Some argue that such heretics are only successfully impeding the progression of Africans. Some argue that they should always have their place in African communities??



What do you think?

> Should Witchdoctors, Traditional Healers & Mystics be rooted out of Africa?

Any 'doctor' that suggests cutting the head off a sick child to cure them of demons; or killing twins because they are a sign of evil (both scenarios are real practices, albeit dated), needs to be kicked in the nuts. So in answer to your question, yes.

Thats the difference between a witch doctor and a healer perhaps??

The difference is blurred sometimes in th case of Sangomas for instance.

It's 2006.....

people need to have education...so that they know what medical community says about certain illnesses.........

and make their own choices about treatment....


options and education are the key...not rooting out traditionalists....

The colonialists tried it.

Doing so would be the death of the continent, its those mentioned that are also the custodians of folklore and history.

@ Rebel Lion

who are the custodians of folklore @ history? The witchdoctors???? or the Healers?? I think I would much prefer to listen to folktales and history from a village elder than a crazy witchdoctor!

I hear awful tales about the witchdoctors, and i certainly am not one to dabble with juju....NO WAY. There was that story in SA not that long ago about the serial rapist. When he was being sentenced in court he told the judge that he did what he did because he had visited a Sangoma who told him that he is experiencing strife in his life because he has a tokoloshe following him around. The sangoma told him that the only way to make his life better is to to what the tokoloshe says and he went off and did these awful things.

Then you hear about children going missing and people talk about their bones being used as muti!

Education is the key!!

But I do think there is a place for traditional healers........its good to hear alternative treatments to medical science sometimes...so long as you keep your wits about you.

Who are the custodians of folklore @ history? The witchdoctors???? or the Healers?? I think I would much prefer to listen to folktales and history from a village elder than a crazy witchdoctor!


Good point.

Although by western standards a village elder would be a mystic with those stories. .lol.

It'd be impossible to root witchdoctors, healers and mystics out of Africa really. They're always going to be there. We've got our own in the Carib. Obeah men and what not. Heard stories aboutpeople going to see them and ending up possesed like something out of the excorsist.

There are good ones and bad ones can't deamonize them all. The bad ones should be rooted out with the help of the good ones. Many of the ones working in the UK are bonafide, in their adverts some of them say they're part of some collective JuJu group or related to so and so popular JuJu.

Couldn't kick Credoand his family out of Africathat'd suck. Would be like the European witch hunts.

Well scientists believe that the moon was created by a meteor that crashed into earth. Which just happened to knock the earth to the required tilt to have seasons/ andat just the right distance toregulate the Earth's tilt and the seas tide.

You cantroot outreality.

One period,while I was a bond trader ,I was on a losing streak. I decided to get some focus and used a Hypnothearpistbased in Harley Street, nonetheless.

Having had two sessions I returned to the trading floor full of confidence. Trichet was going to make an interest rate announcement after he did I placed my trade.

Without going into detail, during the trade I did the right things at the wrong time and made my largest losses.

NLP, Pyschologists, Stockbrokers with great tips, Relate staff or whatever. A Herbalist has greater authority in his craft than any of these modern day copy cats.

M@LaiKa wrote:

Not if their techniques are effective. Would herbologistsfit into this catagory?

most so called heretical healers act as an intricate part of a villages culture and gives them a sense of identity, it's not just as simple as saying kick him out, there are good shamans just like there are bad western doctors...does any one remember the mass murdering Harold shipman or the various other doctors/nurses/ who like to pump there patients full of morphine??????





Iam so tired of westerners telling so called natives whats best for them, Christian missionaries telling everyone from native Americans to Africans that they are heathens, if a witch doctor administers services that act like a placebo in place of miraculous western medicines that they could never ever hope to Afford and (it doesn't chop their heads off, by the way i really want to see the link in which chopping off a head does happen [and that supposed case of the boy called Adam is not proof])

cultural imperialism still persists.

I feel the question is idiotic. You can't paint all categories and persons with the same brush.