Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa

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dc.contributor.advisorSichone, Owenen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorField, Seanen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorWreford, Jo Thobekaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-09-25T07:17:28Z
dc.date.available2015-09-25T07:17:28Z
dc.date.issued2005en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis thesis represents a typically boundary-crossing ethnographic experience and an unconventional anthropological study, its fieldwork grounded in the author's personal experience of ukuthwasa - initiation, training and graduation - to become a sangoma, a practitioner of traditional African medicine, in contemporary South Africa. The study is contextualized within the contemporary health dispensation in South Africa in which two major paradigms, traditional African healing, considered within the spiritual environment of sangoma, and biomedicine, operate at best in parallel, but more often at odds with one another. Given the unprecedented challenge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country, the thesis suggests that this situation is unhelpful and proposes first, that a more collaborative relationship between medical sectors is vital. Secondly, the thesis suggests that anthropologists can play an important role in achieving an improved dialogue, by producing research grounded in the spiritual aetiology of sangoma but comprehensible to academic science and applicable within collaborative medical interventions. The thesis introduces 'sacred pragmatics' to embody the disarmingly matter-of-fact quality of sangoma healing which is nevertheless always underpinned by the authority of ancestral spirit solicited in terms that are reverent. Ancestral authority in sangoma is advanced as a credible near equivalent to Jung's 'collective unconscious', and the contemporary phenomenon of white sangoma is proposed as a potential source of social and political healing. In the light of the spiritual foundation of sangoma, the absence of spirituality in biomedicine is discussed and its effect on relationships between medical sectors analysed. The umbilical and ambiguous connection of sangoma and witchcraft is acknowledged, a relationship theorised as having transformative potential within kin and community. The theoretical arguments are set against the evidence of fieldwork which is characterised as experiential and described reflexively. The thesis constitutes a start in what the author hopes will develop into an ongoing conversation between traditional African healing, academe and biomedicine in South Africa.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationWreford, J. T. (2005). <i>Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14073en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationWreford, Jo Thobeka. <i>"Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14073en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationWreford, J. 2005. Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Wreford, Jo Thobeka AB - This thesis represents a typically boundary-crossing ethnographic experience and an unconventional anthropological study, its fieldwork grounded in the author's personal experience of ukuthwasa - initiation, training and graduation - to become a sangoma, a practitioner of traditional African medicine, in contemporary South Africa. The study is contextualized within the contemporary health dispensation in South Africa in which two major paradigms, traditional African healing, considered within the spiritual environment of sangoma, and biomedicine, operate at best in parallel, but more often at odds with one another. Given the unprecedented challenge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country, the thesis suggests that this situation is unhelpful and proposes first, that a more collaborative relationship between medical sectors is vital. Secondly, the thesis suggests that anthropologists can play an important role in achieving an improved dialogue, by producing research grounded in the spiritual aetiology of sangoma but comprehensible to academic science and applicable within collaborative medical interventions. The thesis introduces 'sacred pragmatics' to embody the disarmingly matter-of-fact quality of sangoma healing which is nevertheless always underpinned by the authority of ancestral spirit solicited in terms that are reverent. Ancestral authority in sangoma is advanced as a credible near equivalent to Jung's 'collective unconscious', and the contemporary phenomenon of white sangoma is proposed as a potential source of social and political healing. In the light of the spiritual foundation of sangoma, the absence of spirituality in biomedicine is discussed and its effect on relationships between medical sectors analysed. The umbilical and ambiguous connection of sangoma and witchcraft is acknowledged, a relationship theorised as having transformative potential within kin and community. The theoretical arguments are set against the evidence of fieldwork which is characterised as experiential and described reflexively. The thesis constitutes a start in what the author hopes will develop into an ongoing conversation between traditional African healing, academe and biomedicine in South Africa. DA - 2005 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2005 T1 - Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa TI - Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14073 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/14073
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationWreford JT. Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology, 2005 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14073en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentSocial Anthropologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherSocial Anthopologyen_ZA
dc.titleUkusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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