PhD (African Studies) / Department of African Studies / Traditional health practice is an important and often underestimated part of health care. Since time immemorial traditional health ensured and covered all major areas of health promotion, which included preventative, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and surgical practices. In low- and middle-income countries where the number of practitioners of modern medicine may not be enough to meet the health care needs of the country, traditional health promotion is central. Given that in many societies the practices are done in secret, it therefore makes it difficult for people in general to access proper service from traditional health practitioners. This study explored the role of traditional health practitioners in promoting health in a rural community. The study adopted a qualitative approach which was descriptive, explorative and interpretative, targeting the registered traditional health practitioners in villages of Ward X of the Pfura Rural District Council. A non-probability purposive and snowball sampling method was used to identify twenty-two (22) male and female participants. The participants were registered diviners, herbalists and traditional birth attendants. The data which was collected through in-depth interviews, field notes, audio recordings and observation were thematically analyzed using Tesch’s method of data analysis and presented in categories, themes and subthemes. The study revealed that the traditional health practitioners in Pfura, are playing a vital role in offering primary health care for the people. Traditional health practitioners offer healing through their extensive knowledge of herbal and animal-based medicines and therapeutic actions such as rituals. The study established the use of herbs, traditional ceremonies, taboos, cultural norms as health promotive practices. Traditional healers in Pfura have demonstrated their efficacy and remained a powerful establishment in society through their easy access to the ancestral spirits, which has sustained the healing culture of Kore-kore people. Despite the central role being played by traditional health system in health promotion, impediments were found against the practice and its practitioners. Poor professional development, research and training of the Traditional Health Practitioners as well as the advanced age of practitioners is a setback in the practice as it contributed negatively to the sustainability of the traditional health practice. Guided by both study findings, key action areas of health promotion of the Ottawa Charter and the objectives of the World Health Organization, Traditional Medicine Strategy of 2014-2023 target, a framework/guide was developed and recommended an integrative and sustainable health promotion in a rural setting. / NRF

The study is an explication of the representation of traditional and faith healers in Zimbabwean newspapers. This is done through analysing newspaper articles from selected Zimbabwean Newspapers. Kwayedza, Umthunywa, The Herald, NewsDay, Daily News and two tabloids which are Bulawayo Metropolitan (B-Metro) and Harare Metropolitan (H-Metro) are the papers that were used in the study to pursue the purpose of the study. The study is guided by the Afrocentricity and the extended pragma-dialectic theory. The theories allow the study to explore the issue of traditional and faith healers in line with the political, economic and the social context which shape the system in which they find themselves. The study recognises that traditional healing is the father of all healing systems in Africa. Faith healing and Western medicine are both colonial phenomena; they came into limelight following the colonisation of Africa thereby giving African countries a three-tier health system that comprises of traditional healers, faith healers and medical doctors. The research adopts a qualitative research paradigm. Data for the research is extracted from interviews, critical discourse analysis of newspaper articles and questionnaires. The study established that traditional healers are diabolically represented in Zimbabwean newspapers and this is because of Eurocentrism which is still rife in the minds of Zimbabweans. Eurocentrism depicts people of the African race as inferior, uncivilised, barbaric, savages and chaotic and this annihilates and dehumanises Africans. Faith healers on the other hand receive both positive and negative representation. Positive representation is necessitated by the idea that they are aligned to Christianity and negative representation emanates from the idea that their healing systems embrace the African understanding of disease and illness. The study concludes that the stories are a reflection of the idea that both the media and the minds of the people involved in news production are still held in colonialism. It is therefore concluded that media representation of traditional and faith healers is colonised. The study therefore advocates for the centering of the African in newspaper discourse about traditional and faith healers. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)