Zulu indigenous practitioners' diagnostic and treatment methods
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Date
1984
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Abstract
As indigenous healers are so important to the health of many not only in South Africa but also throughout the world, a closer, scientific look at their practices is needed. Again, there is a tendency of the majority of South Africans (especially the Blacks) to consult both western oriented mental health> services and indigenous healers. Various prominent mental health professionals in South Africa have appealed that greater recognition be given to and greater use made of the skills of indigenous healers in the treatment of persons who could benefit from the services- It is for these reasons that this research on indigenous healing was undertaken.
The purpose of this research was to investigate diagnostic and treat¬ment methods used by a random sample of indigenous healers from the rural Mtunzini district in Kwa-Zulu, and to ascertain whether there is any consistency (inter-practitioner) in their diagnostic and treatment methods.
Twelve practitioners were each invited by a researcher and a confederate with a problem requiring treatment. Diagnostic and treatment procedures were tape recorded. Standardized data regarding diagnosis, cause symptomatology, treatment and prognosis, including practitioners' biographical data was collected. In order to ascertain inter-practitioner consistency, practitioners were asked to rank order six diagnosis and six treatment procedures ascertained to be the most frequently occuring among all twelve practitioners. The results emphasized the three distinct basic categories of Zulu indigenous practitioners viz. doctors (izinyanga), diviners (jzangoma) and faith healers (abathantfazi).
Of these categories, the diviner deserve special mention as the results consistently portrayed her as a superior specialist e.g. an elderly, educated, female preserver and provider of traditional Zulu culture. Diagnostic and treatment procedures used by the practitioners were found to be based on dualistic levels viz. natural and supernatural. As suggested by previous studies and also supported in this research, more integration of Western and African oriented mental health subsystems was recommended.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Psychology University of Zululand, 1984.
Keywords
Healing (religion, folklore, etc.), Divination