Abstract:
This study looks into the African belief about the mystical causes of diseases and the tenets of
Western germ theory. Despite widespread Western medical practices, African people still
strongly believe in the mystical causes of diseases. This reveals that as far as the African
traditional belief is concerned, Western germ theory cannot satisfy the African belief in the
causes of diseases. This is as a result of some of the diseases defying Western healing. The
study adopts a qualitative phenomenological research design and descriptive method for data
analysis. Personal interview forms a primary source of data collection while the secondary
source includes library resources. The study observes that some mystical agents in African
cosmology, such as witches and sorcerers, ogbanje, and breaking of taboos are responsible for
untimely deaths, infliction of diseases to humankind and other related ailments which are
believed to be traditional in nature.
