Perceptions about Epilepsy in the Limpopo Province of the Republic of South Africa

Abstract

In rural African communities, there are widespread beliefs that epilepsy is due to possession of bewitchment by evil spirits or the devil. There is also a belief that the transmission of the disease is by physical contact, such as by saliva (Osuntokun 1990:106). In central Africa, as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa, epilepsy is attributed to the presence of a lizard in the brain, and epileptic fits occur whenever the lizard moves ( Haddock 1993:118 ; Nyame 1997:143 ). Such perceptions toward epilepsy and a person with epilepsy, in indigenous Africa, are invariably unfavourable and unfounded as they reflect mythical beliefs about the disease.