Ebola and the Myth of Africans Not Trusting Doctors

A narrative being promoted by Western media about the current Ebola outbreak in Africa is that part of the reason the virus is spreading is that Africans do not trust doctors. The reasons why those affected by this virus do not trust doctors are often not stated. However, the immediate reason why those affected by this virus do not trust doctors is that most of those who go for treatment at the medical centers now set up in various places in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea do not come out alive. Any rational person would regard with distrust any place were sick people go for healing but do not come out alive. A broader context to place this distrust of Western doctors, however, is the exploitative relation that often exists when the West comes into contact with Africa. This exploitative relation has often bred distrust even when people from Europe and America think that they have come to Africa to do good. Having lived in the West for a long time, I am myself not often quite trusted when I go back to Cameroon. This is especially the case when I take pictures of people and things. People often wonder about the kind of narrative I would weave with those pictures when I return to America. This historical distrust between Africa and the West has led to situations where medicine that might be helpful is sometimes rejected. In Nigerian, for example, polio vaccine was rejected by some because they believed that it was a Western ploy to sterilize Nigerians. This distrust is however not unfounded. It is only recently that President Barack Obama announced that the United States' CIA would no long use medical missions to spy on other countries. Whether this would be the case or not is not known. This distrust of the West has led communities suffering from Ebola to see Western medicine as somehow carrier of the virus. This distrust is therefore not irrational as some media reports in the United States seem to want to make it.

Simply saying that people who are affected by Ebola distrust doctors does not quite state the truth of the matter. If these people distrusted doctors, they would not be going to traditional healers in the community to seek help when they fall ill. They trust doctors but the ones who have currently set up medical posts in these localities still have to do more to merit the trust of the people.