Kapopo, the ‘incurable illness’. Structural violence, social suffering and spiritual healers in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The chapter analyses the kapopo, a form of severe dental decay, which in Haut-Katanga province (Democratic Republic of Congo) is often conceived as an incurable illness. The aim of this text is to grasp the reasons why people refuse biomedical treatments when they suffer from kapopo and rather they turn to revivalist pastors and traditional healers. In order to find a viable explanation, the text focuses on two aspects of this issue. Firstly, it considers the structural violence which is embedded in social structure and in people’s everyday life. Secondly, it focuses on the social construction of kapopo within Congolese families. It emerges that, despite revivalist pastors and the various non- medical healing specialists disregard the individuality of the sufferer and its bodily symptoms, the ritual and prophetic therapies they provide give social actors agency, allowing them to cope with standstill situations (like when facing incurable illnesses) and to meaningfully shape the insecure social reality they live in.