Folk healers
Curanderos, sangomas, hakims and the village healer, who mix remedy and ritual.
Folk healers are the people communities turn to when someone is ill: the curandero and curandera of Mexico and the Andes, the sangoma and inyanga of southern Africa, the hakim of the Islamic world, the vaidya of India, the bone-setter, the village midwife and the Siberian shaman. They combine remedies, ritual and counsel. This page describes them as tradition, not as medical advice, and illness needs real medical care. They are found in every society and are usually the nearest source of help.
What healers do
A healer listens to a person's story, names the trouble, and prescribes a course that may involve plants, diet, prayer, cleansing, a gathering of kin, or a sacrifice. The framing often covers the family and the spirit as well as the body. Healers are frequently the first and sometimes the only help available in places far from clinics. Treatments often involve plants, massage, steam, prayer, fasting and dietary rules, and the healer's own reputation counts for a great deal.
Who becomes one
Some healers inherit the role, some are called by ancestors, and some train as apprentices. Women are prominent as midwives, herbalists and spirit healers, though status and income often go to male specialists and licensed practitioners. In Latin America, curanderos draw on Catholic saints, Indigenous plant knowledge and Spanish folk medicine. In Ethiopia, the debtera works with scrolls and church learning. Some healers are called through illness themselves, which is described as a mark that they can heal others.
States and doctors
Law treats healers in different ways. India's AYUSH ministry supports Ayurveda, Unani and others. South Africa passed a Traditional Health Practitioners Act in 2007. Elsewhere, healers face police action under witchcraft or quackery laws, and in colonial times many were banned outright. Doctors sometimes work with healers, for instance in HIV outreach in Africa. Healers in some regions are also asked to settle family quarrels, since illness is held to follow from tension in the household.
Harm and caution
Harm can come from delay, from unsafe substances, from sexual or financial abuse of patients, and from fraud. Exorcism of mental illness has led to deaths. Anthropologists add that healing rites can bring comfort and social support that clinics sometimes lack. Anyone with a serious symptom should see a qualified clinician, whatever other help they seek. In places where clinics are far away, a healer may deliver babies, set bones and treat fever, and the quality of that care varies widely.
Folk healers on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚚馃嚞 Republic of the CongoNkisi
Spirit containers and power figures from the Congo Basin used for justice and healingCharm 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South AfricaSympathetic magic
A magical principle based on imitation and contact to influence the worldTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical
馃嚳馃嚘 South AfricaUkuthwasa
A spiritual calling and initiation process for traditional healers in Southern Africa.Rite 路 Healing 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 1 moreBoriB貌貌r铆铆
A traditional Hausa spirit possession system and healing practice in West AfricaTradition 路 Healing 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 1 moreMutiumuthi
Traditional medicine practice in Southern Africa using plants, animals and mineralsTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚚馃嚛 Democratic Republic of the Congo and 4 moreNganga
A spiritual healer and ritual specialist in Kongo religion and its diaspora traditionsTradition 路 Healing 路 Seeing and foretelling Living
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 5 moreZ膩r夭丕乇
A spirit possession tradition and healing ritual in the Horn of Africa and Middle EastTradition 路 Healing 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚢馃嚜 Kenya and 1 moreMaasai religion
The spiritual beliefs of the semi-nomadic Maasai people of East AfricaTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚫馃嚫 South Sudan and 1 moreAzande witchcraft
A Zande belief that certain people harm others by an inherited power, judged by oraclesBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Seeing and foretelling Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 4 moreWitch doctor
A traditional healer who identifies supernatural causes of illness and performs rituals to restore balance.Tradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 5 moreTraditional healers of Southern Africa
Practitioners who blend herbal medicine with ancestral divination in Southern AfricaTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚥馃嚳 Mozambique and 1 moreNdau witchcraft and sorcery
A system of spirit belief and traditional healing among the Ndau people of Mozambique and ZimbabweTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Sympathetic magic: Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 2.5, source
- Ukuthwasa: Mycelium101, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bori: Tremearne, A. J. N. (Arthur John Newman), 1877-1915, Public domain, source
- Muti: Nicholas Roux, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Z膩r: Emad Nemati, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Maasai religion: Dr. Ond艡ej Havelka (cestovatel), CC BY 4.0, source
- Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Witch doctor: Lucjan W臋drychowski, Public domain, source
- Traditional healers of Southern Africa: Wizzy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ndau witchcraft and sorcery: Mycelium101, CC BY-SA 3.0, source