Healing: Africa-style
Africa has held a tremendous appeal for the imagination through the ages. She inspires creativity and gives flight to thoughts of mythical creatures inhabiting her darkest reaches. She charms the traveller with her mysteries and opens her treasure chest to those who sincerely wish to share in her magic, who can open the doors to their mind and who are unafraid of allowing her to look deep inside their heart.Africa has the ability to provide a safe space for your soul to take wing, to revitalise your dreams and, if you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear, you will uncover the most glorious riches within yourself. For those you are in need of rest and recuperation, Africa can provide the love and nurturing of a mother for her child. She can hold a tired spirit to her chest and allow the essence of live to slowly return until, this once despondent soul, burns with a passion for life and living.
Africa, her bushveld, her creatures, her people have a tremendous spirit of healing one's body, mind and soul.
There are many traditional African types of healing and healers with the nyanga and the sangoma possibly being those most well known.
A nyanga is an herbalist who has studied Mother Earth, her plants and the magic they hold within them. The power within the plants is converted into muti for people suffering from physical ailments. Muti, pronounced moo-tea, is a Southern African expression that means medicine. It is also slang for medicine as a whole from drugs prescribed by a registered medical doctor to powders and remedies from a nyanga.
A sangoma takes on a larger role in society. They provide treatments for various ailments the body creates as well as taking care of mental, emotional and spiritual problems the people may face as they walk through life.
Sangomas undergo rigorous training which can take many years before they can call themselves a sangoma and go out into the world and offer people their wisdom. There is much they need to learn about plant medicines, divination and counselling. Sangomas are often called to their profession by an ongoing illness as they are not living their authentic life. They learn to accept advice from the ancestors and share their knowledge and wisdom with those people seeking to gain insight into their various problems and challenges they are facing.
The ancestors can be equated to listening to your higher self, to your intuition, to hearing the song of your heart and following your gut feelings. In today's world our focus has been drawn away from listening to our heart to fighting the everyday metaphorical fires: fuel price, politics in the work environment, deadlines and so forth. The call of the heart is sometimes only a whisper as it does not force itself upon you, but should you listen to it, great satisfaction of living can be gained.
Sangomas are found throughout Southern Africa and offer their services to all who wish for more. You may wish to immerse yourself in an African way of life and gain a full experience of how modern Africans are living with roots in their traditions.
Perhaps you have a physical complaint that has been with you for some time and you wish to have another viewpoint on it?
You may choose to discuss why you can't seem to find that special someone with whom to share your life with.
Africa is a deeply magical continent and anything is possible if you can find the right manner in which to make your dreams come true
Local Lekker Tips
* Should you wish to visit a healer, contact the tourism board or your guide for advice so as to visit a legitimate sangoma who has undergone the necessary training.
* Prepare yourself in advance - identify a personal problem you are finding a challenge to deal with and are happy to share with a sangoma to gain better insight into your difficulty.
