3.4 The process of ukuthwasa
3.4.1 Personal sacrifice for ukuthwasa
Ukuthwasa is not generally welcomed as it means that one has to give up one’s life and dreams to do what one has been called to do by the ancestors. It is a difficult and exhausting training process that is usually met with resistance. The participants in this research shared that they had met their calling with resistance. Families of some performed certain rituals as a way of
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asking the ancestors to leave them and choose other older individuals; however, the rituals did not work and the participants eventually became sangomas.
“No one wants to become a sangoma, no one wants this life. I cried and cried, I asked my father to help me get free from my ancestors. He tried, we performed all kinds of rituals that people told us about… After every ritual, it would be quiet for a while, but they would come back again. What I do not like about this life is that you have to give up your dreams and aspirations for them. You give your life up for the ancestors because what they want they get…
Your life is controlled by them. My dream was to become a teacher one day, but I had to leave school in Form One. Every time I opened a book they would get angry, even though I couldn’t see them I would feel it. My eyes would water up and I wouldn’t be able to see anything after that. I guess the ones that chose me were amaqaba, I guess maybe that felt that school would distract me from what they wanted me to do. – Juliet
“I tried to avoid them, my grandmother took me to mthandazeli who was supposed to pray for and heal me. We heard about him from a woman who had claimed that she too had ubizo but never became a sangoma because this mthandazeli chased her ancestors away… The mthandazeli was my last hope, I would pray every minute of the day to have God take this away from me. He charged us a cow to perform the cleansing and said they would never bother me again, he gave me water that I was supposed to use when bathing, he said the water would drive them away. It was all a lie, they remained and instead they came more frequent and I got sick. My grandmother told me to stop running or I was going to die. I did not want them, I did not want to share my body, why would they choose me anyways? I was the youngest at home…”
– Angela
“What I do not like is that they are intimidating, whether you want to become isangoma or not is none of their business…. They want you to carry out their wishes, when I was sick all the doctors and nurses did not know what was wrong with me. One time, I was taken to a Catholic hospital where I was attended to by an old nurse who advised me to go see a sangoma because there was simply no diagnosis for my illness and I was only getting worse. A few days later my family took me to a sangoma in a nearby community, I will never forget that man because he confirmed my greatest fear. He told me that I needed to go to initiation school and start training and that nothing will heal me. Ukuthwasa is the only cure for my illness…” – Prudence
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This gift takes away freedom from an individual and is often met with resistance. The above responses confirm the assertions by Booi (2004, 3) that “the diagnosis of ukuthwasa is often resisted, and the sick person and the relatives can consult several amagqira to have it confirmed or negated. It is resisted because the training and treatment is long, demanding and expensive.”
The above findings contribute to the financial, psychological and autonomy constraints on the individual and the family, when viewed from the African feminist perspective.
The African feminist advocates for the emancipation of women from oppressive cultures that would constrain their autonomy such as those expressed in the foregoing responses on women’s experiences in their call to operating under ukuthwasa (Peterson 1984). The diagnosis of ukuthwasa needs to be accepted by all those that it will affect as it is not an individual journey;
even though it is the chosen individual who has to go through the training process, the family also play a supporting role and have to participate in some of the rituals that will be performed during and after the process of ukuthwasa.
The mysticism that shrouds the lives of those who have the calling to become sangomas is also manifested in a sickness known as ukuthwasa. Ukuthwasa can be defined as a culture bound syndrome. This means that it is not easy for an outsider to understand and grasp the concept of ukuthwasa; it is even difficult for people in the same cultural system to understand this phenomenon as it is only sangomas themselves that have a deep understanding of the process.
While the concept can be regarded as social capital for those who are sangomas, there is also a stigma manifested in the negative recognition that society generally attaches to the social identity of these women. Hence, despite their positive contribution to society in their services as TBAs, they do not enjoy the experience of being called, neither are they always favourably recognised by the community except when their services are required.
Mlisa (2009, 7) has noted that “in Western terms, afflictions such as palpitations or auditory and visual hallucinations that are often experienced during ukuthwasa would be diagnosed as pathological conditions associated with mental disturbances. In ukuthwasa, such afflictions are viewed as normal characteristics and as emic signs of ukuthwasa”. There are negative implications on the social capital of the women as ukuthwasa affects the kind of self-concept or social identity that they derive from the experience (Hogg et al. 1995). In other words, it is only considered culturally normal for a select few who are deeply aware of these experiences.
Hallucinations, pathology and mental disturbances are not generally positive social recognitions.
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