Omunanamwengu (The Mad One): A Multiple Case Study of Individual and Familial Experiences of Madness Among the Northern Namibian Aawambo

Abstract

To understand mental illness in cultural contexts, research should focus on locally informed concepts of illness and the lived experiences of such conditions. Understanding mental illness, its prevalence, and its influence on people’s lives in Namibia represents one such context where attention to the lived experience of mental illness remains understudied. The purpose of the current study was to build upon ethnographic findings about mental illness as madness ( eemwengu) among the Namibian Aawambo. To that end, a multiple case study design was used to explore the lived experience of being omunanamwengu (the mad one). Data were collected from four cases that were bound by the experience of mental illness. Within each case, the individual experiencing illness ( omunanamwengu), family members, and both omunanamwengu and family members were interviewed formally (via a semi-structured interview protocol) or informally due to participants’ preferences for not being recorded. Using Stake’s suggested approach to multiple-case study cross-case analysis, each individual case is described and cross-case themes (Development and Symptoms of Mental Illness; Marginalization and Omunanamwengu; Family Roles in the Lives of the Distressed and Eemwengu; Belief in Treatment) were identified. Findings are discussed in light of the role of beliefs in treatment as well as family involvement, the potential influence of discrimination on mental illness, and implications for practice and cross-cultural psychology.