spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

to Africa is well established. The religious system of beliefs and practices covers all areas of life
in such a way that one can say that African traditional religion is about one’s well-being, and that
one’s well-being needs religious involvement: “disease and misfortune are religious experiences
and it requires a religious approach to deal with them” (Mbiti 1969:196). In other words, specific
notions of health are sustained by African religious beliefs.
Holistic perception of reality
African traditional religion reflects a world view that is often labeled as ‘holistic’. Reality is
perceived as embracing the visible world as well as the invisible world. In contrast to a dualistic
worldview, reality is not restricted to or determined by the perceptible, material dimension only,
but it also touches the invisible, spiritual realm. This open, holistic reality implies the possibility
of interaction between the perceptible world and the invisible world that is home to spiritual
beings (Mbiti 1969:1; Pobee 1979:44f; Ela 1988:35; Nkemnkia 1999:11; Walls 2002:124ff; Ellis
& Ter Haar 2004:14; Nürnberger 2007:21f).
Spirits and relationships
The existence of spiritual beings is presupposed in African traditional religion. These spiritual
beings are usually perceived as the spirits of the dead people who are still part of the community
they belonged to when they were alive. The (ancestral) spirits are able to influence daily life in a
positive or negative way, so they are an important consideration. The spirits’ power to interfere
with human life will become effective when the spiritual beings feel neglected as the superiors of
the living descendants. The spirits’ authority over life can become a source of suffering and
misfortune for the living human being. Suffering is viewed and experienced as an affliction in its
broadest sense: it can exist as illness, unemployment, financial setback, spirit possession and
anything else that is a hindrance to one’s well-being and prosperity (cf. Ellis & Ter Haar 2004;
Jenkins 2006). Suffering is almost always given a religious interpretation, which provokes the
belief that affliction is an intervention by a spiritual or divine entity. Ignoring the impact and
authority of the living dead equates to disciplinary action on the side of the spirits causing
affliction and destruction of one's basic infrastructure in life, or even elimination of one’s right to
existence (cf. Mbiti 1969:169; Westerlund 2000; Ellis & Ter Haar 2004:51; Nürnberger
2007:25). The well-being of the individual and of his or her community is at stake when the
spirits are not paid enough respect and attention. One could say that the spirits of the dead are the
most important counterparts of the living in their search for health and well-being (cf.
Nürnberger 2007:29), because most illnesses and suffering come from and point to the spiritual
realm.
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