healers
use
a
number
of
approaches
to
treat
mental
illnesses.
Gulshan
Khan/AFP
via
Getty
Images
Maja
Jakarasi,
University
of
the
Western
Cape
In
Zimbabwe’s
Shona
language,
mental
illness
is
known
as
chirwere
chepfungwa
or
kupenga.
Before
British
colonial
settlers
arrived
in
1890,
traditional
healers
(n’anga)
played
an
important
role
in
helping
people
to
manage
their
mental
as
well
as
their
physical
health.
But,
from
the
late
19th
to
the
mid
20th
century,
the
British
colonisers,
particularly
Christian
missionaries,
cracked
down
on
the
work
of
the
n’anga.
They
insisted
that
communities
should
abandon
their
traditional
beliefs
and
healing
practices.
Instead,
people
were
cajoled
and
threatened
to
embrace
western
biomedicine,
relying
on
its
psychiatric
and
psychological
methods
to
treat
mental
illness.
The
British
government
of
what
was
then
Rhodesia
introduced
the
Witchcraft
Suppression
Act
in
1899.
It
also
used
the
colonial
education
system
to
push
people
away
from
what
the
British
perceived
as
“superstitious”
ways
of
understanding
and
healing
illnesses.
The
colonial
crackdown
succeeded
only
in
driving
healing
practices
underground.
Shona
people
no
longer
openly
expressed
their
interest
in
using
traditional
rituals.
Unfortunately,
they
did
not
always
receive
the
help
they
needed
from
western
biomedicine,
since
there
were
only
a
limited
number
of
nurses,
medical
doctors,
psychiatrists
or
psychologists
available
to
treat
those
with
mental
illnesses.
The
system
favoured
white
“Rhodesians”
and
Shona
people
weren’t
given
priority.
In
the
1980s,
in
the
early
post-colonial
Zimbabwe,
the
government
introduced
several
strategies
to
try
to
restore
the
respect
and
function
of
cultural
beliefs
and
traditional
healing
practices.
It
created
Zinatha
(the
Zimbabwe
Traditional
Healers
Association)
and
later
amended
the
witchcraft
suppression
law,
so
that
traditional
healers
were
no
longer
viewed
as
witches
or
“witch-doctors”
or
their
healing
practices
as
witchcraft.
I
am
a
researcher
who
focuses
on
traditional
healing,
mental
health
and
neo-liberal
regimes
in
north-eastern
Zimbabwe.
I
wanted
to
know
what
role
n’anga
play
in
helping
the
Korekore
(a
sub-group
of
Shona
people)
in
the
country’s
Rushinga
district
manage
their
mental
health.
I
also
wanted
to
know
how
people
think
about
mental
illness
and
what
factors
they
believe
influence
it.
In
a
recent
study
I
did
just
that.
The
Korekore
strongly
believe
that
mental
illness
is
largely
caused
by
sorcery,
witchcraft,
the
breaking
of
cultural
taboos,
or
aggrieved
or
avenging
spirits.
They
acknowledge
that
other
psychosocial
and
physical
factors
can
play
a
role,
too,
but
largely
see
kupenga
as
a
social
and
cultural
issue.
This
means
that
traditional
healers
are
key
to
managing
mental
illness.
I
argue
that
the
public
health
system,
which
still
values
western
biomedicine
over
other
approaches
to
healing,
needs
to
take
the
role
of
traditional
healers
more
seriously
and
work
towards
helping
patients
holistically,
in
a
way
those
patients
value
and
recognise.
Traditional
healers
at
work
I
must
point
out
that
people
in
Rushinga
district
also
consult
with
psychiatrists,
psychologists
and
medical
doctors.
But
many
do
so
in
conjunction
with
the
guidance,
advice
and
interventions
offered
to
them
by
traditional
healers.
While
individual
interactions
will
differ,
the
healers’
approach
follows
an
overall
pattern.
Firstly,
healers
divine
the
causes
of
kupenga
and
suggest
healing
methods.
