[imagesource:flickr]

The Health Department said that it was enlisting the help of traditional healers and sangomas to aid in the detection of chronic illnesses.

Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla said during the South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC) presentation on the rise of non-communicable diseases, that according to their statistics, South Africa has about 80,000 practising sangomas throughout the country.

Phaahla said that’s why they were roping them in the fight against lifestyle diseases.

Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Wits University has revealed an increased risk of diabetes and hypertension among women as young as 22.

“We are not interfering with their mode of diagnosis but we asking those who are willing to come on board, to leave them with a blood pressure machine, as you do your other thing, this is how this one works, if it is like this, you know there is a problem and you can send the person to the nearest clinic.”

Diabetes remains the second leading underlying cause of death, only being surpassed by COVID-19.

Traditional healers and sangomas play a large role in African cultures and fulfil different social and political roles in the community. Beyond healing physical, emotional, and spiritual illnesses, they also direct birth or death rituals, find lost cattle, protect warriors, and act as the guardians of history, cosmology, and concepts of their traditions.

Although sangoma is a Zulu term that is colloquially used to describe all types of Southern African traditional healers, there are differences between practices: an inyanga is concerned mainly with medicines made from plants and animals, while a sangoma relies primarily on divination for healing purposes and might also be considered a type of fortune teller.

Traditional healers can alternate between these roles by diagnosing common illnesses, selling and dispensing remedies for medical complaints, and divining causes and providing solutions to spiritual or social complaints.

For many South Africans they are the ‘first responders’, so partnering with the Health Department is a pretty decent idea.

[source:ewn&wikipedia]