A Chinese ‘modern’ device transforming the traditional healers’ practices in Cameroon

Abstract

In the field of health, China's contribution is generally addressed either through its cooperation programmes or by the opening of private clinics by Chinese ‘doctors’. In Yaoundé and Douala, some private practices have been opened and various works have highlighted their role in the dissemination of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Cameroon. Yet the craze for these structures did not last long. Today, while signs of their existence are still visible, many of these firms are closed. China's influence in the health field is, however, far from negligible, but it is taking place in unexpected areas. The circulation of goods and knowledge from China leaves more room for local reappropriation. Indeed, some Cameroonian traditional healers include knowledge from China in their daily practice through the use of ‘machines’ coming from China to ‘purify the body’, to ‘eliminate fat’, to regulate the tension, to ‘stimulate acupuncture points’ or ‘make diagnosis’ (using the quantum analyser or a ‘diagnostic machine’). From direct observations conducted between 2014 and 2021, this article presents the issues at stake for the practice of traditional healers by the modernization of the field through specific therapeutic devices and the quantum analyser coming from China into the health Cameroonian landscape. The paper demonstrates that the performance of the diagnostic machine has less to do with the concrete efficiency of the diagnosis of pathologies than with the dynamics of visibility vis-à-vis patients. The quantum analyser is, therefore, an interesting element revealing the constant process of renewal of medical pluralism in Cameroon, in which China is playing a central role today.