Abstract
African traditional medicine (ATM) continues to be a prominent subject in public discourse in South Africa. Studies suggest that up to 80% of Black South Africans consult traditional healers (commonly known as izangoma). In this chapter I explain what practitioners of ATM take themselves to do. Thereafter, I consider the rationale to decolonize medicine as it applies to the African traditional medicine in South Africa. The rationale calls for the tolerance, protection, and respect of the value of multiple medical knowledge systems in South Africa. I argue that interpreting this rationale—that ATM is epistemically equivalent to Western mainstream medicine—implies wholesale medical relativism. I argue that wholesale medical relativism is problematic and counterproductive to the aims of the decolonization of medicine.
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