Towards a Sociology of Health Discourse in Africa

This book discusses fundamental discourses relating to health in Africa arising out of the consequences of endemic diseases in Africa. It identifies, explains and illustrates the contexts, challenges and efforts to combat these diseases. The book provides a unique comparative analysis of African contexts of health, thereby not ignoring the global contexts of health within which Africa exists. It follows a macro-analytic stance about health in Africa framed around significant/pressing issues. "Discourse of disease" is part of a profound sociological discourse of health in Africa, which provides a framework for students, academics and healthcare practitioners to understand the states of health and healthcare in Africa.

Jimoh Amzat holds a PhD (Sociology with specialization in medical sociology) from University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a joint Master of Bioethics from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; Radboud University, Nijmegen, Holland; and University of Padua, Italy. His major areas of interest include medical sociology, bioethics and social problems. He is a recipient of Erasmus Mundus scholarship (Europe) and Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship (Germany). He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Nigeria. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the University of Bielefeld (Germany) and EHESP School of Public Health, Rennes, France. His research work focuses on the African context of various health issues. Since 2005, Amzat has published books and numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals. His recent book, entitled Medical Sociology in Africa (Springer: 2014), presents core issues in medical sociology with social dimensions of health and illness in Africa.

Oliver Razum, Dr. med, MSc Epidemiology, is full professor and Dean of the School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Germany, where he also heads the Department of Epidemiology & International Public Health. His main research field is social epidemiology with a particular focus on the health of immigrants, and on the role of contextual factors in the production of health inequalities. Before moving into epidemiology, Oliver Razum has worked as district medical officer in Zimbabwe. He has published over 180 scientific papers and numerous book chapters. Recent book publications he co-authored or co-edited are “Global Health: Gesundheit und Gerechtigkeit” (with Hajo Zeeb, Olaf Muller & Albrecht Jahn. Huber, Bern: 2014); “Medical Sociology in Africa” (with Jimoh Amzat. Springer, Cham: 2014); ?Public Health (with Matthias Egger. De Gruyter, Berlin: 2014); and “Handbuch Gesundheitswissenschaften” (with Klaus Hurrelmann. Beltz-Juventa, Weinheim: 2012).