Africa Is a Country

Snake Oil

Snake Oil

By
Sean Jacobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKOwDQcPwbs

Selling desperate people false hope, especially AIDS patients, are common on the African continent–well documented in my native country, South Africa–now there’s this “faith healer” in Tanzania who has people in East Africa traveling thousands of miles for a homebrewed drink that he claims can cure AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and other “incurable diseases.” There’s no evidence it does. The report above is by Kenya’s private NTV network. Above is Part One of the NTV report; below is Part Two.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c03FulCf6LY

There’s also Jeffrey Gettleman’s report in The New York Times which reveals the “healer” even has a Facebook page.

Further Reading

Writing while black

The film adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel ‘Erasure’ leaves little room to explore Black middle-class complicity in commodifying the traumas of Black working-class lives.

The Mogadishu analogy

In Gaza and Haiti, the specter of another Mogadishu is being raised to alert on-lookers and policymakers of unfolding tragedies. But we have to be careful when making comparisons.

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.