pragmatism. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Rorty, R. (1989). Contingency, irony, and solidarity. London: Cambridge University Press.
Scerri, E. (2016). A tale of seven scientists and a new philosophy of science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Seepe, S. (2000). Africanization of knowledge: Exploring mathematical and scientific knowledge embedded in African cultural practices. In P. Higgs, N. C. G. Vakalisa, T. V. Mda, & N. T. Assie-Lumumba (Eds.), African voices in education. Lansdowne: Jutta.
Tambiah, S. J. (1968). The magical power of words. Man New Series, 3(2).
Verger, P. F. (1995). Ewe: The use of plants in Yoruba society. Sao Paulo: Editora Schwarcz LTDA.
Verger, P. F. 1967). Awon Ewe Osanyin: Yoruba medicinal leaves. Ile Ife: Institute of African Studies, University of Ife.
Wiredu, K. (1980). Philosophy and an African culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wiredu, K. (2009). African metaphysics. In J. Kim, E. Sosa, & G. S. Rosenkrantz (Eds.), Blackwell companion to metaphysics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11924
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2020 Canadian Social Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Reminder
- How to do online submission to another Journal?
- If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:
Submission Guidelines for Canadian Social Science
We are currently accepting submissions via email only. The registration and online submission functions have been disabled.
Please send your manuscripts to css@cscanada.net，or css@cscanada.org for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.
Articles published in Canadian Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
Canadian Social Science Editorial Office
Address: 1020 Bouvier Street, Suite 400, Quebec City, Quebec, G2K 0K9, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail:caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net
Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 
