Practices and beliefs of the traditional Dinka healer in relation to provision of modern medical and veterinary services for the Southern Sudan.

Abstract

One class of traditional Dinka healers is a practical surgeon-bonesetter-obstetrician who practices (all but obstetrics) on both people and animals. His anatomical, physiological, and pathological knowledge and surmises, derived almost entirely from observations on cattle, are in some respects remarkable, especially those on the function of the kidney and nature of the circulatory system. He shares with ancient Egyptian healers the belief that sperm originate in the spinal cord and brain and performs a unique surgical operation on the horns of bulls that has been known in the Nile valley since the Egyptian 5th dynasty. With minimum training he might function effectively within the governmental health and veterinary services of the southern Sudan, an area populated mostly by transhumant cattle-culture peoples not easily reached through conventional health services.