Abstract
Absence of health, that is, sickness in Africa is viewed in personalistic terms. A disease is explained as effected by ‘the active purposeful intervention of an agent, who may be human’, non-human (a ghost, an ancestor, an ‘evil spirit), or supernatural (a deity or other very powerful being)’ (Foster). Illness is thus attributed to breaking of taboos, offending God and/ or ancestral spirits; witchcraft, sorcery, the evil eye, passion by an evil spirit and a curse from parents or from an offended neighbour. In view of these personalistic theories of ill health, treatment is through ritual purification, exorcism or sacrifices. For an appropriate diagnosis and intervention, it is imperative to determine ‘who’ caused the illness and then ‘why’ it was caused, to which answers are offered through divination by a healer. This interpretive framework, is applicable to all types of sickness, facilitates co-existence of African traditional healing and biomedical treatment, that is, plurality of health seeking practices. The approach fails to offer a constructive approach and contradicts the biblical healing framework whereby one may not have explanatory causes to a situation of ill health. This article engaged the biblical concept of shalōm as a relevant constructive framework. The Hebrew concept of shalōm, though distinctly salvific, is inclusive of holistic and personalistic healing aspects. The concept encompasses constructive aspects of completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquillity, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony and the absence of agitation or discord, which provides a useful holistic healing theological framework. It therefore provides a health and well-being framework that is relational, sensitive and applicable to healing patterns in Africa. Using the case study of the Abaluyia people of East Africa, this article discussed bereavement as a state that requires healing and how the biblical framework of shalōm could be applied in fostering bereavement healing.
Highlights
Note: This article is published in the section Practical Theology of the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa
Gwele (2005:50f.) rightly notes that plurality of health systems defines the context of sub-Saharan Africa where plurality is visible not just at the level of differing kinds of health providers, each resting their science and practice on different world views, and at the level of health seekers
Lazarus (2004) maintains that the reality in Africa and South Africa indicates that people have a wide range of health systems to choose from when they are not well
Summary
Affiliations: 1School of Ecclesiastical Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa. The concept encompasses constructive aspects of completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquillity, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony and the absence of agitation or discord, which provides a useful holistic healing theological framework. The concept encompasses holistic constructive aspects of completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquillity, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony and the absence of agitation or discord, which provides a useful holistic healing theological framework. This article demonstrates this framework using a case study of bereavement of cultural experiences of Abaluyia people of East Africa. The bereaved can begin the process of healing when they acknowledge the pathos of bereavement and actively or passively pursue and accommodate various healing interventions. Simfukwe (2006:1462) helpfully observes that each culture must respond to the reality of death in a way that enables the survivor to recover from the trauma of loss and live in hope
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