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Pathisa Nyathi

We continue to look at how the coronavirus impacts on the practice of African culture.

Central to the considerations are the mandatory measures that have been put in place by the World Health Organisation (WHO) through the various national governments who are its member states.

United States President Donald Trump chickened out of the health body at a time when WHO most needed their guidance and support.

Now that political sanity has been restored in the USA we look forward to the country rejoining WHO.

We have observed that Africa places a lot of emphasis on the group more than it does on the individual. Clearly that way of social organisation runs in the face of measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.

In today’s installment we shall look at African Spirituality (also referred to in some quarters as African Traditional Religion, ATR).

ATR is a utilitarian or functional spirituality which places spiritual beings at the centre. It is spirituality that drives and powers religion. Through ATR healing of the sick is performed.

Mostly healing is done through the use of bio-medicines. In the case of the indigenous syncretic churches spiritual healing is also carried out.

There is some observed link between diseases and the work of bad spirits and demons that must be cast out. Placing of hands and the accompanying voice are the joint processes at work to take care of that.

The choice of healing procedure is arrived at after divination or spiritually informed and guided diagnostic procedures.

We are just about to publish a ground breaking book on seashell divination penned by a practitioner who also is an academic.

That will be followed later by another book on four-tablet divination.

In both forms of divination the spirits are at the centre. Divination was thus the initial step in the process leading to healing or treatment.

The disease and cause have to be identified and that followed by an appropriate treatment regimen.

Some methods of administration may involve the traditional doctor getting in contact with the patient or at least getting closer than the recommended distance in social distancing.

A case in point is when incisions have to be made on the patient’s body by the doctor. A sharp object such as a razor blade or needle may be used.

Medicine, usually in the form of powder or water-based mixture are administered through the cut skin.

For the doctor to avoid touching the patient’s skin may be a far cry. The practice may therefore offer some opportunity for the overzealous coronavirus to spread.

Traditional healing was a medical procedure with a strong spiritual dimension. Essentially it revolved around enhancing the spiritual endowment of a particular chosen individual.

It was a process of getting into the elliptical and spiritual orbit of cosmic bodies and be in sync with their movements and attendant rhythm, periodicity and seasonality.

It is for this reason that ATR has been described as an astral religion. Enhancing the spiritual component in an individual involves elaborate procedures some of which involve singing.

Just how effective is singing when one’s mouth is covered with a face mask? Voices become muffled. The effect is like a sound-proof room where orchestral performances go on.

Drumming is an integral part of spiritual music-making among many African communities on the continent. During the drumming process it is possible to touch the drum skin which a previous drummer might have got into contact with.

The virus may be transmitted that way-through indirect contact.

Drumming may not therefore be recommended in these days when Covid-19 is running amok. It creates situations where the virus is effortlessly spread.

The best sounds from the drums are when they are arranged close together. That translates to drummers sitting close to each other and violating the mandatory social distancing.

The drums may have to fall silent till the trials for a coronavirus vaccine are successfully concluded. In any case, the vaccine may not readily reach the poorest sections of African societies.

Where spiritual initiation and attendant drumming still go on, the people are economically poor though very rich in their traditional cultural ways and practices.

During spiritual initiation the initiates share a lot of items of their trade.

There are times when they have to go out together to dig up roots and obtain various parts of plants that they will mix up and make out of them various medical formulations needed for their spiritual initiation and treatment of patients.

The digging instruments are handled by different people. Similarly, when the raw materials are processed there is a high chance of indirect contamination. The initiates may touch the pestle and mortar that they are using.

The possibilities for transmission of the coronavirus are numerous within this broad medico-cultural field which is the training institution for the perpetuation of spiritual and spirit-based education.

Where grouping is part of an African cultural practice, so long shall such cultural practices remain under threat from the ravages of Covid-19 which seems to favour those communities that are individualistic in approach.

As long as Africa is not taking the initiative in designing strategies to curtail the spread of Covid-19, so long shall Africa depend on the strategies that are culturally extraneous to their worldview and its translation to cultural practices.