Exploring the role played by African Traditional Health Care Practitioners in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic – A case study of Allandale Village, Mpumalanga Province of South Africa
Résumé
The advent of the Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the need to fund and revive the role that African traditional health practitioners play in dealing with pandemics in Africa. Even though the Department of Health notes that African indigenous knowledge systems are not excluded in the search for a COVID-19 cure, gross imbalances in the funding seem to give a glimpse of the legacies of apartheid and colonisation. This is alleged to be ample evidence that the continent had learnt nothing from the previous health challenges (Ebola and Human Immunodeficiency Virus). Against this backdrop, this article explored the role played by African traditional health care practitioners in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Allandale village in Mpumalanga province. Using participatory action research, five (5) African traditional health care practitioners (diviner, herbalist, traditional birth attendant, traditional surgeon and faith healer) were purposively sampled to participate in semi-structured interviews. The study was grounded using Eziko Sipheka Sisophula’s theory to delve into gems of African indigenous knowledge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that due to their unique characteristics and the trust in them, traditional health professionals were crucial to primary care during the COVID-19 lockdown. If the role of traditional practitioners is properly harnessed, the country can yield good health care results and eliminate the dependency syndrome wherein Africa relies on vaccines developed from outside.
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