Thwasa and Initiation
Both men and women can become traditional healers. A sangoma is believed to be "called" to heal through an initiation illness; symptoms involve psychosis, headache, intractable stomach pain, shoulder or neck complaints or illness that cannot be cured by conventional methods. These problems together must be seen by a sangoma as twasa or the calling of the ancestors. Sangomas believe that failure to respond to the calling will result in further illness until the person concedes and goes to be trained. The word twasa is derived from thwasa which means 'the light of the new moon' or from ku mu thwasisa meaning 'to lead to the light'. A trainee sangoma (or ithwasa) trains formally under another sangoma for a period of anywhere between a number of months and many years. The training involves learning humility to the ancestors, purification through steaming, washing in the blood of sacrificed animals, and the use of muti, medicines with spiritual significance.
The ithwasa may not see their families during training and must abstain from sexual contact and often live under harsh and strict conditions. This is part of the cleansing process to prepare the healer for a life's work of dedication to healing and the intense experiences of training tend to earn a deeply entrenched place in the sangoma's memory.
During the training period the ithwasa will share their ailments in the form of song and dance, a process that is nurtured by the analysis of dreams, anxieties, and with prayer. The story develops into a song which becomes a large part of the graduation type ceremony that marks the end of the ithwasa's training. At times in the training, and for the graduation, a ritual sacrifice of an animal is performed (usually chickens and a goat or a cow). The spilling and drinking of this blood is meant to seal the bond between the ancestors and the sangoma.
At the end of thwasa and during initiation, a goat is sacrificed to call to the ancestors and appease them. The local community, friends and family are all invited to the initiation to witness and celebrate the completion of training. The ithwasa is also tested by the local elder sangomas to determine whether they have the skills and insight necessary to heal. The climactic initiation test is to ensure the ithwasa has the ability to "see" things hidden from view. This is signified and proved when other sangomas hide the ithwasa's sacred objects, including the gall bladder of the goat that was sacrificed and the ithwasa must, in front of the community, call upon their ancestors, find the hidden objects and return them back to the sangomas that hid them, thus proving they have the ability to "see" beyond the physical world.
Read more about this topic: Traditional Healers Of South Africa
Famous quotes containing the word initiation:
“Until the end of the Middle Ages, and in many cases afterwards too, in order to obtain initiation in a trade of any sort whatever—whether that of courtier, soldier, administrator, merchant or workman—a boy did not amass the knowledge necessary to ply that trade before entering it, but threw himself into it; he then acquired the necessary knowledge.”
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)