A university degree in juju

Wits starts training of first 100 sangomas this year

Jul 15, 2009

THE desire of many of South Africa’s 180,000 traditional healers to be absorbed into the mainstream health system was given a boost yesterday when Wits University launched a degree for sangomas.

A bachelors or masters degree in indigenous knowledge systems is on offer at the university’s school of medicine.

Once qualified, traditional healers will be able to diagnose diseases such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and diabetes, and refer patients to state hospitals.
They will also be taught how to sell their medicines and open their own surgeries.

Professor Gundidza Mazuru, of the school’s pharmacy department, said Wits would start training its first 100 students in September.

“Our first intake will be traditional healers from all over the Southern African Development Community,” he said, adding that they would share some classes with medical students.

“I will be one of the professors who will be teaching them about manufacturing their products, clinical tests, packaging, and the regulations governing manufacturing and distribution before they could think of putting their products on the shelves.”

Yesterday, about 1400 traditional healers from across South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho met to urge the government to formalise their status.

Traditional Healers’ Association spokeswoman Phephsile Maseko accused the government of “dragging its feet”, though 27 million South Africans use traditional medicine, which contributes R2-billion a year to the economy.

MY INITIAL reaction on reading that Wits University is to launch a degree for sangomas was to wonder if my eyes were deceiving me. — Sue Richardson, Johannesburg

Then as I read further, disbelief turned to horror, then amusement and finally I breathed a resigned sigh.

How can the spiritual tradition of sangomas be equated to the profession of medicine?

For far too many years to count, the two disciplines have been poles apart and will continue as such.

Sangomas do not choose to learn their trade — they are called upon by the ancestors, and it is a calling that is impossible to resist, or to be resisted at your peril.

Western medicine, on the other hand, requires a conscious choice, many years of study, practical experience and continual, daily learning. It is carefully regulated, in line with the pharmaceutical industry, and qualified doctors can, and often do, almost literally perform miracles and hold lives in their two hands.

Is that, maybe, the underlying reason behind the drive to combine the two disciplines under the aegis of the Wits Medical School?

The argument that millions of South Africans use traditional medicine, which contributes greatly to the economy, falls a little flat when the taxman doesn’t receive one brass cent of all that lovely lolly.

Who benefits?
It seems that this bizarre integration is a fait accompli.

And though I constantly hear that the drive to “Africanise” everything is extremely important to many people — given the recent horrors inherent in the health sector — just how is the addition of a hefty dose of traditional medicine going to heal that?

I wonder just what the medical association and the health professionals’ council will have to say about this.

Or will it be unprintable, or counter-revolutionary? Let’s ask Julius.