Traditional healing in South Africa has existed, by some estimates, for over 20,000 years (Hewson, 2015). There are between 250,000 and 400,000 traditional healers in South Africa and only about 25,000 to 30,000 medical doctors (Kern, 2017). Eight out of every 10 black South Africans are believed to rely on traditional medicine alone, or in combination with Western medicine (Ancient Origins, 2015). The concurrent use of traditional and allopathic (Western) medicine is called “medical pluralism” or “medical syncretism” and it is a widespread practice in South Africa (Ross, 2010).
Southern Africa is considered by many to be the “cradle of mankind.” Relative to other countries, South Africa specifically is a young democracy as it was only liberated from the minority Nationalist Party in 1994. It is a complex country with diverse cultural beliefs. As a result, many areas of activity are still divided between Western and African philosophies (Mokgobi, 2015). The system of healing in this region of the world is shamanic in nature even though traditional healers in Africa (sometimes called sangomas, n’anga, and inyanga) are not specifically called “shamans.” There is very little written on these healers and their practices coexist with allopathic medicine practitioners (Ancient Origins, 2015; Hewson, 2015).
A shaman is a medicine man or woman and shamanism is a methodology (not a religion) that is considered the most widespread and ancient method of healing known to mankind (Harner, 1990). While shamanism can be found in many different spiritual practices, it remains an ecstatic technique that is “at the disposal of a particular elite and represents, as it were, the mysticism of the particular religion” (Eliade, 1964, p. 8). Albert Schweitzer reportedly once said
“The witch doctor (shaman) succeeds for the same reason all of the rest of us succeed. Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor that resides within each patient a chance to go to work” (Harner, 1990; Powell, 2011, p. 15).
Shamanic practice has diverse methods and assumptions and occurs all over the world including New Zealand, Australia, North and South America, Siberia, Central Asia, eastern and northern Europe, and Africa. In all of these areas, a shaman is seen as a mediator between the individual and their gods, and as “a great specialist of the human soul: he alone ‘sees.’ it, for he knows its ‘form’ and its destiny (Eliade, 1964, p. 8).