These
proposed
methods
differ
from
individual
to
individual,
even
if
their
challenges
appear
to
be
the
same.
They
include
exorcising
bad
spirits
(mweya
yakaipa
or
mamhepo),
witchcraft
and
sorcery,
through
inducing
vomiting
(kurutsisa),
and
the
use
of
spiritualised
(ritually
prepared)
and
non-spiritualised
herbs.
These
herbs
are
ingested
into
the
body
in
various
ways:
via
incisions
into
the
skin,
smoking,
sniffing,
steaming,
applying
animal
fats,
and
conducting
traditional
healing
rituals
(bira/mizva).
The
study
Rushinga
is
a
district
in
the
Mashonaland
Central
province,
home
to
about
77,000
people.
My
study
focused
on
people
living
in
Katevera,
a
rural
area
in
the
district.
I
spoke
to
traditional
healers,
faith
healers,
people
who
had
previously
been
treated
for
mental
illness
and
were
considered
cured,
and
relatives
of
mentally
ill
people.
The
Korekore
do
not
see
mental
illness
as
residing
only
in
the
human
body,
but
also
outside
it,
in
social
and
cultural
environments.
The
human
body
is
believed
to
take
in
and
leak
out
various
spiritual
and
ancestral
influences.
This
is
why
most
healing
seeks
to
make
the
body
flush
out
bad
things
and
to
make
it
more
resistant
to
evil
spirits,
witchcraft
and
sorcery.
The
respondents
told
me
about
their
experiences
of
mental
illness.
One,
Jada,
explained
what
had
caused
his
illness.
I
saw
two
very
small
“goblins”
(zvidhoma)
coming
to
fight
me.
This
was
the
last
time
I
knew
what
was
happening.
I
was
later
told
that
I
had
been
carried
to
Chimhanda
Hospital.
The
traditional
healer
later
told
me
that
I
was
bewitched
by
the
zvidhoma.
They
were
sent
by
one
of
my
jealous
family
members.
Somebody
in
our
family
has
money-making
goblins
and
wants
political
power.
The
zvidhoma
thrive
on
using
other
people
through
mental
illness.
They
suck
blood.
This
is
how
their
business
or
political
power
is
strengthened.
They
usually
cause
mental
illness
in
a
family.
Jada
consulted
with
a
traditional
healer,
doing
so
at
night
to
avoid
public
scrutiny
–
he
said
he
didn’t
want
to
be
judged
by
his
colleagues
for
working
with
n’anga.
He
made
a
full
recovery,
returned
to
work,
and
was
even
recently
promoted.
He
was
very
pleased
with
the
traditional
healer’s
methods.
A
number
of
people
I
spoke
with
insisted
that
traditional
healing
methods
were
efficacious
in
treating
mental
illness.
The
n’anga
I
interviewed,
meanwhile,
said
they
offered
lasting
healing
because
they
tackled
the
root
causes
of
mental
illness.
Strong
beliefs
It
is
clear
from
this
study
that
the
Korekore
people
in
the
Rushinga
district
have
not
wavered
in
their
beliefs
about
and
ways
of
healing
mental
illnesses.
This
is
despite
colonial
attitudes
that
persist
in
hospitals,
clinics
and
schools,
where
only
western
and
colonial
knowledge
is
valued.
People
told
me
that
nurses
and
psychiatrists
openly
denigrated
traditional
healers.
Public
health
staff
need
to
recognise
that
social
and
cultural
factors
can
cause
mental
distress
and
that,
in
some
cases,
traditional
healing
could
complement
their
work
or
even
be
a
better
way
to
treat
a
particular
patient.
I
recommend
that
schools
in
the
district
begin
to
teach
learners
about
the
importance
of
local
understandings
of
mental
illness.
Textbooks,
too,
could
feature
content
about
traditional
healing
alongside
information
about
biomedical
treatments.
Maja
Jakarasi,
PhD
student,
Department
of
Cultural
Anthropology,
University
of
the
Western
Cape
This
article
is
republished
from
The
Conversation
under
a
Creative
Commons
license.
Read
the
original
article.