Kansa talk: mapping cancer terminologies in Bagamoyo, Tanzania towards dignity-based practice

Abstract

This paper reports and examines the results of qualitative research on the use of local cancer terminology in urban Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Following recent calls to unify evidence and dignity-based practices in global health, this research locates local medical sociolinguistics as a key place of entry into creating epistemologically autonomous public health practices. We used semistructured ethnographic interviews to reveal both the contextual and broader patterns related to use of local cancer terminologies among residents of Dunda Ward in urban Bagamoyo. Our findings suggest that people in Bagamoyo employ diverse terms to describe and make meanings about cancer that do not neatly fit with biomedical paradigms. This research not only opens further investigation about how ordinary people speak and make sense of the emerging cancer epidemic in places like Tanzania, but also is a window into otherwise conceptualisations of 'intervention' onto people in formerly colonised regions to improve a health situation. We argue that adapting biomedical concepts into local sociolinguistic and knowledge structures is an essential task in creating dignity-based, evidence-informed practices in global health.

Keywords: Cancer; Health education and promotion; Qualitative study.