The Transformation of Indigenous Medical Practice in South Africa (1985-2000)

Volume entitled: Bodies and Politics. Healing Rituals in the Democratic South Africa, Co-ordinated by Véronique FAURE, co-edited by Arnold SHEPPERSONThis paper aims to address the conditions which affected and were affected by indigenous medical practice (between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s) and the consequent opposing responses to such developments. It is argued that the socio-economic and political conditions prevailing between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s drastically changed the economic, political, social and personal security of Africans, during the time when the responsible state institutions were unable or reluctant to respond to their needs. People who were threatened or under assault therefore found refuge in the protective powers of indigenous medicines. Since some of the conditions they attempted to address were new, indigenous medicines and the practice itself were changed (as they had consistently changed over time) in order to respond effectively to such conditions