KEY WORDS: AFRICAN INDIGENOUS HEALTH; AFRICAN PEOPLES OF THE DIASPORA; WESTERN MEDICINE; ILLNESS; SPIRITUALITY

In examining the production of knowledge in the health systems in Western and non-Western societies, this paper argues that scientific knowledge in Western medicine serves to foster and sustain the marginalization of ‘African indigenous ’ health knowledges. Using conceptualisations of illness, symptom presentation and help-seeking among African peoples of the diaspora, the paper argues that the epistemological terrain upon which both indigenous and Western health professionals traverse is not level, resulting in a hierarchy of knowledge, as well as superficial dichotomies between the indigenous and Western health approaches that obscure opportunities for alliances at the epistemological crossroads. The paper concludes with a discussion on opportunities for forging alliances between both health systems. The notion that physical and mental illness are conceptualised and experienced similarly throughout the world is one of the many erroneous assumptions made about culturally diverse peoples around the world by some health practitioners working within Wester