ETD Collection

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Healers--South Africa

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The perceptions and management of psychosis amongst Traditional Healers living in the township of Umlazi KwaZulu-Natal
    (2020) Maqalika, Rethabile
    The conceptualization of mental illness varies across cultures and research has shown that the perceptions of mental illness are heavily influenced by spiritual and cultural beliefs. Some overlaps exist between psychosis and some cultural phenomena within the South African context and Traditional Healers have been found to play a major role in the management of mental illness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and management of psychosis by Traditional Healers of Umlazi KwaZulu-Natal. A qualitative research study was conducted where nine Traditional Healers from Umlazi Township participated in semi-structured interviews in order to ascertain their perceptions and management of psychosis. Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the data findings and themes centred on the perceptions of psychosis by Traditional Healers, aetiology of mental illness, diagnosing mental illness, perceptions of mental illness as well as treatment of mental illness emerged. The results of the research study suggest that some gaps still exist in the perceptions and understandings of psychosis between the western mental health practitioners and indigenous healers. Collaboration between these two entities is essential in the understanding and management of psychosis from the western and indigenous perspective
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    The perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of traditional healers and traders about using cultivated plants in South Africa.
    (2018) Mbongwa, Nolwazi Sinqobile
    Afrocentric worldviews believe in the existence of ancestors, and traditional healers are consulted for communication with them. Traditional healers dispense various animal and plant parts to rid their clients of the problems that they might be facing. Animal and plant parts that are considered medicinal in the broad sense are therefore vital in African belief systems. Medicinal plants are rapidly declining in the wild due to over-harvesting, development and urbanisation, and various initiatives such as law enforcement have been used to combat the decline, but they have not been successful. Cultivation is one of the methods that has been used to mitigate the decline of medicinal plants. Cultivation is viable because healers and traders can easily practice it, if they have the necessary requirements for it such as land, water, propagation material and time. Importantly, however, there is limited scientific knowledge about the acceptability of cultivated medicinal plants by healers and traders. The aim of the study is to determine the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of traditional healers and traders about medicinal plant cultivation, and identify plants that are a priority to healers and traders, to contribute to a greater understanding of the cultural opportunities and challenges for cultivating medicinal plants as a conservation strategy. Five markets were surveyed: Marabastad, Mona, Faraday, Ezimbuzini and Warwick. Healers from Soweto, Nhlungwane and Umlazi were surveyed. Two residential areas and three markets are located in KwaZulu-Natal province. Two markets and one residential area were surveyed in Gauteng province. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to survey the places and overall 114 respondents (42 healers and 72 healers) were interviewed. The results of the study show that healers and traders accept using and selling cultivated medicinal plants. Nevertheless, certain aspects of the spiritual and cultural entities of medicinal plants need to be sustained and ensured even when cultivating. Plants that are used for rituals and those that are chosen by ancestors via dreams are specifically required to be collected in the wild. Healers and traders have different knowledge about spiritual limitation concerning medicinal plants. However, the perceptions are not significantly different to a point in which they would be approached separately in conservation plans. Furthermore, location and ethnicity also have a great influence in both healers and traders perception about cultivated medicinal plants.