Traditional healers have carried this stigma for generations until today. Traditional healers are very proud of their heritage calling, and wish to make it know that they are not "witch doctors". The traditional healers play an integral part of African cultures and communities and have since time immemorial. They fulfill functions that go far beyond those of bio-medically trained healthcare workers.
The traditional healer has an enormous influence on the patient and his family and makes a very positive and beneficial contribution to the cultural and spiritual life of the African individually and within the community.
To become a Traditional Healer is a call from your ancestors and our almighty God. You cannot go to any university or institution to study traditional healing. It is a call that is comes from within yourself, whether you are rich, poor, young or old. There are tribal elders (Gobela) who will guide your calling, where you under go a process called (Thwasa). You graduation is determined after a certain period of training is completed.
There are different categories of Traditional Healers as in Orthodox Western Medicine we also have our specialties. The aim is to cure, heal and not kill or to be destructive to our people. Remember your life is our concern also healthy families make healthy communities, healthy communities make a healthy nation and healthy nation creates a healthy economy.
An African patient consults a medical doctor, and a third figure is often present, albeit unseen. This is undoubtedly the Traditional Healer, who has already been consulted or will subsequently be consulted by the patient. There are about 200,000 traditional healers practicing in Southern Africa. Every traditional healer on average consults 200/300 people within their community region.
The Medical Association of South Africa commissioned a study to provide doctors with a better and empathetic insight into the world of the African people, where a large number of patients reside. In addition, it is hoped that the study would dispel the fallacies and prejudices that have clouded the western doctors' perceptions of the traditional healers and their activities.
We have only begun bridging the gap and the first success story of the traditional healers is that the "Traditional Health Practitioners Act", has been passed through parliament and signed by the president of South Africa on the 11th February 2005, (Act No. 35 of 2004: Traditional Health Practitioners' Act). We are currently waiting for the appointment of the Registrar by the minister after consultation with various traditional health practitioners.
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