Most of these experiences are from the perspective of an outside observer some are of one who has an empathic interest in the people she considers friends but at least one brings home a parent’s worst fear: the fear of losing a child.Īs an ethnography, Dancing Skeletons was not what I expected. Dettwyler is faced with each of these health problems and more as she narrates her experiences in observing their cause and effect.
In her book, Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa (1994), Katherine A. Schistosomes affect about 200 million people worldwide and the eggs produced by the worms that grow in the blood vessels of the host are passed to the bladder and intestines and can cause blood in urine and stool (CDC 2004). The parasite leaves the snail and enters a human host wading in the water by burrowing into the skin of feet and legs. Schistosomiasis is a tropical parasite, abundant in Africa, and transmitted to humans after being hosted in larval form by freshwater snails (Morgan et al 2001). Also in Bamako, in 1998, nearly half of all children were infected with schstosomiasis (Clerq et al) and in rural Mali, the rate was as over half of the children between 7-14 years of age in some areas (Traore et al 1998). Malaria occurs most among the youngest children (Dicko et al 2005) and is responsible for over 33% of all fever sympotoms during the rainy season in Bamako, Mali. In the West African nation of Mali alone, the risks to children include not only the same risks as the rest of the world: accidents, cancers, homicides, etc., but also malaria, schistosomiasis, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and other infections diseases and conditions unique to the tropical and largely rural regions of the world. In West Africa, however, that number becomes 172 children out of 1000! For a parent, this figure isn’t just sobering, it’s staggering to consider and it’s the highest child mortality rate in the world.
On average, about 17 children out of 1000 under the age of 7 dies in the world each year (El-Ghannam 2003) because of malnutrition, homicide, wars, drowning, car accidents, what have you -a sobering statistic for any loving parent.
Publisher: Waveland Press, Long Grove, IL Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa
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