The spiritual and social dimensions, however,
interact because both are claimed to have origi-
nated from the same source; they always have on
them the stamp of spiritual beings. Illness or dis-
ease includes all forms of human discomfort and
suffering (mental, social, and physical), misfor-
tunes, ill luck or bad luck, failure, and barrenness;
environmental crises including drought and
famine and their unpleasant effects on such phe-
nomena as animals and land; and natural disaster
and calamity.
Healing and Healing PracticesHealing concerns the mental (psychological),
social, and physical aspects of human life, as well
as a harmonious and peaceful environment. The
diagnostic and healing techniques, the kind of
healing agents to consult, prescription and appli-
cation of medical elements, and material contents
of the medicine are determined by the cause and
nature of disease and illnesses, the courses and
duration of episodes, and the effects on victim or
patient and the community.
Myth is the primary source of African peoples’
understanding of healing practices. Ritual prac-
tices constitute the centerpiece of diagnosis,
explanation, control, and treatment of disease.
Ritual practices aim at returning human beings
and the environment to a normal state or condi-
tion and preventing unseen influences of evil spir-
itual forces and soliciting the support of
benevolent spirit forces.
SourcesofHealingPower
The nonempirical and empirical resources both
constitute the sources of African healing power in
sustaining their universe. The nonempirical
involves the tapping of the power, by therapeutic
specialists, from the Supreme Being, lesser deities,
ancestral spirits, and living individuals who are
believed to have been endowed by spiritual beings.
Also, certain statements, expressions, and invoca-
tions that embody spiritual references are strong
and potential sources of enhancing and enforcing
healing.
The empirical resources include biotic elements
including animals, plants, and water, which
enhance healing and wholeness. Other material
elements including natural phenomena and objects
that are spiritually strengthened by ritual activities
are potential sources of medicinal efficacy. In both
cases, the sources are claimed to have been
revealed to the forebears of medical practice who
continued to pass them on to generations after
them in a conscious manner, through training of
their offspring or those divinely chosen, or in an
unconscious way through normal daily uses.Methods
Africans employ a comprehensive approach in
their methods of healing. These nonexclusive
categories include psychotherapy, somatherapy,
metaphysicotherapy, and hydrotherapy. Psycho-
therapy involves the use of symbolic elements,
actions, and words that could affect calmness and
physical and spiritual upliftment. Ritual special-
ists engage patients with diverse health problems
in collective domestic activities in their backyards.
Sometimes patients jointly perform some dramatic
socioritual activities where the ritual specialist
ecstatically invokes blessings on individuals.
Somatherapy deals with the application of
some physical measures like incision, chaining, or
tying of consecrated thread and chains on wrists,
necks, and waists. Objects are also symbolically
used to counter the activities of perceived enemies
of the victim to remove misfortunes and command
success and harmony. The ritual specialist may tell
the victim or community to provide ritual ele-
ments for human beings or spirit forces to share;
the victim or the community may also be
instructed to carry ritual elements to a particular
sacred place or shrine to restore health or affect
ontological equilibrium.
Metaphysicotherapy deals with the application
of nonempirical means to affect healing. In this
sense, the ritual specialist plays an active role in
private consultation of the Spiritual Being, whose
nature and function are associated with the ill-
ness, and the spiritual being whose responsibility
it is to affect the healing. The ritual specialist uses
incantations, spells, and other invocatory state-
ments to bring order into chaos. Hydrotherapy,
the use of water for healing, has its strong effect
and efficacy not only in African ethnocosmology,
but also in several creation myths of the other
peoples of the world. There is the universal beliefMedicine 415