title: Religious views on suicide among the Baganda, Uganda: a qualitative study.
abstract: Relatively little research has been conducted on religion and suicide in Africa, yet religion has a lot of influence on people's way of life in Africa. To study religious views on suicide among the Baganda, Uganda, we used grounded theory and discourse analysis on a total of 28 focus groups and 30 key informant interviews. Suicide is largely seen as a breach of God's doctrine life is sacred, God's commandment thou shall not kill, and God's rule of agape. The study also focuses on the consequences of breaching God's divine providence: punishment from God and the Church. Religion still has a lot of influence on people's views on suicide in Uganda despite the challenges highlighted in the study. A recommendation from these results is that suicide prevention should cater to divergent views on religion and suicide. More qualitative research should be conducted in this area to facilitate theoretical comparison with this study.
authors: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Psychology, Trondheim, Norway. jmmugi77@hotmail.com
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Mugisha
authors: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Social Work and Health Science, Trondheim, Norway.
authors: Heidi
authors: H
authors: Hjelmeland
authors: Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda.
authors: Eugene
authors: E
authors: Kinyanda
authors: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Psychology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors: Birthe Loa
authors: BL
authors: Knizek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death / Q000208:ethnology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012424:Rural Population; D013405:Suicide / Q000208:ethnology*; D014454:Uganda; D014505:Urban Population