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SYNOPSIS (EPISODE 1)
BERNAD’S STORY – I THOUGHT I WAS BEWITCHED

In much of Africa, the question for many sick people is not what made them sick, but who. Bernad’s journey for healing and answers takes us into the minds, worldviews and healing pathways for Yawo Muslims living near the small border town of Mandimba in northern Mozambique.

STRUCTURE

“Sick in Africa” will follow the lives of several Muslim Yao families living in rural Mozambique as they seek assistance for sick family members. The first episode in the documentary series focuses on an elderly man named Bernad while other episodes will introduce us to a variety of others with similar stories of illness and fear. During the course of these films other knowledgable Yawo people will explain what they believe about illnesses, taboos, reasons why they prefer one type of medical treatment over the other, etc.

The following themes will be explored:

• Taboos: pregnancy/post-birth sexual taboos

• The spirit world’s involvement in illness

• Curses: what are common reasons for curses?, how can curses be reversed?

• Traditional medicine: What types of healers exist? Where is medicine to be found? How did these healers find their calling?

• Western medicine: Where is it offered?, What do people feel about going to the clinic/hospital?, What are the reasons for not going to the clinic/hospital?

INTERVIEW SUBJECTS

Main characters

• Bernad, an elderly Yawo man living with his family in a typical village near the border town of Mandimba in Niassa Province, Mozambique. His journey to healing and answers typifies millions of African living day to day on the edge of survival but within reach of basic health services.

Cultural advisors

• Sergio, a young Yawo man who lives with his wife and child in the border town of Mandimba in Niassa Province, Mozambique.

• Candulu is another young Yawo man with one wife and child but represents a more rural existence, set about 15KM away from town. His life centers more on farming as he grows tobacco and his world is more focused on simple village life.

• Health care providers

• Traditional Yawo health professionals which include traditional healers (known also as herbalists or witch doctors), religious charms makers, purveyors of cures through injections, etc.

• Western-style health care providers which include hospital employees or management and extension workers connected to the government system (mostly from  other tribes but will include some Yao)

OUTCOMES

• Governments & Health Care Providers: Based on the findings of this film process, what can governments learn about local beliefs in terms of treatment and access to health care?

• Foreign Workers: Through issues raised in this film, a greater understanding will come to those who come to Africa for volunteer or other work purposes. Rather than treat beliefs as “hocus pocus” and assume anything that doesn’t end at the hospital is superstitious, 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.

TIMELINE

2016

• July — first installment in series released

• April 6 — Bernad dies

• March 10 — trailer uploaded to YouTube

• January — principal filming ended

2015

• July 30 — guest blog post for Community Health Global Network

• April — principal filming began

• January — GoFundMe crowdfunding page started

EPISODE 1 VIEWER COMMENTS

“This is terrific and should be viewed by every medical, pharmacy and laboratory science student training at the College of Medicine in Blantyre… It illustrates so many of the problems health care professionals have to overcome. I could use it here in UK too.” –Mike Berry, former HOD Pharmacy DeptCOM Blantyre, 7/28/16 

“This story mirrors so many that we encountered in Mozambique and Tim’s film shows so many of the different challenges of health care in Moz from a lack of education, to equipment with instructions in Italian, to the tensions between traditional healers, witchcraft and medicine. If you want to understand more about what we’ve been experiencing over the last couple of years or simply wish to feel more grateful for the NHS (or other health services for non British friends) please have a watch.” –Joanne Beale, British volunteer in Mozambique, 7/29/16

“No words. Beautifully done.” –Spring Becker, 8/5/2016

“…What an amazing job. I know I’ve never been to Africa, but something about your camera work and lack of narration (using only subtitles) gave me the feeling of being transported away to a place I’d never visited. Something else funny–when Bernad gets his diagnosis and says essentially ‘I’m just a poor farmer! I knew nobody would try to curse me!’ I had a brief vision of my own grandfather, who would say something very similar. I found it fascinating because in that instant skin color, cultural differences, language barriers just faded away and I was left looking at a man who could have been my grandfather facing the human condition…” –C.R. Oldham, 7/27/2016

“This is beautiful and poignant and sad….but completely well done!” –Gwenda Cowley, 7/26/2016

“Great ethnographic film about health challenges in rural Mozambique.” –Dr. Alan Thorold, anthropologist, 8/8/2016

“Brilliant work…brought a tear or three to the eyes! Check out this documentary people!” –Tobias Houston, 7/26/2016

“…you’ve done a brilliant job at capturing the complexities and despair around healthcare out here. Make sure you watch this y’all…” –Cam Beeck, 7/26/2016

This is a powerful story and a very sad one. Bernad faced so many obstacles as he sought meaningful health care. Some of the obstacles were cultural, yet many of these obstacles were beyond Bernad’s ability to navigate. My hope is that many people will watch this film and absorb the story behind the story of what reality is like for so many individuals – living and dying – in Africa every day.” –Connie Wragge, 8/2016

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

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.

Tim now lives with his family of 6 in Portland, Oregon where he works with a local non-profit matching volunteer mentors with children.