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Traditional healers join the fight against HIV/AIDS
Jeanne Viall. 04 November 2004. Cape Argus. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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When prayers to the ancestors mingle with songs to Jesus, and traditional healers dance alongside fervent Christians amid the smoke of imphepho, you know you're in the heart of something uniquely South African.
This was not a prayer meeting, but the opening ceremony of the HIV/AIDS workshop for traditional practitioners held at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve near East London recently.
People sang, danced, clapped and drummed, and offered snuff and spirits to the ancestors. "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, siyabonga, amen," the voices rang out. And that, pretty much, set the tone for the workshop, with drumming, singing and dancing at every pause.
Traditional healing has recently been recognised by an act of parliament, after hundreds of years of being demonised, first by the missionaries who wanted to convert the spiritually rich indigenous people whom they considered heathens to Christianity; and later by a Western medical system that would not countenance anything that it could not measure or observe using its particular scientific tools. In spite of this, traditional healers have survived, unsupported by the state, and in large numbers.
Said Lizwi Solly Nduku, chairperson of the Eastern Cape Traditional Health Practitioners, who has been involved in the legislation for 10 years: "(The act) is a major milestone in the history of the profession."
The three-day workshop in the Eastern Cape was convened by Helen Neale-May, mayoral committee member for Health and HIV/AIDS in the Amathole District.
She was inspired when she attended the International AIDS conference in Bangkok recently. "Bangkok's slogan 'Access for All' means that, as the government, we should make sure that access to treatment is available to all, including those who use traditional medicines.
"If 80 percent of our population visits traditional practitioners, then it only makes sense to bring on board traditional practitioners in the fight against HIV/AIDS," she said.
"Traditional practitioners are close to communities and can play a major role in treating and combating HIV/AIDS."
Traditional healers were already well represented on the Amathole District Municipality AIDS Council and traditional practitioners would now be incorporated into the District Health System, she said.
Neale-May included complementary healers in the conference. "They also use traditional therapies and natural preparations," she said. Also at the workshop were national health department officials, district councillors, doctors and - making up the bulk of the gathering - traditional healers.
The conference sought to find common ground, establish goodwill and to share knowledge and experience with HIV/AIDS. The challenges of working together are huge. Collaboration requires respect, trust and understanding of the different paradigm of traditional healing. But there is still suspicion, especially around traditional knowledge being "stolen". On a field walk to identify medicinal plants in the veld, healers were heard saying: "Don't tell them all the secrets."
Research done up to now on traditional healing has not been to the benefit of traditional healers, explains Nduku. "Rather, it enriches practitioners from other disciplines, who come in and do research their way.
We, in fact, provide a database for these professionals which they use to become millionaires - they leave us with peanuts."
Nduku would like to see African medicinal names used. "Why are we allowing them to be lost in favour of botanical names? Chinese herbs are known by their Chinese names. I am not excited when we are co-opted - these are crucial fundamentals of our heritage. Practitioners must wake up.
"The database of traditional medicines is now owned by private researchers. It must be transferred to the state, it belongs to us all."
Other issues that will have to be addressed include the unsustainability of using wild plants in great quantities. Already wild ginger (isiphephetho) is almost extinct.
The workshop was just the first step in a long process. Said Nomsa Dlamini, co-ordinator of traditional healers in the national department of health: "What impressed me was the way politicians are so committed to being part of this. I can see the partnerships forming - we need each other and we need collaboration." |
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