L’ Etre-malade Et L’etre-un-malade Ou Comment Dire La Maladie Dans La Socioculture Bulu : Une Analyse Ethno-anthropologique De La Souffrance En Negro-culture

Abstract

In negro-africans societies, particularly among the Bulu of South-Cameroon, the ill-person has a specific social status which bring him to respect some rules. His family develops some behaviours according to his health status. To be ill in this society means to be a serious impediment for the harmony. Always disturbed by this status the bulu ill-person establish a real difference between to be ill and to be an ill-person. To be ill can be seen as a temporary state, which will be easily solved ; meanwhile, to be an ill-person suggest the permanent state of the illness. This article aims to explain the status of ill-person, by showing that the linguistic uses to talk about illness play an important role.