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THE
UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE 1
UNIVERSITE DE YAOUNDE 1
FACULTY OF ARTS LETTERS FACULTE
DES ARTS, LETTRES
AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ET
SCIENCES HUMAINES DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTEMENT
D'ANTHROPLOGIE
ENEMA AND PREGNANCY FROM CONCEPTION TO CHILDBIRTH: CASE
STUDY OF THE MANYU PEOPLE, SOUTH-WEST PROVINCE CAMEROON.
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
AWARD OF A MAÏTRISE (MASTERS) IN MEDICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY.
PRESENTED BY
ARREY ARREYANYOH MARIE-TUDOR
(BA, IN ANTHROPOLOGY)
THE UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE 1
(237)77066625
(237)74521088
arreymt@yahoo.fr
SUPERVISOR
SOCPA ANTOINE (PH.D)
SENIOR LECTURER
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
December 2007
ABSTRACT
This work entitled «enema and pregnancy from conception
to child birth, case study of the Manyu people» has as main objective to
verify how cultural beliefs and altitudes are related to enema during
pregnancy. From the past decade, and even today, maternal mortality has really
been a call for concerned to the public. And because of that, we decided to
carry a study on the subject. To attain our objective, we developed some
objectives which are:
-To verify how beneficial cultural beliefs and attitudes are
related to ene ma during pregnancy.
-To verify how enema is an effective therapy which his both
curative and preventive.
-To asses health benefits of enema to pregnant women in the
Manyu Community.
To achieve our goal the following research questions and
hypotheses were elaborated
-Why do the Manyu people use enema during pregnancy?
-How medically effective is the practice in the process of
disease treatment?
-What is the impact of enema on childbirth and women's
health?
The hypotheses to these questions are
-The Manyu people use enema during pregnancy because of the
perceived positive impact on child birth and women's health.
-The Manyu people use enema as an effective therapy which is
both preventive and curative.
-The practice of enema in the Manyu Community has a positive
impact on childbirth and women's health.
Data collection was from two main sources .The primary and the
secondary source. The primary source was based on the collection of data from
the field with the use of the interview guides and questionnaires. The
secondary source consisted on the consultation of related literature to our
theme of research.
Our findings revealed that enema during pregnancy helps to
reduce complications associated with childbirth. Enema equally acts as a ritual
to ensure the health of pregnant women before and after birth. We equally found
out that enema was not only important to the women of this Community, but also
to the men.
Economically, enema is a source of wealth to the people. This
is because money which was supposed to be spend in the hospital to the health
of the women concern will be invested to TBA in this community.
Therapeuticallly it is a source of health to the people because, it deals with
abstract issues related to the health of the people. In the magico- religious
domain, it acts as a link between the people and their ancestors from whom they
find solutions to their health problems.
However, there were equally weak adherences in the practice of
enema during pregnancy by some people with a higher social status. This is
because they have enough money to spend in the hospital. When a situation of
complication arises they turn back to the traditional treatment. Another reason
came as the result of the fact that not everybody in this society has totems
which affect pregnant women negatively. This therefore account for the mix idea
between those in the Manyu community who practice enema during pregnancy and
the others who do not.
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