spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

The interplay of individual and communal aspects is crucial in ngoma therapy. The individual
sufferer is supported by the community who allows the individual to be (temporarily) separated
from that community in order to regain health 19 . The withdrawal of the individual is often
marked by the death of a sacrificed animal symbolizing “the death of the sufferer’s self, in
exchange for a new life and identity” (Janzen 1992:102). The ultimate expression of this new life
and renewed identity is the personal song of the sufferer: during the therapy the suffering
individual moves from a passive state (receiving songs from others) to an active and powerful
one, during which he or she composes and sings a song that instructs others in the community.
The ritual of performing this personalized song marks the transformation of the individual back
into the community in a restored condition.
The social relational network that ngoma provides exists beyond the borders of the kinship
group. This has to do with the nature of the individual’s affliction: ngoma therapy facilitates the
healing process of affliction that has its origin in the spiritual world; this kind of affliction differs
from suffering that originates from interpersonal conflict that usually arises within the confines
of the kinship group. This explains why most cults of affliction are performed outside the kin
setting. They are an essential addition to the kinship relations, and they “give the individual
lifelong ties with others along the lines of the new affliction” (Janzen 1992:103; cf. Landau
1996:263). Since the ngoma network functions as an essential supplement to the kin, it also
exists side by side with other relational networks in society. For example, participating in ngoma
does not need to exclude being a church member. In the perspective of ngoma adherents, there is
not necessarily a division between being ‘African’ and ‘Christian’, so references to God, Jesus
and the ancestor spirits in the same ngoma song or ritual do exist and do not cause any friction or
offence 20 .
19. The most obvious examples of separation for healing purposes are provided by the reproductive ngoma cults of
affliction, when women with reproductive problems or who need protection during pregnancy and childbirth are
isolated because of the risk from the stresses of daily life (cf. Spring 1978; Turner 1981; Janzen 1992).
20. Although ngoma practices can include Christian elements, the mainstream churches reject any inclusion of
‘pagan’ or ‘African traditional’ rituals. In some cases ngoma rites were substituted by Christian ceremonies (for
example, the ngoma initiation rite chinamwali in the eastern province of Zambia had been transformed into the
Christian chilangizo, whereby the use of drums was replaced by the reading from church instruction books), in other
cases African drums were only allowed to be used during church services after the drums had been ‘purified’ (in the
sense that they are free from any connection with the spirit world), or ngoma practices continued to be performed in
the original state but out of the reach of the church (cf. Verstraelen-Gilhuis 1982:183; Drews 2000:42f).
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