Abstract

In South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, the isangoma (diviner)

remains firmly entrenched at the apex of the hierarchy of African traditional

medicine (ATM). This review article raises two questions. The first interrogates

the essence of ubungoma (divination), while the second focuses on

gendered notions in this line of work. The latter question probes four issues:

why izangoma (plural for isangoma) are mostly women; whether these females

possess disproportionate power as compared to their male counterparts;

and whether such womenfolk possess their power by virtue of being female

or izangoma per se. The fourth aspect addresses sexual orientation of

ubungoma. Plausible explanations for these questions were gleaned from a

scanty – albeit fascinating information – collated through a literature search

and personal communication. Female izangoma were found to have attributes

that outclass their male counterparts. This review also interrogates the

manner in which African beliefs have been represented in literature. Western

epistemologies have tended to misrepresent the realm of African beliefs by

dismissing them as mere superstition. Alternatively, they create boundaries of

intellectual segregation by treating African beliefs as cognitive false

consciousness. In contemporary South Africa this form of misrepresentation

has not deterred Africans from seeking the services of izangoma.