There are numerous illnesses and diseases in
Africa that claim many lives, such as tuberculosis,
malaria, and cholera. HIV/AIDS is one such kind
of disease that has affected many people. Millions
have died so far, creating the problem of orphans
who need care and attention. Vaccinations are
available as a form of protection against the spread
of the diseases. Global efforts to combat disease
are hindered by insufficient resources. But there
are also some policies that restrict access to essen-
tial treatment and comprehensive health care.
Tabona Magondo ShokoSeealsoDisease; Healing
Further Readings
Chavunduka, G.L. (1978).Traditional Healers and the
Shona Patient. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press.
Dubos, R. (1986). Determinants of Health and Disease.
Britannica Perspectives, 1 , 281.
Herzlich, C. (1973).Health and Illness. London:
Academic Press.
Yoder, P. S. (Ed.). (1982).African Health and Healing
Systems:Proceedings of a Symposium. Los Angeles:
Crossroads.
HEKA
Hekais an ancient Egyptian word that meant the
action of a complete living force; it was also the
name of an Egyptian deity. Yet the word has been
confused, misused, and misunderstood because of
distorted perspectives from some Westerners, who
have claimed that the wordHekais the deification
of magic, but that is only a part of the story. The
word is literally the activating of the ka. Now
it is true that some Egyptians understood heka to
work by activation of the ka of a person because
the embodied personality of someone’s ka had
great power and energy. It also includes the use of
heka as activation of the ka of the gods.
To write the word for the power and the god,
one used the same glyphs, which were a twisted
piece of flax with raised arms. It resembled snakes
entwined and consequently was depicted as a man
choking two serpents. The priesthood of the deity
Heka performed all rituals that had to do with
healing and medicine because it was thought that
Heka was responsible for the well-being of
humans.
Clearly, it was thought that Heka activated the
Ka, and as the son of Atum, the creator, or
Khnum, the creator at Elephantine, Heka was
within the divine circle. Those priests and priest-
esses who officiated during the presence of Heka
were attuned to the essential qualities of theka
being.
Magic in the Western world has often been
equated with heka. This is unfortunate because
heka is a religious rather than a nonreligious prac-
tice. Nor is heka used as a form of blasphemy.
One cannot equate magic with heka so easily, and
yet that is precisely what one gets from reading
the texts of many Egyptologists. There is no dis-
tinction between the religious and the secular
worlds in ancient Egypt. Furthermore, there is
no word for religion in the ancient Egyptian
language.
But there was the idea of Heka, and it could
function because there was no duality as the kind
that the Western world knows. In fact, there was
no attempt to make a difference between prayer
requests or medicine; they were part of the same
process. In Egypt, the human was a whole being,
with a ka, but as a person, whole. Thus, to speak
of heka, one must speak only of that which is
whole. Magic or heka could only exist because of
the wholeness of the human.
To be Great of Magic, as in the case of the
deities Auset and Sekhmet, meant having the abil-
ity to use powers to transform the lives of people.
Words of power could be given to ordinary
Egyptians by music, poetry, and dancing. Although
words were considered divine and powerful,
particularly in the sense of their generative qual-
ity, they often did not have the same immediacy as
other forms of expression, such as dancing.
All words were divine. They could be spoken or
written, but when they were used in ceremonies of
heka, they could be given immense properties that
would allow them to have energy over bad people,
evil motives, and selfish or destructive personal-
ities. One could use heka to replicate a name, to
duplicate an image, or to bring about a good
effect on a situation through the manipulation of
the person’s name.312 Heka