The way in which they transmit the knowledge will be unique to that person's receptivity and talents. Objective proof is not part of the experiential training. In fact, any attempt at systematic inquiry gets in the way of the process. One has to put cognitive, left-brained intellect aside. Obsession with data obliterates the intuitive. The sangoma or inyanga has a lot to teach the West about the spirit world and our ancestral roots. Science has put us in touch with a magical universe of technology.
To an extent, an informal system of referral already exists between traditional practitioners and doctors. But traditional healers complain that information largely flows in only one direction. It includes training healers in prevention, voluntary counselling and testing, home-based care and antiretroviral therapy. He believes patients listen well to traditional healers.
TB can be easily cured if patients take their medication every day and complete the course. But with the treatment lasting between six and eight months, many drop out. However, an innovative partnership between medical and traditional practitioners helped reduce the spread through a course that trained healers to supervise and record the doses taken by each patient to ensure proper compliance.
The results were quite remarkable. Overall, 89 per cent of those supervised by traditional healers completed treatment, compared with 67 per cent supervised by other volunteers.
Healers welcomed their newfound respect within the medical community. Nyawuza said. Many traditional healers are willing to incorporate standards of Western medicine.
In Zimbabwe, following a massive government campaign to end practices that could facilitate the spread of HIV, healers condemned using a razor blade, needed to cut the skin when medication must be rubbed into the flesh, on more than one person. Luckily — since I have a low threshold for pain — the medication Mr. Masango prescribed for me did not call for any cutting. I keep the bitter-sweet red root he prescribed for headaches next to my Imitrex from GlaxoSmithKline.
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Welcome to the United Nations. Toggle navigation Language:. Africa Renewal. Traditional healers boost primary health care Get monthly e-newsletter. Traditional healers boost primary health care. Reaching patients missed by modern medicine.
From Africa Renewal:. January Itai Madamombe. World Health Organization. Also in this issue. Cover Story. African migration: from tensions to solutions. By Gumisai Mutume. By Ernest Harsch. Not everyone can become a sangoma or inyanga. Healers believe that they are called by the ancestors to take on this important and respected position in society. Traditional healers speak of a sudden unexplained illness they had or they heard voices and saw visions.
Many also talk about very bad headaches that would not go away. Their illnesses would not go away until they listened to the ancestors and went to train as a sangoma or an inyanga. Nomsa Dlamini first trained as a nurse and worked at Baragwanath hospital for 15 years before she was called to be a sangoma.
She started getting terrible headaches and resisted her calling for many years. In my dreams, the ancestors showed me many things - like throwing the bones.
I was learning fast, day and night, nonstop. My training was very traditional. I had to slaughter the goat, drink blood, find hidden things through seeing them in dreams, all those typical things. Campbell Zebra Press, Inyangas are called in a different way. In the old days, an inyanga would look at his family and identify the child who showed the most interest in medicines. Inyangas are sometimes identified through dreams. This person then became an assistant to an inyanga. They were taught which plants and herbs to use for healing.
Training to be a sangoma or an inyanga is very hard work. It is both physically and mentally challenging. Some of the things that trainees have to do include the following:. Isangomas Isangomas are spiritual healers and are often women. They are people who diagnose illness. People often visit the sangoma in family groups but sometimes they go alone. The reason for this is that the sangoma does not see people as inpiduals but rather sees them as part of a community.
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