Healers,Leaders and Entrepreneurs: Shamanic Revival in Southern Siberia

While it is generally agreed that in the postmodern world all tradition is invented, in many post-colonial contexts the emerging identities are spelled out in the idiom of ‘traditional heritage’. This article considers the social field of ‘shamanism’ as it has been shaped in the post-Soviet years in Tuva, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation in Southern Siberia, and analyses Tuvan shamanism as a product of local historical and social forces, and global processes. Based on both the ethnography of the organisational structure of contemporary Tuvan shamanism, and portraits of different categories of practitioners, the article analyses continuity and change in various aspects of what is locally seen as ‘traditional knowledge’, and discusses different skills, orientations, and divisions of labour among the practitioners. Shamanism in post-Soviet Siberia is seen as a postmodern religious movement enmeshed in global structures and processes, and it is only in this context that a local tradition can become alive and meaningful again.     

Foreign Investments in Southern Africa

“If one believes in the Prince of Peace one must stop committing crimes in the name of the Prince of Peace. The Christian Church still rules this world, it still has the power to change the structure of South Africa.” James Baldwin in his address to the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Uppsala, 1968.     

African Dreamers and Healers

The author spent five summers in South Africa, doing a cross-cultural study of the indigenous healers among the Zulus in Natal Province, near Durban. She compared the indigenous healers, the isangomas, with a second and seemingly evolving group of healers in the Zulu culture, called prophets. The prophets are connected with a powerful, breakaway Christian movement in South Africa and other parts of Africa that is known as the African Independent Churches or AIC. In this article she shares the conclusions of her research and her comparison of the ways the Zulu healers interpret and value dreams and how Jungian analysts might interpret similar dreams. She sought to identify and understand how the Zulu god-image might be in flux as the Zulu culture is changing in response to other cultures, in particular, the more powerful Western European culture with its advanced technology. Relying on Edward Edinger's conceptualization of the consequences of the destruction of the god-image, she concludes that, in this case, instead of the “cup being broken,” it could be that the “cup is changing its shape.”     

The State,Democracy, and Development in Southern Africa

Development cannot be left to the “magic wand” of market forces alone. This observation has been vindicated by the dismal failure of the IMF/World Bank policies in Africa since the 1970s/80s. That development needs an active state participation and some deliberately dirigiste policies brooks no controversy. Interestingly, even the World Bank has begrudgingly come to accept the centrality of the state in development after peddling policies premised on market fundamentalism for decades. Consensus is now emerging in development discourses in Africa that both states and markets do play an important complimentary role in the development process. The idea that this article canvasses is that both democracy and development need a robust, capable, democratic developmental state. A democratic developmental state operates in such a way that it leaves ample room for other key non-state actors to make their critical input in the development agenda and the democratization process. The article revisits the debate on the post-colonial state; interrogates challenges for democratic governance and sustainable human development; revisits the nexus between democracy and development in the context of Southern Africa. It further investigates the impact of the current process of accelerated globalization on the state, democratization, and development project in the SADC region.     

Voices of African Traditional Healers: Cultural Context and Implications for the Practice of Counselling in Sub-Saharan Africa

The healing paradigm implicit in many sub-Saharan African cultures is embedded in African cosmology, and thus the recognition of this is essential for understanding Traditional African Healing practices and implementing collaborative counselling practices. To this end, this article focuses on the cultural importance, or voice, of traditional healers in sub-Saharan Africa. The current article uses an ethnographic approach to analyse systematically the cultural context of indigenous healing practices in sub-Saharan Africa. The anthropological importance of Traditional Healing practitioners, the context of healing, and the changing legal and ethical status of Traditional Healers are addressed as pivotal in furthering the development of this crucial, yet under utilized resource. The authors propose that such cultural understanding is highly relevant to the work of professional counselors.     

A Psychology of Indigenous Healing in Southern Africa

Converging lines of evidence from various scientific disciplines consistently point to humanity's African roots. In this context, the term “indigenous healing” is used to refer to universal forms of healing that began in Africa and were developed further both locally and internationally. This article examines the notion of a psychology of indigenous healing and suggests that investigations continually reveal essential structures and practices of a perennial psychology underlying modern scientific, academic and professional forms of this discipline. Examination of such structures and practices illuminates an original psychological theme in Southern African indigenous healing involving recognition of Spirit as Source of Self that extends into transpersonal realms. Related themes include ancestral consciousness, familial and communal spirituality, healers and specializations, illness prevention, health promotion and various forms of empathy. The need for future in depth research into such psychological themes and issues is identified and explicated.     

