Facilitating relationships between African traditional healing and western medicine in South Africa in the time of AIDS: A case study from the Western Cape

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa matures, the importance of encouraging a more cooperative approach between biomedicine and traditional African healers (TAHs) becomes paramount. This is not solely based on the potential of the additional human resources which might be released by better relationships with traditional healers - biomedical HIV/AIDS interventions themselves could benefit from a better understanding of traditional ideas of health, disease and healing, ideas which could then be appropriately incorporated into the treatment process. This paper offers a portrait of an innovative project based in the Western Cape Province which aims to make a start in improving cross-sectoral relationships. The paper limits its coverage to the initiatory stages of the scheme, and offers unusual insights into both the potential advantages of cooperation, and into some of the, often mundane, pitfalls and obstacles presented by this sort of approach