spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

CHAPTER 7. THE SPIRIT AND RELATIONALITY
This chapter offers an exploration into one of the possibilities of speaking about God and health.
It is argued in this chapter that this possibility is located in the notion of relationality, because
relationality is a key motif of health, as described in the discourse on African traditional healing
(Chapter 2), and because God’s life can be characterized as relationality.
With reference to Tracy’s (1997:122-129; 1999:170-184; 2000:62-88) thought about fragments,
theology is a conversation about what it means to think God; it is a process of gathering
fragments that provide hope of redemption by God (see also Holland 2002:n.p.). This
fragmented way of articulating God and his salvation can also be found in this chapter: it is an
engagement between an African health discourse and a pneumatological perspective, which does
not aim at fully developed conceptualizations of God and health. It rather can be seen as a
fragment of an interdisciplinary exploration into the theme of God and health, using theoretical
questions, such as: what happens when the African health understanding of relationality is
related to the discourse of Reformed pneumatology? Would it be possible to articulate a link
between God and health on the basis of relationality? What kind of role would the Spirit have in
establishing a link between God and health on the basis of relationality?
7.1 RELATIONALITY AND THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE
The discussion of the ngoma paradigm within the discourse of African traditional healing
highlighted how central the motif of relationality is in relation to health, illness and healing.
Ngoma, a widespread ritual therapeutic institution in central and Southern Africa, embraces the
interplay of individual and communal aspects in the quest for healing, and is based on
indigenous religious beliefs about human and spiritual beings. According to African religious
ontology, any living entity contains a vital force that is considered as the power that is necessary
to have an identity, to exist at all. This life force is rooted in the spiritual world, and is channeled
through interpersonal relationships, which can reduce or increase someone’s vitality. This means
that one’s well-being is deeply dependent on how successful one is in maintaining and mending
interpersonal and spiritual relationships. In Chapter 2 it was concluded that health and illness are
essentially relational matters 41 . The African health discourse notion of relationality thus implies
41. Thinking about health and healing in terms of social relationships and communion is an approach that also exists
in other health systems and contexts. Even outside the African context, there are ancient traditions that define
healing and health along the lines of relations. In addition, within the modern Western biomedical matrix are
perspectives to be found that are influenced by social theories on well-being (see, for example, Ryff & Singer 2001;
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