Disease and Deprivation: Care, Medical Pluralism, and Healthcare Experiences of Diabetes Patients in Liberia

Equal access to healthcare continues to be a problem across the globe, with people from colonized nations suffering at an even higher rate. Infrastructures and healthcare resources’ limitations in developing nations like Liberia continue to limit how much care citizens, especially low income people can receive for their illnesses. This thesis combines ethnographic fieldwork, history, and quantitative data analysis to describe the issues of access to healthcare in Liberia and the circumstances that have shaped Liberia’s inability to provide adequate care for its citizens. The analysis in this thesis is rooted in weeks long in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals, herbalists, and constant visitation at the Liberian Government Hospital (also called Buchanan Government Hospital) in Grand Bassa County, the Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA) Hospital in Montserrado County, Phebe Hospital and Gonkpah Memorial Clinic in Bong County. By coining the term apostereopolitics, I argue that deprivation in care resources within Liberia has been shaped by a combination of historical, social, environmental, structural, economical, and political forces; hence, providing holistic care will require not leaving any of these forces behind. Lastly, I illuminate experiences of surviving from a disease through patients and healers strategies of improvisations and community building that show up when a healthcare system isn’t capable of caring for its people, specifically people with diabetes.