In his new book (published by Bloomsbury 2026), Dr. Francis Benyah from Centre of African Studies and Centre for Privacy Studies, University of Copenhagen, investigates and presents empirically grounded cases of persons with mental illness and how they deploy religious resources at prayer camps in Ghana in dealing with their illness. Particularly, the book explores perceived causes of mental illness and how such perceptions influence health seeking behaviours. The book illustrates how the perceived causes of mental illness and the healing practices found at prayer camps in Ghana that are meant to deal with the illness appeal very much to Ghanaians because they resonate with indigenous worldviews.<\/p>\n
Through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of in-depth-interviews with persons afflicted with mental illness and practitioners, this book points out the varied ways in which prayer camps have become a source of authoritative knowledge in Ghana’s medical pluralistic society, serving as an \u201cinformal\u201d health sector in the provision of health care to persons with mental illnesses. It further highlights the network of relationships between prayer camps and hospitals as new ground of training in \u201ccultural competence\u201d for clinicians in their field of practice in psychiatry.<\/p>\n
The book will be debated by\u00a0Professor\u00a0Ana Antic, Head, Centre for Culture and the Mind, University of Copenhagen and\u00a0Professor Ren\u00e9 Rosfort, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen.<\/p>\n
Dr. Francis Ethelbert Kwabena Benyah is Ph.D., and Assistant Professor at the Centre of African Studies and Centre for Privacy Studies at University of Copenhagen. His research primarily centres on the Pentecostal manifestation of African Christianity in Ghana and its intersections with various dimensions of public life, including media, politics, health, and human rights. He is also a research associate at the Institute of Religion and Theology, University of South Africa. Benyah also serves as short reviews editor for African Religions section of the journal Religious Studies Review.<\/p>\n