African American Folk Healing

May 14, 2007
M
itchem, who teaches religious studies at the University of South Carolina, explores folk healing as a “faith expression” in black communities. While she includes some of the remedies used by African-Americans (e.g., to lower your blood pressure, put Spanish moss in your drink), her research goes far beyond collecting cures. Indeed, Mitchem argues that for African-Americans healing practices are part of a larger system of meaning, one that is sometimes in conflict with institutionalized medicine. Black folk healing has persisted in part because a racist society has long denied adequate care to black people—folk healing, Mitchem persuasively argues, allows African-Americans agency “in defining their own bodies, exerting some control over life.” But even when African-Americans can find equitable medical care, folk practices will persist because they are life-giving and because they holistically address physical, economic and spiritual needs. Mitchem could have offered a more robust analysis of the commodification of folk medicine—she notes that a Detroit “Hoodoo 101” class cost $75, but fails to adequately probe the meeting of folk medicine and the marketplace. That omission is a minor flaw in a fascinating study that makes a real contribution to discussions of health, wellness and faith in America.