The perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of traditional healers and traders about using cultivated plants in South Africa.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2018Afrocentric worldviews believe in the existence of ancestors, and traditional healers are consulted for communication with them. Traditional healers dispense various animal and plant parts to rid their clients of the problems that they might be facing. Animal and plant parts that are considered medicinal in the broad sense are therefore vital in African belief systems. Medicinal plants are rapidly declining in the wild due to over-harvesting, development and urbanisation, and various initiatives such as law enforcement have been used to combat the decline, but they have not been successful. Cultivation is one of the methods that has been used to mitigate the decline of medicinal plants. Cultivation is viable because healers and traders can easily practice it, if they have the necessary requirements for it such as land, water, propagation material and time. Importantly, however, there is limited scientific knowledge about the acceptability of cultivated medicinal plants by healers and traders. The aim of the study is to determine the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of traditional healers and traders about medicinal plant cultivation, and identify plants that are a priority to healers and traders, to contribute to a greater understanding of the cultural opportunities and challenges for cultivating medicinal plants as a conservation strategy. Five markets were surveyed: Marabastad, Mona, Faraday, Ezimbuzini and Warwick. Healers from Soweto, Nhlungwane and Umlazi were surveyed. Two residential areas and three markets are located in KwaZulu-Natal province. Two markets and one residential area were surveyed in Gauteng province. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to survey the places and overall 114 respondents (42 healers and 72 healers) were interviewed. The results of the study show that healers and traders accept using and selling cultivated medicinal plants. Nevertheless, certain aspects of the spiritual and cultural entities of medicinal plants need to be sustained and ensured even when cultivating. Plants that are used for rituals and those that are chosen by ancestors via dreams are specifically required to be collected in the wild. Healers and traders have different knowledge about spiritual limitation concerning medicinal plants. However, the perceptions are not significantly different to a point in which they would be approached separately in conservation plans. Furthermore, location and ethnicity also have a great influence in both healers and traders perception about cultivated medicinal plants.XL201