The (Re)negotiation of Illness Diagnoses and Responsibility for Child Death in Rural Mali

Kin and community power relationships in rural Mali shape the process of diagnosing a child with a fatal illness. This analysis draws on participant observation and interviews with 298 women in four Fulani and Humbeße communities in the Mopti region. Two folk illnesses regarded as supernaturally caused, foondu (“the bird”) and heendu (“the wind”) were important final diagnoses of the cause of death. The illnesses are regarded as fatal but tend to be diagnosed only after a child has died; thus they are not associated with resignation on the part of kin. The diagnoses tend to exonerate the child's caretakers, and because they are conferred by senior women in a patrilineage, they also reinforce hierarchical power relationships among women. The diagnoses also encourage social support from affines for the woman whose child has died.