Perceptions of Disease, Illness and Healing among Selected Black Communities in the Northern Province, South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Perceptions of Disease, Illness and Healing among Selected Black Communities in the Northern Province, South Africa
Author:	Mabunda, Michael M.
Year:	2001
Periodical:	South African Journal of Ethnology
Volume:	24
Issue:	1
Pages:	11-16
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	attitudes public health Health and Nutrition Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Abstract:	Focusing on three elite groups all of whom are members of rapidly changing and developing black communities in the Pietersburg and Mankweng districts of the Northern Province of South Africa, this article aims to determine their perceptions of disease and health care. The groups included students at the University of the North, patients and staff members of hospitals, and church members. The data revealed extensive coexistence of traditional and modern perceptions. The notion of supernatural causality associated with many diseases and other afflictions predominated among all three sample groups but was highest among university students. In the case of those diseases regarded as 'natural' the dispensers of biomedicine are normally consulted. In the case of maladies associated with witchcraft, the transgression of taboos and the actions of the ancestor spirits, traditional healers are still resorted to. Bibliogr., sum. in Afrikaans and English.