Mental illness in ancient West Africa never had the same significance it has in modern cultures. Those who were mentally ill were not isolated or excluded from the family. Some mentally ill people were housed in a different part of the compound while they underwent treatment from medicine men, but they frequently came to the main house at mealtimes. Because mental illness was considered the gods' revenge for an act of "evil," treatment involved making sacrifices to the gods and the ancestors, which in many cases involved slaughtering goats, chickens, and other domestic animals. In cases where mental illness continued or recurred throughout a person's life, the family often began to overlook the affliction and to reintegrate the individual into the family.

Sources: Robert H. Nassau, "Fetishism in West Africa," West African Mail, 12 Augustl904.

Kay Williamson, "Changes in...