When Conventional Medicine Fails: Bori and Olokun Ritual Dance as Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for Nigerian Armed Forces

Abstract

This article attempts a conceptualisation of African ritual dance therapy (ARDT) as a distinct form and practice of dance movement therapy (DMT). We argue that Bori and Olokun dances, two of Nigeria’s most potent ritual dances, possess therapeutic elements that bear on the treatment of combatants of the Nigerian armed forces currently engaged in a theatre of war against terrorism and banditry in Nigeria. Our argument is premised on the discovery that military hospitals in Nigeria is currently over-stretched with about 57% of the military and paramilitary personnel (participants) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) resulting from their encounters with terrorists’ cells and bandits. We argue against the institutional frame that sanctions the normalization of conventional medical practice as well as medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of men of the armed forces faced with PTSD. We use ARDT dance ethnography as a theoretical premise to contend that African ritual dance therapy (ARDT) offers an alternative curation for the men of the Nigerian Armed Forces. We use the research instrumentations of focus group discussion and ARDT workshop sessions to get data from 12 para/military participants. We found out that the Bori and Olokun ARDT convey diverse spirit-restorative medicaments that can serve the Nigerian Armed Forces.