The influences of traditional medicine in relation to its various use by the African societies : a review of Zulu novels.

Abstract

Traditional medicine, unlike western medicine, is not merely concerned with physical illness, but it is used for various purposes. For instance: It can be used for lkuthwala' (the process whereby a person consults a traditional doctor for the medicine that will make a person very rich). The practice of 'ukuthwala' has numerous disavantages, especially because of the price that is paid in return of the wealth accumulated. The price is usually a human sacrifice, depending on what version of Ukuthwala' a person has opted for. Traditional medicine can also be used for witchcraft (ukuthakatha),for protection against evil spirits (ukuqinisa) , for making someone love you, for job opportunities, and for inspiration of the army. It can be either used for good or evil purposes. The dissertation looks at both versions by strongly drawing examples from Zulu novels. Other issues raised in this study is the importance of religion and cosmology, culture, magic, as well as spiritual healing, in association with traditional medicine. The Africans believe in the spirit world. They believed that for people to communicate with 'Mvelinqangi ' (God) there should be 'amadlozi' (the ancestors), who should intercede with God on their behalf. Usually, they call a sangoma' (medium) or 'inyanga' (medicine-man) to perform the religious ritual, or he would just instruct the elder person in the family how to carry out the procedure of communicating with the ancestors (Canonici, 1996). Traditional medicine has its own professional ethics. These ethics are also discussed in the research.