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The Transmission of Knowledge in South African Traditional Healing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Robert Thornton
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Abstract

‘Traditional healers’ (sangomas) in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, are organized into ‘schools’ around a senior teacher (gobela). Healing is understood by its practioners to be a profession, not a religion or even a spiritual exercise. Healers actively assess the effectiveness of their healing methods, transmit their knowledge to each other, and evaluate each others’ performances in ways that stray far from the mere transmission of ‘tradition’. Clients are likely to pay sangomas as much as they would medical doctors for their services, which are not limited to the medical. Their practices can be divided into roughly six ‘disciplines’: divination, herbs, control of ancestral spirits, the cult of foreign ndzawe spirits, drumming and dancing, and training of new sangomas. The status of sangoma is achieved through an arduous process of teaching and learning through which the student or initiate is simultaneously ‘healed’ and educated to become a member of the profession that coheres around these knowledge practices.

Les « guérisseurs traditionnels » (sangomas) de la province du Mpumalanga, en Afrique du Sud, sont organisés en « écoles » autour d'un enseignant principal (gobela). L'activité de guérisseur est considérée par ses praticiens comme une profession et non comme une religion, ni même un exercice spirituel. Les guérisseurs évaluent activement l'efficacité de leurs méthodes de guérison, se transmettent des connaissances et évaluent leurs performances entre eux de façons très éloignées d'une simple transmission de « tradition ». Les clients payent souvent les sangomas autant que les médecins pour leurs services, qui ne se limitent pas au domaine médical. Leurs pratiques se divisent en six grandes « disciplines » : la divination, les plantes, la maîtrise des esprits ancestraux, le culte des esprits ndzawe étrangers, les percussions et la danse, et la formation des nouveaux sangomas. Le statut de sangoma est obtenu au terme d'un processus ardu d'enseignement et d'apprentissage au cours duquel l’étudiant ou l'initié est simultanément « guéri » et formé à devenir membre d'une profession qui rassemble autour de ces pratiques de connaissance.

Type
Research-Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 79 , Issue 1: Knowledge in Practice: Expertise and the Transmission of Knowledge , February 2009 , pp. 17 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2009

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