c. 2006 Religion News Service

FISH HOEK, South Africa _ When it comes to fighting ailments from witches to the common cold, many black residents of this windswept fishing village have long trusted the medical expertise of the traditional healer Nkonjani Themba.

But when AIDS descended on South Africa and the herbs of the ancestors failed to stop chronic sickness and debilitating diarrhea, even Themba began looking elsewhere for answers.

“A lot of people are dying every day,” Themba said in Xhosa, an African language interspersed with rapid pops and clicks. “The drugs that are available, they help people for a certain amount of time, but eventually the people will die.”

Out of answers, Themba and 14 other healers turned for modern medical advice to the nearby Living Hope Community Centre. Workers at the Baptist-affiliated treatment center jumped at the chance to align with the powerful healers _ also known as “sangomas” or witch doctors _ and, in a controversial move, designed an eight-week course for the healers to simultaneously spread the gospel and AIDS awareness throughout the Cape Peninsula.

The resulting partnership represents a marriage of convenience between evangelical and “witch doctor” that has rapidly bolstered the influence of both _ and caused some concern about misplaced proselytizing.

“Traditional healers, the government, churches, we can work together in this,” said Nobuntu Matholeni, a chaplain who works at the center and translates the gospel course from English to Xhosa.

“(The Gospel of) John said that hope dies last. We’re not just winning them for Christ, but together helping these people, to give them hope.”

Here in this coastal community an hour’s train ride south of Cape Town, approximately 20,000 blacks live in the cramped shantytown known as Masiphumelele _ an apartheid-era black township perched on a rocky outcrop distinctly removed from the comfortable white homes near the bay. Many townships like this one bear messages of hope for the future; in Xhosa, Masiphumelele means “We will succeed.”

The present reality, however, is more dire. Officials estimate a quarter of the residents here are infected with HIV/AIDS _ a rate that surpasses the national average of 19 percent.

In reaction to the mounting health crisis, Fish Hoek Baptist Church created the center in 1999 as a community outreach project. Gradually the expanding organization won the acceptance of many community elders, and recently provoked even the sangomas to take a closer look.

“Living Hope is the one that put light on what is going on with AIDS in the community,” said Sivuylile Tshetsha, a soft-spoken man clad in the colorful beads and necklaces worn by healers. “So it is them that will help us.”

Given their prevalence, affordability and cultural significance, sangomas remain powerful spiritual and medical figureheads in communities such as Masiphumelele. The South African Department of Health reports that more than 200,000 traditional healers are active in South Africa.

The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 80 percent of black South Africans seek their counsel, making sangomas a lucrative ally for community organizations like Living Hope.

“Of course, sangomas and black pastors actually control different areas of the community,” said Anne Mackeller, public relations officer for Living Hope. “And if they don’t understand who you are and what you’re doing, if you seem to be a threat to them, then they just won’t let you in.”

Wary of being evangelized, the 15 sangomas proceeded cautiously in their agreement to study the Gospel of John twice a week before receiving structured lessons in human anatomy, the tell-tale signs of AIDS, and the function of antiretrovirals and other modern medications.

Mackeller hopes the training and education will alleviate not only the suffering, but also the stigma that has become synonymous with the disease. Misinformation and misdiagnosis have led to an explosion in the mortality rate, she said.

“Very often they believe that the ancestors are angry with them and that’s why they’re so ill … that they’re being punished. And the sangomas tell them to shave their heads and take various potions and put various creams on their bodies. When they eventually get to us, they’re in really bad shape,” she said.

While Living Hope anticipates the course will alter the medical advice prescribed by the sangomas, Mackeller also emphasizes that the organization’s other objective is conversion.

“This is very much to make them realize that they are loved by God, and that maybe they are HIV-positive and maybe they’re not, but either way, God loves them and he doesn’t judge them in that way,” Mackeller said.

Cautiously, Themba and Tshetsha tell others they are not Christian, but Living Hope’s devotions helped them to “look through the Bible and find something that applies to us.” At least one sangoma has converted to Christianity.

Such language makes many uncomfortable, particularly when funded so heavily by South African and U.S. taxpayers. Nearly half of Living Hope’s budget comes from the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief _ the Bush administration’s $15 billion effort to combat the worldwide pandemic.

Nathan Geffen, spokesperson for the South Africa AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign, said his organization applauds the educational efforts of Living Hope, but strongly discourages its evangelism.

“To try and offer medical training, but make that knowledge contingent upon changing people’s religious views, that I find obnoxious,” Geffen said.

Matholeni, the chaplain, brushes aside such criticism.

“They came to us knowing very well what we stand for and knowing that this is God’s thing,” she said. “We want to continue with the course, but we have to do this work through the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Living Hope has not collected substantive data on the material gains of its ongoing relationship with the traditional healers, but points to a number of vague signs of success _ expanding involvement within the community structures of Masiphumelele, the conversion of a prominent sangoma to Christianity and increased attendance in AIDS awareness courses.

Themba says his own success is found in his new understanding of an epidemic killing an entire generation of the Xhosa population.

“Before, the people tried to hide their illness, and they still do,” he said, “but now it’s better because we know the symptoms. Now we can know this person is dying of AIDS.”

KRE/PH END KANE

Editors: To obtain photos of Themba and Matholeni, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.