Traditional Medicine

Traditional medicine is really an integral part of traditional healing, and that in turn is controlled by the ancestors. A healer is really a bridege between this world and the world of the ancestors. They are someone particularly skilled in interpreting what it is that the ancestors say, because they are all knowig and are able tom determine the cause of all diseases.

They are also believed to be able to cure all diseases, using the traditional healerm or shaman as the means to do so. So essentiially the shaman contacts the ancestors, asks what is wrong, receives an answer and then carries out their instructions to effect a cure. The cures are wide ranging - some involve taking concoctions of herbs as a liquid or as powder, others commonly involve sacrificing a chicken or something larger to apologise to the ancestors for displeasing them.

Often these cures are determined by throwing the bones. This is a short ritual where an assortement of bones and shells have symbolic meanings. The shaman throws the bones and the ancestors determine how they fall, the shaman then reads information from the way that the bones are arranged. Shamans believe that the ancestor world can easily be brought into this one in this way.