Africa, the cradle of humankind, boasts a rich cultural heritage where traditional healing practices are deeply embedded. These practices, passed down through generations, encompass a holistic approach to healthcare, addressing physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being.
A traditional healer in Zimbabwe. Source: Wikipedia
Traditional African Medicine
Traditional African medicine is one of the oldest forms of folk medicine, utilizing local traditions to provide medical care. It involves herbs, spirituality, and divination to cure ailments. Health practices are based on ethnic and religious beliefs passed down through generations.
Remedies often have spiritual or symbolic significance, as illness is thought to stem from spiritual imbalances. Traditional medicine seeks to treat not only the body but also the patient’s mind and spirituality.
In Africa, more than 80% of the population relies on traditional medicine as their primary healthcare. Many only have access to traditional practitioners, especially in rural areas, and cost is a significant factor, as Western pharmaceuticals may be too expensive.
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Historical Background
Evidence of traditional African medicine dates back to the Stone Age. Before European colonization, it was the only available healthcare. Tribes used herbs and other local resources to provide cures passed down orally.
Traditional African religions relied on animism, ancestor veneration, and spiritual practices, which were integrated into medical treatment. There was little separation between curing an illness and practicing religion.
In the 19th century, some aspects of traditional medicine were outlawed by European colonizers, and Christianity was introduced, often contrasting with the spirituality-based diagnoses and healings of traditional medicine.
After some countries gained independence in the 20th century, efforts were made to regulate traditional medicine, and this process continues today. However, regulation is difficult to implement on a broad scale.
Practitioners of Traditional Healing
Each culture has its own terminology for traditional healers. Within the Nguni, Sotho, and Tsonga societies of Southern Africa, there are two main types of traditional healers: the diviner (sangoma) and the herbalist (inyanga).
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- Sangoma: Primarily relies on divination for healing purposes and might also be considered a type of fortune teller.
- Inyanga: Concerned mainly with medicines made from plants and animals.
The term sangoma is often used colloquially in South Africa for equivalent professions in other Bantu cultures in Southern Africa. Forms of the ngoma ritual are practiced throughout southern and south-eastern Africa in countries such as South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Kenya, and Botswana.
A Sangoma in traditional attire. Source: YouTube
Training to Become a Healer
Both men and women can become traditional healers. A trainee sangoma (or ithwasane) trains formally under another sangoma for a period of anywhere between a number of months and many years.
During the training period the healer in training will share their ailments in the form of song and dance, a process that is nurtured by the analysis of dreams, anxieties, and with prayer. At times in the training, and for the graduation, a ritual sacrifice of an animal is required to be performed (usually chickens and a goat or cow).
At the end of the training, to signify the start of initiation, a female goat is slaughtered during the early hours of the morning and the next day chickens will be sacrificed next to a river before a second large animal is slaughtered.
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All these sacrifices are to call to the ancestors and appease them. The local community, friends and family are all invited to the initiation to witness and celebrate the completion of training.
The trainee is tested by the local elder sangomas to determine whether they have the skills and insight necessary to heal. The climactic initiation test is to ensure the trainee has the ability to "see" things hidden from view.
The Role of Ancestral Spirits
Ancestral spirits can be the personal ancestors of the sangoma or the patient, or they might be general ancestors associated with the geographic area or the community. It is believed that the spirits have the power to intervene in people's lives who work to connect the sangoma to the spirits that are acting in a manner to cause affliction.
For example, a crab could be invoked as a mediator between the human world and the world of spirits because of its ability to move between the world of the land and the sea.
Helping and harming spirits are believed to use the human body as a battleground for their own conflicts. A sangoma's goal in healing is to establish a balanced and harmless relationship between the afflicted patient and the spirits that are causing their illness or problem.
The healer intercedes between the patient and the world of the dead in order to make restitution. This is generally performed through divination (throwing the bones or ancestral channelling), purification rituals, or animal sacrifice to appease the spirits through the atonement.
Throwing bones to access the advice of ancestors is an alternative practice to the relatively exhausting ritual of possession by the ancestor.
In a typical session, a patient will visit the sangoma, and the sangoma must determine what the affliction is or the reason the patient has come to them for help. Before the throwing of the bones, the healer should first ask for the name and surname of the patient; the healer then calls the ancestors by names, starting with their initiators' names, then their own, followed by the patient's ancestor's names.
The patient or diviner throws bones on the floor, which may include animal vertebrae, dominoes, dice, coins, shells and stones, each with a specific significance to human life. The sangoma or patient may physically throw the bones, but the ancestors control how they land.
When the diviner comes to an acceptable understanding of the problem and the patient agrees, the diviner then throws the bones again to ask the ancestors if they could help the patient.
In traditional South African healing, the physical, spiri...
The Use of Muthi
The spiritually curative medicines prescribed by a traditional healer are called muthi. They may be employed in healing as warranted in the opinion of the herbal specialist or inyanga. African traditional medicine makes extensive use of botanical products but the medicine prescribed by an inyanga may also include other formulations which are zoological or mineral in composition.
