Mental Illness in the White and Bantu Populations of the Republic of South Africa

Cultural differences affect the incidence and mode of treatment of mental disorder among the two major populations of the Republic of South Africa—white and Bantu. Increasing Westernization of the Bantu tends to narrow the differences in mental illness between the two groups.

Private treatment is available primarily to the white population; the Bantu are treated in state institutions and by medicine men. Bantu men are more likely to be treated in state hospitals than are Bantu women, since movement to urban centers where psychiatric facilities exist is more prevalent among men. Trends toward detribalization and urbanization among the Bantu have increased the incidence of mental illness. Thus there is need to improve and extend psychiatric services for them.