Understanding chronic illness and disability in Tanzania: Why oral histories and cultural consonance matter

Hidden Bodies, Hidden Lives

The stigma of being born with a chronic illness or disability in Tanzania leads to developmental, psychosocial and educational disadvantage. The common practice of hiding chronically ill or disabled children from the outside world gives the illusion that chronic illnesses and disability are not pervasive problems. Grounded in cultural consonance theory, the purpose of my study was to pinpoint which variables in both the social and built environment contribute to developmental, psychosocial and educational attainment for the sample population, and to what degree. I conducted and video-taped 35 oral history interviews with women living with chronic illness and/or disability in order to analyze how variation in childhood experience corresponded with varying levels of developmental, psychosocial and/or educational success

in later life. I found that differences in early childhood social support had the most direct impact on subsequent development and achievement in life. My findings suggest

that interventions aimed at de-stigmatizing the culturally consonant perceptions of chronic sickness and disability by increasing visibility of non-normative bodies is necessary in order to positively impact developmental, psychosocial and educational attainment among those living with chronic illness or disability in Tanzania. For an intervention to be effective, it must surpass the obvious goal of proving care to those with chronic illness/disability. A successful intervention would have two co-dependent goals: (1) to change the perception of non-normative bodies, by (2) interrupting the circuitous logic that bodies that are hidden do not exist.