Setting the Stage of ‘Ab/normality’ in Rehabilitative Narratives: Rethinking Medicalization of the Disabled African Body

Abstract

This paper draws from social narratives as public 'writings' (Weate, 2003), to explain how Eurocentric approaches to rehabilitation based on medicalization and modernization, that is, on normality/abnormality dichotomies, led, paradoxically, to de-welfarization stories and post-modern legacies that were either detrimental to disabled persons in the continent or justified their recourse to new progressive struggles. It proposes to investigate the various postmodern narratives that emerged in Africa as a direct consequence of this medicalization approach supported by professionals and suggests the need for them to take these developments into consideration in order to optimize their rehabilitation output.

Keywords: medicalization, African body, ab/normality, post-modern narratives, social de-welfarism, rehabilitation