“Our Spirit Has No Boundary”: White Sangomas and Mediation in Cape Town

Abstract

SUMMARY Fifteen years after apartheid, South African urban spaces remain segregated. Nevertheless, with people mixing more freely, social change has been inevitable. Mediation occurs on all levels of society. Some whites have even become sangomas, traditional African healers, performing rituals in black townships, creating heterotopic reversals of Cape Town's urban spaces. This article examines the many ways in which white sangomas mediate across the boundaries of kinship and race in postapartheid society. I propose the concept of “mediatory space” with regard to the ritual spaces where these crossovers occur.