Esther Clift’s African Blog Series; Part 1 ‘Superstition’

Esther Clift is a Consultant Practitioner Trainee in Frailty with Health Education Wessex. This is the first part of a four part BGS blog series about her time in Africa. She tweets @EstherClift

Evidence of superstition is everywhere in Nairobi. The lampposts are plastered with posters of a certain ‘Doctor’ offering help with relationships, ‘manliness’, and money issues. On payment of a significant sum- starting at about £30, and upwards, various incantations, and ‘luck’ potions are generated and taken. The internet is full of stories of how people’s situations have changed immediately after taking their potions, or using incantations, such as ‘I was immediately able to clinch the deal which had been hanging around for months’, and so on.