An investigation into the traditional healing and ritual practices Of the Batlokwa and Bakwena in the Madikwe area, North-West province (South Africa)

Abstract

This study followed a participatory and case study approach to investigate the traditional healing practices of the Batlokwa and Bakwena tribes in the Madikwe area from the community perspectives. The study was based on the following arguments: Firstly, most of the research activities already done with regard to African traditional ritual healing systems and practices in South Africa were often carried out by foreign researchers using Eurocentric approaches and perspectives. They tended to neglect the views of local communities, especially community knowledge holders. This led to cultural distortions and misrepresentation of facts about these healing practices. Secondly, past studies on the research problem have failed to interpret correctly the spiritual role that ancestors play in the healing systems of the African local communities. This study holds the opinion that the role of the ancestors with regard to their intervention in the healing systems and interpretation of the associated rituals cannot be correctly done and understood by people from outside a specific cultural community. Thirdly, past studies lacked proper explanation with regard to the reasons why most traditional healers were not prepared to disclose information pertaining to their activities. The study argued that matters of healing have always been treated confidentially because healers and patients hold the opinion that these healing activities involve ancestors and therefore need to be respected at all times. It was also one strategy of protecting knowledge from abuse and exploitation by outsiders. Fourthly, most researchers on African traditional healing systems have failed to go into the cultural and spiritual details of the same so that areas of controversy could be clarified. Moreover, they have failed to understand the socio-cultural context of African healing systems, especially the holistic nature of diseases in African cultural setting. The study found that in spite of the marginalization of these traditional healing practices and rituals by colonialism and apartheid regimes including the current challenges facing them, African local communities in the study communities supported and used them , especially in situations where modern medical and health services were limited and unaffordable. They were holistic and culturally acceptable as they venerated the role of ancestors in the total welfare of the community. This was contrary to western medical practices which concentrated on the physical aspects of diseases and health. The study looked at the importance of rituals in the healing practices of the study communities. Healing rituals were performed to keep contact with ancestors in terms of certain important matters in the lives of the people. The role of the chief in traditional healing practices was emphasized. Traditional leaders were regarded as the custodians of the healing rituals amongst Batlokwa and Bakwena. They were endowed with these responsibilities by the ancestors. Even if the chief was not a traditional healer himself, his position and respect as a leader of the tribe gave him the dignity and authority to be respected and had a very big role to play in controlling and working with traditional healers in the community. One strength of the study was the way the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the respondent knowledge holders and community members in general were investigated from the perspective of the people themselves. This was contrary to the conventional way of describing and analysing these aspects from the researcher's and western perspectives. They neglected the fact that these variables have cultural significance in the lives of the people, especially in issues related to people's health, such as the traditional healing systems and ritual practices. On the issue of challenges and prospects facing traditional healing practices in general and in the study area in particular, the study indicated a number of issues with regard to challenges as the practices tried to incorporate modern healing and health care systems and

some people who were not trained as traditional healers might cheat the patients. It is on the basis of the above conclusions that the following recommendations were made: • There is need for more research work to be conducted in African tribal communities in South Africa and Africa at large to investigate the efficacy of traditional healing systems, especially their contribution to primary health care in the respective local communities. These studies should be done in a participatory approach from the perspectives of the communities themselves, especially their knowledge holders and practitioners. This will help to remove the concern with past studies which tended to neglect or marginalize the views of the communities. • In order to avoid the distortion of the views of the community members and their knowledge holders, research work in these tribal communities should be conducted in the local languages and the views must be presented in their original form in the form of narratives. Past studies done by outsiders tended to interpret the views of the communities from their own cultural perspectives using foreign languages and concepts. • Taking into consideration the role traditional medicine and healing practices play in the welfare of the people, especially their holistic nature and approach to health, they should not be treated as alternative medicine. They are a central health care system to the majority of the people in poor communities who cannot afford modern health care systems. Government and other stakeholders in cooperation with the local communities should find ways of incorporating modern medicine into these traditional practices in the interests of the patients. The current approach puts emphasis on finding ways of incorporating traditional medicine and healing practices into modern medicine and not vice versa. Majority of Africans do not depend on modern medicine for survival. • Government in collaboration with traditional leaders in the local communities should work together to ensure that all traditional healers are registered for the purpose of identification and safety of the patients. As was indicated in the findings that there were a number of people in the country who claimed to be traditional healers and hence create a danger to the health of the people. • Standard generating bodies need to be created composed of traditional practitioners themselves for the accreditation of healers and other aspects pertaining to their practices. • Various platforms need to be created where traditional healers and modern medical practitioners could meet to exchange ideas and experiences in the interest of improving the health care system of the communities and the country at large. More research work could be done in collaboration of the two health care systems. • There are a number of issues which the two systems could learn and benefit from each other in the interest of improving the health care system of communities. The modern medical practitioners could learn from the holistic approach of traditional medicine and the traditional medicine could take advantage of the technological advancement of modern medicine to affirm, validate and improve their work.