Abstract
Africans, especially the Senegalese, have been the largest visible immigrant group in the United States (US) over the last 30 years. The cultural understanding necessary for effectively providing for their mental and other health needs is limited. This article involves a first-person phenomenographic (Marton 1986) account of an investigation of the Senegalese system of mental health care at its roots in Dakar, Senegal. Thick description (Geertz 1973) is pursued, with appropriate attention to details of ethnographic fieldwork. The knowledge obtained provides a basis for understanding mental health needs and expectations of Senegalese immigrants in the United States, and implications for counseling are considered.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded partly by the University of Florida International Center program, Internationalizing the Curriculum. The author is especially indebted to Papa Aly Ndaw, of New York and Dakar, for his help in arranging interviews in Dakar, Senegal, and for reviewing earlier drafts of this manuscript. He is also grateful to Senegalese psychiatrists Drs. Momar Gueye and Aïda Sylla, Maguette Mbengue and his aunt Arame, and Professor Ousmane Sene, of the West African Research Center. Without these collaborators, this work would not have been possible.
This article is dedicated to Arame, Chief Priestess of N’Deup. She passed away in January 2010.
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Conwill, W.L. N’Deup and Mental Health: Implications for Treating Senegalese Immigrants in the US. Int J Adv Counselling 32, 202–213 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-010-9101-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-010-9101-5