Medicine Beliefs Traditional Doctors Healers Other Practitioners

© 2023 Dr Margaret Sheppard

Remedies

Medicines used by traditional doctors consist mainly of roots and herbs and animal fats (especially from wild animals), much like those of a standard herbalist. However they are also mixed with other substances that are believed to be potent for various cases, for example  the ash taken from a tree that has been struck by lightning is reputed to be a very strong protection. It may be used in the medicated water to wash a family and yard where lightning has struck, to protect them. Some medicines are ground up and boiled, some are taken orally, others are purgatives, or emetics, others are rubbed into incisions made on the joints with a razor blade, whilst others are inhaled. In each case the prescription is “seen" in the ditaola.

1 Washing of People


Washing  takes place either in the morning or towards sunset. This is presumably so that it is carried out at a time of day when there are shadows. As it is believed that a person has problems when their seriti (shadow) is weak and another person's seriti is overcasting them and making them too weak to withstand problems. Therefore treatment must take place at the times of shadows.

When I observed the “washing” of patients, the traditional doctor did it in a small enclosure in his yard. The patients sat down on a low wooden bench having taken off all clothing except their underwear. The medicated water was in either a metal bowl, or on another occasion it was in a large tortoise shell painted green on the outside.

This practice varies from doctor to doctor, as do the words used whilst washing. The doctor I observed dipped in a buffalo tail whisk (seditse) and then sprinkled the medicated water over the patients. As he did so he repeated the following:

" I'm a big man, I don't go challenging other people. If one challenges me, the top layer of his skin will come off in his hands. Anyone who touches him with his nails, his nails will drop out... I surprise the weapons of him with my green head which I have been given by my home man.*1 Children of other men are not supposed to be touched *2 ... If you touch somebody's children, your hands will drop off, or else if you try to gnaw any part of their body, or put it in your mouth, this part of your tongue or mouth will drop out...I'm entering with you, a talkative. The one who touches you will talk louder *3... They're not supposed to be touched. The daughter of lightning is not supposed to be touched, in case the mother explodes.*4

( *1 Home man usually means relative, here it probably means another traditional doctor, probably the one who taught him.

*2 i.e. people are not supposed to be bewitched.

*3 Louder - anyone who tries to bewitch this person will only bewitch themself and go mad.

*4 These words were recited when two unrelated women were washed together. One was a girl who had been cured of a fractured leg, and the other was a woman who wanted her husband to love her more and complete their marriage.)


On another occasion a family were washed with the following words which perhaps indicate how traditional protections often work by reflecting the evil intentions from a sorcerer back to that sorcerer:-

"I'm arriving with you my white pheko (protective ointment (see below). I don't challenge anybody, I challenge the one who challenges me. I don't trouble anybody, only the one who troubles me. No one should dare to touch these people. If you dare to touch them, your hands will be skinned. Don't dare to put your hands in your mouth, or you will get sores in your mouth too. The first milk of lightning is never milked,. Don't dare to put them on your thighs. Your thighs will start to have sores. Do not dare to touch them...because of your rudeness, trying to challenge the weapons of a real man... You there surprised the women's ones. Please do eat them, but leave them afterwards. The other men are not touched. Do try to touch them with all your power. But do leave them afterwards. The children of other men are not touched. Do try to touch them with all your power. The children of other men are never touched. If you dare to touch them your skin on your hands will peel off. If you dare to put them in your mouth your mouth will peel. If you put them on your thighs, your thighs will have sores. The children of other men are never touched. If you try to roll them, they'll roll you. If you try to turn them, they'll turn you. If you dare to touch them, your hands will be peeled off. The children of other men are never touched, as the first milk of lightning is never touched... You should know them, and do leave them. The children of other men are not touched. The talkative, do look after these people. The talkative one who will dare to touch them will talk more. The one who laughs after nothing, will laugh for ever.”

These were the complete words recited whilst the traditional doctor washed a family to protect them against the problems they had been having.



Family waiting to be Washed. They had previously consulted the doctor about their problems and each in turn cast the bones to “show” the remedy.

First the doctor asked the husband and wife to each to cast the bones to check that the “Washing” was correct for the family. First the husband. On the left - the doctor’s wife was observing.

Then the wife

Then followed the “washing”. As the doctor flicked the medicated, protective water over each member of the family, he recited the above incantations.


2 Pheko - protective ointment


A fairly common treatment for an individual suffering from  the effects of boloi (sorcery) is to be given pheko. This is a traditional ointment, blackish in colour. The basis is animal fats into which have been mixed herbal and animal, ground medicines. The patient rubs pheko into the skin once a day.

The aim of pheko is to protect the sufferer from harm and to reflect any evil intentions back to their source. When I observed this being prescribed, the traditional doctor, after "seeing" the necessity for its use from his bones, asked the patient to bring a suitable container - he suggested an empty vaseline jar. He then, when the container had been brought, took different ointments from his own ointment jars, and mixed them together. He then asked the bones if the remedy was correct - i.e. before he threw the bones and as he asked this question, he tapped the bones on the ointment jar. After receiving a favourable affirmation from his bones, he instructed the patient on how to use the ointment, i.e. first to mix it with red vaseline. The important parts of the body to rub it were the face, front and back, arms and legs and soles of the feet. Also, as with all traditional medicines, no one but the patient and doctor should touch it.