Muthi, Medicine and Witchcraft: Regulating 'African Science' in Post-Apartheid South Africa?

Ashforth, Adam

Muthi, Medicine and Witchcraft: Regulating 'African Science' in Post-Apartheid South Africa?

Journal Article

2005

Journal Title

Social Dynamics

Link to Journal

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rsdy20/current

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR)

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This paper comprises extracts from Adam Ashworth's book: Witchcraft, Violence and Democracy in South Africa (Chicago University Press, 2005) . It argues that the distinction between witchcraft and healing is essentially a moral one (healers and witches use supernatural forces supposedly for different ends) and that both activities fall under the rubric of 'African science '. Whereas proponents of 'Indigenous Knowledge Systems ' attempt, as part of a broader cultural project, to provide 'traditional' African healing with scientific status, others - starting with Montana's 1988 call to 'stop romanticizing the evil depredations of the sangoma' in order to Fee patients from the 'tyranny of superstition ' - emphasise the incommensurability of traditional healing practices with science. The paper concludes with a discussion of how such incommensurability makes it very difficult, if not impossible,for the post-apartheid state to regulate 'African science '.