They then prepare the specific herbs from plants,
animals, and barks that have curative properties
for such a disease or illness. Several words or
incantations are chanted on the herbs.
Sometimes a whole living animal is used. In a
case of protracted illness, a whole living animal
like a goat or a hen may be provided. The illness
on the client is symbolically transferred on it by
laying hands on it, dragging and beating it to
death, or pursuing it until it becomes weak and
tired, caught, and killed. Some of these may be
cooked for the client to eat all alone. Such activi-
ties are believed to be capable of expelling the
illness from the body of the client.
Among the herbalists are the bone-setters who
also use animals like chickens. They break the legs
of such animals and begin to care for them, the
effect of which transfers to the client. In a case of
contagious disease, some roots, leaves, seeds, and
barks are sometimes burned and ground into dry
powder and rubbed on the body of the client for a
number of days. Specific precautionary instruc-
tions are given to the client on how to use it, usu-
ally followed by taboos. These taboos may include
seclusion or restriction from movement at a par-
ticular time of the day or night or to a particular
place of ritual significance. The instructions may
also include making a feast for a group of persons
and giving some gifts to a specific group of people.
Diviners
People who engage in divination occupy impor-
tant and prominent positions in the public life of
Africans. Most of them are priests and priestesses
who are connected with certain deities. Diviners
serve heuristic purposes in mysterious and hidden
matters. They reveal hidden matters, foretell the
future, and interpret mysteries relating to individ-
ual human beings and their community.
Systems of divination among the Africans
include the Ifa oracle, with its main forms (the use of
palm nuts, divining chain, and the 16 cowrie shells)
being kolanut, water gazing, mirror gazing, star
gazing, palm reading, sand cutting, necromancy,
spirit possession, vision, and so on. Some of these
practices, like the use of palm nuts and divining
chains as we have in Ifa, are peculiar to men among
the Yoruba of Nigeria while the others could be
used by both, particularly priestesses and priests.
Each African group has specific types of divina-
tion that are peculiar to them. It is important to
note, however, that the most developed and tech-
nical type that is common as a reliable means of
revelation among the West African people and the
African diaspora is the 16 cowrie divination. The
use of kolanut is prominent. Diviners acquire their
knowledge through memorization of thousands
of primordial stories that have been passed down
from generation to generation.
Their initiation into the training comes in
stages. Pretraining is when the candidate is ritually
confirmed mentally and emotionally fit to enter
the training. He or she is given ritual ingredients
to swallow that will stimulate and enhance
memorization of the stories that are orally deliv-
ered by the trainer. These stories, which are con-
nected to certain deities, are structured mostly
in prose, retelling the primordial incident of
the disease or illness that the client brings. The
diviner chants and explains the story, revealing
the origin of the disease, what (in most cases,
ritual) was prescribed for the original client, the
reaction of the client to the prescription, and the
effect(s). It is believed that every disease or ill-
ness has its primordial occurrence to which a
healing solution was proffered.
Unlike the herbalists, the diviners deal primar-
ily with hidden matters of high spiritual signifi-
cance, such as interpreting dreams, revealing the
divine wish in matters of rites of passage, reveal-
ing the mystery behind a protracted illness (even
those that are not treatable by the herbalists), and
proffering solutions into explicable and crisis situ-
ations and matters, all of which are considered as
ill health to individuals and the community.
Dream is perhaps the most dreaded and ter-
rible experience for which people consult divin-
ers. The reason is that dream experiences affect
the mental state of most indigenous peoples,
which in most cases cause psychological disor-
der, leading to misbehavior and maladjustment.
Dream covers a wide range of human affairs.
A few cases will suffice. Persons with illness
often claim that they have a dream before they
fall sick; a pregnant woman who dreams is
filled with dread by the experience whatever the
content, or a suitor is afraid of getting into a
relationship with the one who is not his or her
destined fiancé or fiancée.Medicine 417