Full Description
The intersections between arts, creativity and health are of significant importance in the humanities and social sciences. Arts and health research, for example, suggests that the arts offer participatory and transformational alternatives to traditional health communication. However, concepts and methods are predominantly informed by Global North research, and critical insights from arts traditions elsewhere remain to be fully integrated into common models. Ghana offers a unique case study for examining local and global dynamics in arts-based health communication, because of the country's rich art traditions as well as its place in global history and in the global imagination. Healing art forms like music and sculpture have evolved through intentional cross-cultural borrowings, as well as through changes imposed through slavery, colonialism and post-colonial political systems. Selling Healing tells a polyvocal story of how Ghanaian art forms intersect with health, illness and healing, inviting a re-imagining of health communication in global health.
Contents
List of figures, tables and boxes; Abbreviations; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: 'the gods may be considered patrons of the arts'; 2. If you sell your sickness you get a cure; 3. Mr wise and Mr foolish go to town; 4. All die (no) be die; 5. Food is medicine, food is poison; 6. Out of your mind; 7. We cannot eat stories; 8. Colonial virus; 9. Conclusions: "In Ghana here, you have to be creative to move ahead"; Appendix 1: map of Ghana, showing selected sites of arts-based health interventions; Appendix 2: interviews; Appendix 3: selected art forms: mural, songs, adverts, comedy sketches; References; Index.