Exploring the Application of Actuarial Criminology in Southern Africa

In response to the declared intent of the White Paper on Corrections (Department of Corrections, 2005) to transform prisons into needs-based centers of reform, the Self-appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to explore its potential as a reliable and valid prediction scale for recidivism in the diverse cultural context of Southern Africa. A total of 269 incarcerated males agreed to be anonymously assessed. Furthermore, 38 offenders with a history of maladjustment and disciplinary problems were identified for comparison. An alpha score of.90 as well as moderate to high or high to excellent coefficient alphas for six out of the seven subscales confirm the SAQ to be a reliable assessment instrument within the Southern African context. All correlation coefficients (criminal tendencies, antisocial personality problems, conduct problems, criminal history, alcohol and drug abuse, antisocial associates and anger) also measured significantly at the 0.01 level while the scores of the 38 isolated cases suggested higher scores in relation to conduct disorder, antisocial personality trends, anger and consequently criminal history.     

The Mission of the Church to People with Disabilities in Southern and Central Africa

Disability has, in recent years, become a focal point of discussion in many parts of the world with the increasing awareness that people with disabilities (PWDs) are disadvantaged because of their condition. Throughout history, PWDs have been relegated to the status of second‐class citizens and in some instances treated inhumanly. In many cultures, particularly in Africa, issues of disability are surrounded by fear because of the strong belief that they are caused by sin, witchcraft, or evil spirits. People with mental challenges are demonized. This has led to a negative attitude toward PWDs in the world generally and in Southern and Central Africa in particular. This paper discusses the mission of the church in this context. It argues that the church must act as a catalyst for change by generating a positive attitude toward PWDs so that they can enjoy fullness of life. This can be achieved by mainstreaming issues of disability in the social, economic, political, and spiritual life of society as a whole.     

The Practices of Apostolic Faith Healers in Mental Health Care in Zimbabwe

This study aimed to understand and interpret faith healers' explanations of the aetiology and treatment of diseases and to canvass their views regarding collaboration between Western trained health care professionals and faith healers. Fifteen female and six male faith healers from Apostolic churches in Marondera (Zimbabwe) were selected and interviewed (mean age = 42.38 years; age range = 20–69 years). All the faith healers interviewed had been practising from two to fifty years. Content analysis of the data indicated that faith healers use a variety of procedures like prayer, holy water, counselling and sacred stones during their healing sessions. Common ailments brought to the faith healers included mental disorders, infertility, substance abuse, sleep disorders, childhood problems and physical problems. Witchcraft and avenging spirits were cited as the most common causes for illness. Closer cooperation between Western trained health practitioners and traditional (faith) healers is needed in the treatment of both physical and mental illnesses.     

Actuarial Criminology: Meeting Current Challenges in Southern Africa

South African prisons were overcrowded by more than sixty-three percent in 2005. Overcrowding and poor prison conditions have enormous implications for rehabilitation efforts made by the South African Department of Correctional Services. The South African White Paper on Corrections (2005) commits the Department of Correctional Services to provide needs-based rehabilitation processes and a framework of continuous evaluation to measure the impact and success of such processes. It also acknowledges that monitoring the rates of recidivism is a critical indicator of the success, the effectiveness of needs-based rehabilitation, and improved service. A reliable system for monitoring recidivism will have to be developed and put in place. In this respect, actuarial criminology can make a vital contribution. This article poses a strategic alternative to the correctional industry in Southern Africa that can be used for the realization of correctional ideals, especially where retribution and overcrowding are still the main features of correctional institutions.     

An Index of Progress Towards the MDG1 in Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa

In this article we present a new proposal for measuring progress towards Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, applied to a group of countries particularly affected by poverty in the context of southern Africa and the Horn of Africa. Our index is novel in that it has been constructed taking into account a larger number of variables defined in the UN Millennium Declaration which are generally considered to determine countries’ levels of underdevelopment. As technique applied to the data, provided by the UN, we used the P₂ distance of Pena method and applied it to the year 2007; the last year for which data are available. This index incorporates variables that permit a ranking of the countries of southern Africa and the Horn of Africa in terms of those partial indicators. To sum up, the objective is to produce a global indicator of fulfilment of the MDG1.