For as long as I can remember, 3 am was the time of drums, a time when the earth seemed to come alive and all I could hear was its heartbeat and its beautiful melody humming in the background. I could feel the vibrations through my windows, like defibrillators, announcing a new day, a new dawn and a new breed of spiritual healers entering the physical world. These were the sounds of ukuthwasa kwezangoma (the ritual training of traditional healers). The unfamiliar healing mechanisms used and how izangoma moved in the world, often scared those who weren’t native to Africa and those who were not privy to the knowledge of their call to heal, so they reverted to what they knew and made evil what they didn’t. They used the law to criminalize and demonize what they didn’t know, creating a generation of African healers afraid to heal and leaving a resilient people fighting for what’s left of their fungi infested spirituality.
The apartheid regime, brought with it many laws that changed the physical appearance of this nation and our land, it brought dignity shattering practices but most often forgotten were the laws that affected African Spirituality. The most prominent of which is The Witchcraft Suppression Act no 3 of 1957, note-worthy is the fact that although not in use after 1994, this Act was only deemed unconstitutional in 2016, almost 22 years after the birth of the new democratic South Africa. The Witchcraft Suppression Act, aimed “to provide for the suppression of the practice of witchcraft and similar practices”. The Act prohibited the use of the services of witches, wizards and witch-doctors, which at that time were synonymous with Izangoma and other types of traditional healers. Provisions such as section 1 provide for the imprisonment of up to 20 years or a fine of up to what is now R400 000 and the whipping of anyone who employs said witches, wizards and witch-doctors and anyone who professes a knowledge of witchcraft. Furthermore, this Act related and deemed all ancestral practices involving traditional healers witchcraft, and this meant that a practising traditional healer stood the risk of being convicted of a crime once accused of witchcraft.
The question of why these traditional healers, couldn’t just prove they weren’t practicing “harmful” witchcraft and be spared of such heinous punishments often arises. However, the Act prohibited the involvement of Traditional healers, chiefs or tribal courts within such matters, therefore the courts which were involved were often uneducated on the complexities of African Spirituality and this was to the detriment of the accused traditional healer. This also made it easier for people to be falsely arrested and imprisoned due to the Act’s ambiguous nature. Some scholars are even of the opinion that the extreme hostility and destructive nature the Act had on African culture and spirituality was the aim of the pre-1994 regime and aided in their mission to terminate all uniquely African habits, customs and lifestyles. Others have argued that it helped prevent witch hunting, murders and crime, but this is often rebutted by the existence of African laws which had already prevented such.
To fully understand the extent of the consequences of tribes either having Traditional healers who were practicing in secret or having traditional healers who were afraid to practice entirely, it is imperative that one understands the connection between African Spirituality and these healers. Traditional African Spirituality holds a strong belief in the eternal and omnipresent spirit of the ancestors, the ancestors are the “living dead” and are important guides and knowledgeable spirits who assist their relatives whilst in the physical world. However, ancestors are not worshipped but rather revered and seen as an extension of God’s hand acting as mediators between the living and God. UNkulunkulu, God, is the supreme being and thus is often not spoken to directly and the ancestors provide a medium of connection. Furthermore, the ancestors, are spoken to via rituals such as ukuphahla, burning impepho and at times through the ritual slaughtering of animals. Traditional Healers and Izangoma enter when there are significant barriers or obstacles in the form of unnatural events and illnesses that occur in someone’s life. This is often attributed to an imbalance in the relations between themselves ,God, ancestors and the universe or someone else’s supernatural intervention and this is when one would consult a traditional healer. Here traditional healers form a channel of direct communication between the living and the living dead and continue to diagnose and treat the imbalance.
The term “traditional healer” encompasses “Sanusi”, specializing in foretelling the future, “Diviners”, specializing in using bones and ancestral spirits to diagnose and prescribe medication for different physiological, psychiatric and spiritual conditions, “traditional surgeons”, who perform surgeries and lastly birth attendants providing the same care as midwives. Each undergo intense training, with an ancestral calling being the first step to this training. This calling usually reveals itself in the form of dreams and visions, and if gone unnoticed or ignored it may end in illness and unfortunate life events. After the Witchcraft Suppression Act was enacted, a large generation of Africans were suddenly ignoring their callings for fear of imprisonment or death and this was to the detriment of themselves and the well-being of their immediate communities.
Although, western medicine is a good mechanism to treat and heal illnesses, this technical and almost impersonal type of treatment is not what is required in most cases relating to illnesses experienced by Africans. This is due to the phenomenon known as “Culture Relativism” which provides that experiences and interpretations of illnesses or misfortune are culture-dependent and not entirely objective. This supports George Kelly’s theory known as “Constructive Alternativisim” which challenges the notion of a single objective reality and states that although said reality exists, it can be constructed, interpreted and understood in different ways. Mokgobi made an example of schizophrenia as a means of understanding this theory. Western medicine views schizophrenia through a biological lens and treats it as a mental illness, however in the world of African spirituality, schizophrenia might be understood as symptoms relating to a spiritual imbalance and require necessary ancestral intervention. Each is correct depending on the patient’s experiences, culture and needs. Thus swapping traditional healers out for medical doctors was not a viable option as the two treated in totally different ways.
Izangoma, as healers and communicators between the living and the living-dead, are the backbones of African societies. They are not only involved in the curing of diseases but they act as custodians of traditional African religion and customs. They are also educators about culture, social workers and at times psychologists. The Witchcraft Suppression Act not only stripped the African Nation of their healers, but it stripped them of their ability to be healed. Through apartheid laws, black people were physically confined onto small plots of land and their spirituality confined onto a small sheet of paper prohibiting them from filling the holes the apartheid regime had left in their spirits.
After many years of suppression, the new democratic South Africa brought a new appreciation for these healers and the Traditional Healers Practice Act was born. From it, regulatory bodies were formed and numerous other organizations. Some health units, specifically in areas where traditional medicine is still prominent, have traditional medicine managers who oversee traditional healing integration into the municipal health system and encourage collaboration between clinics and traditional healers. Although these are healthy strides moving towards a nation accepting of what it once demonized, there is still a long way to go as the stench left by the Witchcraft Suppression Act still follows African spirituality and it has ,oftentimes, been aided by false reports on the news and newspapers.
I do, however, hold the strong belief that we are, with the help of our evolving legal system, moving towards a time when the sounds of the drumbeat will be embraced as not only a celebration of the re-emergence of spiritual healers but as the sound of the resilient heartbeat of the African people. A people who paint songs of freedom all over the world’s bloodied skies. A people who continue to defy the odds, by forming out of cocoons as butterflies when the world had dictated to them a moth-like lightless existence, and a people I am fortunate enough to call my own.
Reference List
I am fortunate to have been able to have used the works below during my research.
Bannister P “REGULATING ‘TRADITION’ SOUTH AFRICAN IZANGOMA AND THE TRADITIONAL HEALTH PRACTITIONERS ACT 2004” 6 July 2021
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23820708.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Afd721622aac24dd653e956f3bfb7a15e
Harnischfeger J “Witchcraft and the State in South Africa” 5 July 2021
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40465864?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Louw G, Duvenhage A “Is the Witchcraft Suppression Act (No 3 of 1957) a medieval throwback to the Dark Ages for South Africans? Think again!” 3 July 2021
Mokgobi M.G “Understanding traditional African healing” 2 July 2021
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651463/
Maluleka R.J “The status of traditional healing in the Limpopo province of South Africa” 2 July 2021
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6103/16370#CIT0014_6103
The Sangoma Society “Why did our parents run away from their ancestral calling?” 6 July 2021
Law In Persons 