African religious systems

As there is an African way of understanding God … in the same way, there is an African way of understanding the world, the visible world around us – the cattle, trees, people and cities as well as the unseen world, the supernatural world of spirits, powers, and diseases’ (Oduro et al. 2008:9). 

In spite of the introduction of Western medicine and health care systems in Africa, many African communities still rely on traditional health care (World Health Organisation [WHO] 2001). 

The WHO (2000:1) defines traditional medicine/health care as ‘the total combination of knowledge and practice, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosing, preventing or eliminating physical, mental and social diseases. 

This practice exclusively relies on past experience and observation handed down from generation to generation verbally or in written form’. 

In the view of Helms and Cook (1999), indigenous healing refers to the helpful beliefs and practices that originate within a culture or society, and are designed to treat the inhabitants of a given community. Kofi-Tsekpo (2004:i–ii) notes that the phrase ‘traditional medicine’ has become a catchword among the peoples in all countries in Africa. 

This is partly because the use of herbal remedies has gained popularity worldwide and the exploitation of these remedies has become a multimillion industry. 

He further argues that the term ‘African traditional medicine’ is not synonymous with ‘alternative and complimentary medicine’. 

African traditional medicine is the African indigenous system of health care and, therefore, cannot be an alternative. 

In Africa, there is an important reason why African traditional medicine has become increasingly popular. The high cost of allopathic medical health care and the expensive pharmaceutical products have become unavailable to a majority of people.

In view of the above, this article seeks to describe the African traditional religions’ view regarding disease, causes of disease, how disease is diagnosed and treated.

 In doing this, the role of the diviner and ‘herbalists’ would be discussed with a special focus on Ghana. In order to avoid any form of prejudice, the phenomenological method for the study of religions was used.

‘Epistemologically, phenomenological approaches are powerful for understanding subjective experience, gaining insights into people's motivations and actions, and cutting through the clutter of taken-for-granted assumptions and conventional wisdom’ (Lester 1999:1). 

It, therefore, involves methods of recognising, identifying, describing, and categorising objects, events and language which are usually labelled as ‘religious’ (Cox 2010:25–29). 

Dr Jaco Beyers stated on 03 August 2013, when I interviewed him in the Department of Science of Religion and Missiology at the University of Pretoria, that the purpose of phenomenology is to re-establish contact with the raw materials of life itself by identifying and understanding them as the phenomenon presents it. 

It is therefore important for the researcher to bracket his or her assumptions and judgements when approaching the phenomenon to be studied. Scholars such as Bleeker Van der Leeuw (1963), Ninian Smart (1973a, 1973b) and Mircea Eliade (1987) have recommended the use of phenomenological methodology for the scientific pursuit of knowledge of religions in the 20th century. This is exactly what I intend to do in this article.


Traditional Healer http://www.traditional-healer.net
Love spells http://www.traditional-healer.net/love-spells.html
Voodoo healer http://www.traditional-healer.net/voodoo-healer-spells.html
Money spells http://www.traditional-healer.net/money-spells.html
Fertility spells http://www.traditional-healer.net/fertility-spells.html
Magic rings http://www.traditional-healer.net/magic-rings.html
Ancestral spirits http://www.traditional-healer.net/ancestral-spirits.html
White Sangomas http://www.traditional-healer.net/white-sangomas.html
Spiritual healer http://www.traditional-healer.net