Religion in the Health of Migrant Communities

Where migration patterns stretch the capacities of health care systems of African countries, religious beliefs, rituals and practices represent vital cultural capital. Religiously motivated or based healing and health-related activities, often with strong local impact, generate "religious health assets" that need much more analysis and understanding-for policy reasons and for development theory and practice. The essay explores some of the conceptual and theoretical frameworks necessary for carrying out a deeper analysis, using a local South African context-the historically black settlement of Imizama Yethu, Hout Bay-as an empirical example of how the key dynamics and processes associated with problems in health care promotion and delivery might impact on the role of religious health assets. This is based on a detailed study of local governance in health care in the area by a Norwegian political scientist, who concludes that the key ingredient, mostly missing, is "trust." The essay defends a religious approach to the issue and outlines the principles of a major project that seeks to explore them in the wider Sub-Saharan African context.