Traditional healing

Since several of our students are pre-med, and all of our students are as interested as we are in other practices and approaches to healing, Jim and I asked early in the semester if there was a chance we could meet and learn from an African traditional healer.  Nuala Jensen who supports our short program here, and whose vocabulary does not contain the word "no", took up the quest.  Interestingly, she found a woman in her own neighborhood with a sign in her window stating she was a traditional healer.  Nuala knocked on her door, and asked if we could come and visit her.

So, this morning (Thursday, March 22) Mark, Beth, Jim and I drove off to the home of Nokathula (I'll use her first name only) to see if she would be interesting for the students to meet.  Interesting is too mild of a word ---- she was mind-blowing.  She didn't speak much at all of healing herbs, but spoke more about what it was like to be personally called to be a sangoma.   She also summoned at least two of her ancestors, and spoke to us in their voices.  (She was in a trancelike state; her sister interpreted.)

I should back up and give you an extract from the book Sizwe's Test that Jim will be using in his Intercultural Class.  This verbatim excerpt introduces some of the language of traditional healing -

"An inyanga is an herbalist, but has no clairvoyance, only a deep knowledge of the medicinal properties of herbs and plants.

Sangoma is the Zulu word for diviner-healer, but is used throughout South Africa in all of its languages.  A sangoma is the interface between living people and their ancestors.  Through communication with her spirit-guide, she interprets the cause of illness where the cause is either ancestral displeasure or witchcraft.  (Igqira is the Xhosa word for diviner-healer.) 

Instructing us...

 Muthi lietrally means "tree" in Zulu, but the proximate English translation is "medicine."  Muthi are medicines use to protect people from occult attack...  Muthi has also made its way into the colloquial English and Afrikaans spoken by white South Africans; here it refers to allopathic medicines."

Nokathula is a Sangoma.  She fell ill when she was 15.  She said that during that time she consulted with a lot of medical doctors, with no cure in sight.  Then, she had a dream.

Her ancestors came to her and told her she had a calling to be a sangoma.  She had to leave home and go learn from another sangoma.   But, she says her true guide was her spirit-guide who helped her heal.

Ancestral-directed dance

Speaking in one voice...

...before speaking in a grandfather's voice.

She spoke to us of the three different ceremonies that a sangoma must go through.  The first one is held at a spot selected by a sangoma with whom you are training -- and four chickens must be sacrificed.  One red (to summon all ancestors), one black and white (to summon specific male ancestors), one brown (to summon specific female ancestors), and one white (to summon God).  The second ceremony involves a goat that is hidden.   The sangoma-in-training must be able to tell those who hid the goat what colors are on it, where it is hidden, and then go find it before she/he can move on to the third ceremony.  The third ceremony involves a sacrifice of a cow.  We didn't hear much about this ceremony, but only after it do you become a sangoma.  You receive a certificate, but more importantly, you are issued an itshoba - which is a long staff that contains at its top the tail of your cow.  This, more than the diploma, signifies that you are a sangoma.   You can sometimes heal illnesses of others after that (in part because you are directed to the right plants and herbs), as well as foretell the future.

Most of the time while there, I wondered how much fun she was having at our expense.  But, then, she ended with one thing that set me back.  She said that one of the "lies" told about African healing is that it is "witchcraft" - that she doesn't believe in God.  She says that is not true.  She says, "I am a Methodist.  I start every ceremony by talking first to God.  I believe the ceremonies are used to honor our ancestors and remember them.  And, since they have passed on, they are closer to God.  So I ask them to pray for us."  Sounds more familiar now, doesn't it?

On the way home, Jim, Mark, and I all admitted we were thinking about our parents a lot during the time with her (and Aunt Harriet, too!)