Sick in Africa—the backstory

Tim Cowley first came to Africa to set up home with his young family in 2003. Twelve years later he realized he still didn’t understand many of the most basic elements of how and why his Muslim Yawo friends in the villages straddling the Malawi and Mozambique border make the choices they do when it comes to health care. And so he embarked on a ten-month journey following friends and strangers in and nearby his home village of Chanica attempting his best to peek inside their worldview. He followed them to hospitals private and government, traditional and Chinese and interviewed the sick as well as the many types of health care providers both formal and informal (spiritist, herbalists, “witch doctors”, government staff, untrained purveyors of village injections, Islamic healers and others).

“Sick in Africa”, the documentary series, is a result of that journey. (The first episode fulfilled graduation requirements for his Masters of Arts in Digital Storytelling from Asbury University.)

Tim and his wife now live in Portland, Oregon where he works as Director of Operations for Faithful Friends, a mentoring non-profit. He continues to be involved in media production as a freelancer mostly for non-profit causes.

“Sick in Africa” temporarily follows the lives of several Muslim Yao families living in rural Mozambique as they seek assistance for sick family members. Filming took place during 2015 over a ten-month period. Cultural insiders explain what they believe about illnesses, curses, traditional medicine, western medicine, taboos, reasons why they prefer one type of medical treatment over the other, etc.

Through this series we believe that foreign workers (health care professionals, Peace Corps volunteers, missionaries, etc.) will come to gain a greater understanding of the factors at play in health care navigation. Western medical practitioners working with refugees and immigrants can also broaden their understanding. Rather than treat beliefs as superstition and ignorance, this exploratory journey will raise other issues not often considered. Issues of social inequality between patient and health care worker, poverty, overtaxed systems, non-Western methods that may already be working, spiritual insights, and more.