World in Transition and the Relevance of Indigenous Psychology

Abstract

My journey started at Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, an academic
hospital in a Colored township that served disadvantaged populations during apartheid
(African, Indian, and Colored). I worked there during the 1990s for ten years as head of
psychology and supervisor for clinical psychology training. Over those years, I encountered a
number of patients for whom Western medicine had failed but the patients’ symptoms were
gone after they received treatment from a traditional African healer (sangoma). One case that
stuck in my mind was a 12-year-old boy with severe epilepsy. His EEG [electroencephalograph]
was abnormal and he was on several different medications. Unfortunately, after number of
visits to neurologists and psychiatrists and despite different medications he tried, he was still
unwell and continued to have epileptic attacks. After few years of seeing doctors at the hospital,
the family shared in confidence, due to worries they would be stigmatized, that they were
desperate for help and would be taking their son to a traditional healer. A few months
later I was amazed by the miracle that happened: the child was not only free of symptoms,
but the EEG was no longer abnormal. We had no reasonable explanation for this magic
healing.