29/09/2025
Africans lost their identity when they started believing their ancestors are demons and their traditional healers are evil and have evil spirits"—captures a critique of how colonialism, Western education, and the spread of Christianity and Islam in Africa led to the demonization of indigenous spiritual practices.
Historically, European missionaries and colonial powers often portrayed African ancestor veneration and traditional healing as pagan or satanic to justify cultural erasure and conversion.
This shift caused many Africans to internalize shame about their heritage, fracturing communal ties, oral histories, and self-perception. It echoes broader themes of cultural alienation, where rejecting ancestral wisdom equates to losing a sense of rootedness and collective identity.
Your added quotes align with this: G.K. Chesterton's idea of tradition as "democracy of the dead" highlights ancestors as voters in cultural continuity, while feeling ancestors "in my body" speaks to embodied memory and the plea against erasure.
Brief Outline of the Importance of African Traditional Healing
African traditional healing, practiced for millennia, remains vital for millions, with up to 85% of the continent's population relying on it as a primary or complementary health system.
Here's a concise overview of its significance:
Accessibility and Affordability: It's often the most available form of care in rural and underserved areas, using local resources like herbs and community knowledge, making it cost-effective compared to modern medicine.
Holistic Approach: Unlike purely biomedical models, it treats the whole person—body, mind, spirit, and social context—through rituals, divination, and remedies that address root causes, including spiritual.
Cultural and Spiritual Preservation: Healers (e.g., sangomas in South Africa or herbalists across the continent) often invoke ancestors as guides for diagnosis and treatment, maintaining intergenerational wisdom and biodiversity through plant-based knowledge.
This fosters identity and community cohesion, countering the "loss" in the statement by honoring ancestors as benevolent forces, not demons.
Integration with Modern Health: It contributes to global medicine (e.g., many pharmaceuticals derive from African plants) and offers potential for hybrid systems, especially in mental health and chronic conditions where spiritual elements aid resilience.
Historical and Social Role: Pre-colonial Africa's dominant healthcare, it promotes empowerment and resistance to cultural erasure, with practices like drumming or herbal rituals linking to ancestral healing traditions.
Reclaiming these practices today helps restore dignity and innovation in African health systems.
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