Bapedi traditional healers use 36 plant species to manage reproductive health problems. These medicinal species are distributed among 35 genera and 20 families.
Muthi is prepared, and depending on the affliction, a number of purification practices can be administered. Abstinence and fasting are important things to do in preparing muthi and healing.
Methods of Administration
- Steaming (futha): Medicinal herbs are commonly inhaled by steaming them in a bucket of boiling water.
- Nasally: A variety of plants can be taken dried and powdered as snuff.
- Enemas: Infusions and some decoctions are commonly administered as enemas.
An experienced inyanga/sangoma will generally seek the guidance of an ancestral spirit before embarking to find and collect muthi. Healers pay attention to dreams and prayers for ancestral advice on auspicious time to collect plants, which particular plants to collect and where these plants are located.
Traditional African Religion and Healing
Traditional African healing has been in existence for many centuries yet many people still seem not to understand how it relates to God and religion/spirituality. Some people seem to believe that traditional healers worship the ancestors and not God.
It is therefore the aim of this paper to clarify this relationship by discussing a chain of communication between the worshipers and the Almighty God. Other aspects of traditional healing namely types of traditional healers, training of traditional healers as well as the role of traditional healers in their communities are discussed.
The colonial authorities and subsequently the apartheid government imposed a Western worldview on the people of South Africa without an attempt to determine the validity of the African worldview on issues such as traditional African healing and traditional African religion/spirituality, which are in most cases mutually interwoven.
Africans believed and continue to believe in the eternal and ubiquitous spirit of the ancestors and the Almighty God. The ancestors are called by different names depending on one’s ethnic origins. The Bapedi, Batswana, and Basotho call them ‘badimo’.
The ancestors are the ‘living-dead’, compassionate spirits who are blood-related to the people who believe in them. The ancestors continue to show an interest in the daily lives of the relatives that are still alive. They are superior to the living and include, amongst others, departed/deceased parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles.
These spirits, because they have crossed over to the other side of life, act as mediators between the living and God. This way of life is regarded as ancestor reverence, veneration or remembering and not as ancestor worship.
The word ‘worship’, when referring to communication between Africans and the ancestors, is therefore inappropriate since the ancestors are not worshipped but remembered and revered by their relatives.
Contemporary Relevance and Challenges
Sangomas are legally recognised in South Africa as "traditional health practitioners", under the Traditional Health Practitioners Act of 2007 (Act. 22 of 2007) as diviners alongside herbalists, traditional birth attendants, and traditional surgeons.
While there are recorded instances of white sangomas before 1994, since 1994 an increasing number of white people have openly trained as sangomas in South Africa. The question of authenticity is still an ongoing discussion.
The formal health sector has shown continued interest in the role of sangomas and the efficacy of their herbal remedies. In the past decade, the role of traditional healers has become important in fighting the impact of HIV and treating people infected with the virus before they advance to a point where they require (or can obtain) anti-retroviral drugs.
While many traditional healers positively contribute toward the healing process, the industry has been exploited for financial gain by charlatans who have not undergone training, sometimes called plastic shamans.
Dr Motlalepula Matsabisa, director of the Medical Research Council's Indigenous Knowledge Unit, says there appears to be many fake traditional healers around, however because of a lack of regulation, they go unchecked and explains that if anyone can bring about good luck and predict lotto numbers, they would not be poor themselves.
Traditional Healing Methods
Traditional healing practices often include rituals, ceremonies, and spiritual interventions to address the root causes of a person’s ailment. Sangomas and other traditional healers use divination tools, such as bones, shells, or stones, to communicate with ancestors and spirits in order to gain insights into the patient’s condition.
Massage and bodywork have long been utilized in African cultures as therapeutic practices to promote healing. Traditional techniques such as Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, Moroccan hammams, and Ghanaian shea butter massages are not only relaxing but also have holistic benefits for the body and mind.
In many African cultures, music, dance, and drumming are integral to healing rituals and ceremonies. The rhythmic beats and movements are believed to induce trance-like states and alter consciousness, allowing individuals to connect with their inner selves and release emotional blockages.
Examples of Traditional Healing Methods
| Method | Description | Cultural Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Divination | Using bones, shells, or stones to communicate with ancestors. | Gaining insights into the patient's condition. |
| Massage and Bodywork | Traditional techniques like Ethiopian coffee ceremonies and Ghanaian shea butter massages. | Promoting holistic benefits for the body and mind. |
| Music and Dance | Integral to healing rituals and ceremonies. | Inducing trance-like states and releasing emotional blockages. |
The traditions of healing and medicine in African cultures are deeply rooted in ancient wisdom and continue to play a vital role in the lives of many Africans today. The use of indigenous plants, rituals, massage techniques, and music therapy all contribute to a holistic approach to healthcare.
While modern medicine has become more prominent, African traditional healing practices serve as a reminder of the importance of physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being.
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