spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State
spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State
10.3 POWER, SPIRIT AND HEALING 268 10.4 CONCLUSIONS 272 CONCLUSIONS. GATHERING FRAGMENTS 274 BIBLIOGRAPHY 284 KEY TERMS 316 SUMMARY 317 OPSOMMING 319 10
INTRODUCTION 1. Research background There is a great need for healing in Africa. This need is in itself no different elsewhere in the world, but it is greatly determined by the involvement of religious communities and traditions. Faith communities and religious institutions play a major role in assisting African believers to find health, healing and completeness in everyday life. In fact, it is generally expected of religious institutions that they guide believers in word and deed in their search for healing, and lead the way to deliverance from suffering and affliction. Their involvement can be explained by the fact that therapeutics in Africa is not confined to the hospital-based medical practitioner (Patterson 1981:28; Ranger 1981:267; Ekechi 1993:298; Bate 1995:15; Good 2004:10; Kabonga-Mbaya 2006:188; Kalu 2008:263; Rasmussen 2008:11). However, churches founded by missionaries seem to fail in addressing the believers’ needs for healing. One explanation for this omission is found in the historical background of the missionaries themselves: they were heavily influenced by scientific medical discoveries in nineteenth century Europe, so that theology and biomedicine grew apart and became two clearly separate disciplines. In the modern era, science became the prevailing model that allowed people to approach society with an objective, critical, and progressive frame of reference. The implication was that science and medicine challenged religion in making sense of human existence, and that their cultural authority sped the medicalization of life and death (Porter 1997:302). In embracing modern medicine and supporting its expansion for the benefit of global health, mainline theology added other perspectives to its view on human existence. Missionary churches assimilated biomedical perspectives on healing and treatment, and accepted a clear division between body, mind and soul. The result of this dichotomy is illustrated in the fictional tale of Grace Banda 1 , a member of the Reformed Church in a Southern African country. Grace Banda’s husband passed away four years ago, after a prolonged illness, and she was left with their three children, two daughters 1. Grace Banda is a fictitious person, who represents the many female as well as male members of the mainline tradition in Southern Africa. Everything described here in relation to Grace Banda is based on personal stories of people whom I met during my stay in Zambia, Africa. An additional source is the article by Noerine Kaleeba, ‘Excerpt from We Miss You All: AIDS in the Family’, in Kalipeni, E et.al. (eds) 2004. HIV and AIDS in Africa. Beyond Epidemiology. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. 259-278. The person of Grace Banda will return in the second part of this research. 11
- Page 1 and 2: SPIRIT AND HEALING IN AFRICA: A REF
- Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It feels like this
- Page 5 and 6: I would like to believe that my chi
- Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 11 1
- Page 9: PART II. EXPLORING A REFORMED PNEUM
- Page 13 and 14: and her status? Does the Bible not
- Page 15 and 16: traditional healing, the HIV/AIDS c
- Page 17 and 18: This thesis centralizes the proper,
- Page 19 and 20: subject of health within the variou
- Page 21 and 22: 7. Research outline This research c
- Page 23 and 24: and materiality. The answers to thi
- Page 25 and 26: physical affliction, and it points
- Page 27 and 28: 1.2 MEANING OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIS
- Page 29 and 30: trust) that can influence health an
- Page 31 and 32: 1.3.2 Discourse When one follows th
- Page 33 and 34: still resists a clear definition an
- Page 35 and 36: the study of African healing starte
- Page 37 and 38: industrialized world” (Helman 200
- Page 39 and 40: produced, that a certain gesture re
- Page 41 and 42: influence in Southern Africa. The a
- Page 43 and 44: collective experiences, codes of th
- Page 45 and 46: However, despite many attempts to a
- Page 47 and 48: impact on African indigenous cultur
- Page 49 and 50: Suffering as a relational matter
- Page 51 and 52: situation in which one is actively
- Page 53 and 54: particular rituals are subject to c
- Page 55 and 56: Ngoma’s ability to recreate socie
- Page 57 and 58: 2.4 BORDERS OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL
- Page 59 and 60: carefully balance their practices a
10.3 POWER, SPIRIT AND HEALING 268<br />
10.4 CONCLUSIONS 272<br />
CONCLUSIONS. GATHERING FRAGMENTS 274<br />
BIBLIOGRAPHY 284<br />
KEY TERMS 316<br />
SUMMARY 317<br />
OPSOMMING 319<br />
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