African Healing Shrines and Cultural Psychologies

By Matthew Michael

This book presents a pioneering work on the ethnopsychology of African healing spaces and its strategic influence in the contemporary constructs and negotiations of African sacred geography. Since African Christianity towers now—as the “new global face” of World Christianity—and the defining face of the “Next Christendom”, there is the urgent need to engage the active conversations of African Christianity in direct relationship to the larger therapeutic background of African healing shrines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Regnum Books International
• Release date: Jan 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781913363833

Book preview

Introduction

Matthew Michael and Umar Habila Dadem Danfulani

African shrines are the cultural sites of great creative energy, animated conversations, social encounters and the physical embodiments of the soul of African spiritualities.¹ They are the tabernacles of the African gods, the receptacles of African cultures, the libraries of esoteric knowledge and the gallery of African aesthetic imaginations.² They also preserve the cultural archival of its oral histories, the ethno-genealogies of its pantheons, the strategic operations of its priestcrafts and the communal transmissions of its trans-generational wisdom.³ In addition, African shrines function in the critical space of theological institutions and seminaries for the training of its priests and religious apprentices, the courtroom for judging of civil and criminal cases, the political sites for inauguration and swearing-in of kings and public functionaries, the social spaces for ecumenical/interfaith discourses, and the sacred custodians of ethnocultural-myths and popular narratives that had psychologically shaped the spiritual worldviews of the African people from generation to generation.⁴

Beyond these highlighted operations of African shrines, African shrines functioned as healing and therapeutic spaces which exercise formidable influence in African quest for health and wellness.⁵ They provide strategic supports as restorative healthgivers in African quest for wellness particularly in the critical process of diagnosis, treatment, and the psychological scripting of stories which often guides the sick persons during the moments of sickness.⁶ Of course, the worldviews of most sick persons in Africa are greatly shaped by the stories that have their source from African healing shrines.⁷ Considering this importance of African healing shrines, there are three cultural factors that consistently drive African quest for wellness and connect this endeavour to African healing shrines.⁸ First, there is the grounding of African understanding of wellness in an ethno-cultural epistemology which often subconsciously places spiritual knowledge over empirical and scientific data. This hierarchical subordination of empirical and scientific knowledge does not mean that African people do not engage or acknowledge the scientific and evidential dimensions of common sense and logics, but it suggests that African people in most of their quest for wellness privileged ethno-cultural modes of epistemologies rather than scientific ones. The placement of ethno-cultural epistemology in higher esteem is evidenced in the popular identification and recognition given to oracles, divinatory knowledge, traditional spiritual diagnoses of ailments, trance-induced prophecies, psychical abilities of healers and the esoteric knowledge of the healing arts over scientific ones.⁹ Most traditional African healers and their sick clients give priority to supernatural knowledge than biomedical knowledge – and deemed the operations of the supernatural realms of critical importance in the pursuit of healing and wellness than the engagement of biomedical establishment.¹⁰ Consequently, the quest for healing and wellness for most Africans must be firmly grounded in the guidance of a culturally-founded epistemology.¹¹ However, this perspective could be deadly in times of pandemics since privileging ethno-cultural epistemologies over scientific evidence may have grave consequences in the spread of infectious diseases especially seen in the spread of COVID 19. By the same token, the integration of these ethnocultural epistemologies could help in preventing the spread of epidemics and pandemics. In South Africa, for example, the collaboration of biomedicine and alternative medicine have helped in checking the spread of HIV/AIDS, thus suggesting that the proper integration, conversation, and creative negotiations between ethno-cultural epistemologies and scientific one could be strategic in human quest for healing and wellness.¹² Seen from this perspective, the present spread of COVID 19 needs an urgent engagement from the spectrum of ethnocultural epistemologies rooted in African religious experiences. Since most African people privileged ethno-cultural epistemological channels over scientific ones, there is need to repositioning African healing shrines in conversation to the biomedical activities of doctors and nurses in our quest to curtail the spreads of COVID 19.¹³

Secondly, African shrines are cultural sites of ethnopsychology of the African people. The term, ethnopsychology, is a culturally grounded view of psychological phenomena that seeks to understand the individuals and collective orientations of people from the inner workings of their worldviews. Our usage of ethnopsychology in this work describes the unique working of the African mind in cultural dialogues with physical world and its animated conversations with the spiritual realities of the African world.¹⁴ To be sure, African shrines are generally ethnopsychological spaces imbued with psychological activities in the creative conditioning of African stories, expectations, and dreams. However, African healing shrines in particular have provided specific diagnosis, healing, treatments and cultural guidance to meet the psychological needs of the African people at the devastating times of sicknesses.¹⁵ Unfortunately, this psychological importance of African healing shrines are often stigmatized and even demonized by mainstream monotheistic faiths. Yet, in the crisis of faith, most converts of Christianity and Islam have often consulted African healing shrines for their wellbeing, desired healing and guidance. Beside, African Christianity and Islam have profoundly been shaped by the ethno-psychological dynamisms of African healing shrines.¹⁶ For example, African ethnopsychology is often glaring seen in the contemporary ministries of African Pentecostalism, African Independent churches and the creative operations of African Islamic medicine which often is the direct fusions of Islam, Arabic mysticism and traditional African spirituality.¹⁷

Lastly, African healing shrines are important sites in African quest for wellness in its unique experimentation in ethnopharmacopeia, locally sourced remedies, and multidimensional perspectives. The ethnopharmacopeia of African healers operate within a multidimensional universe where both the physical, emotional, spiritual and communal aspects of the human beings are given critical attention.¹⁸ Recent studies have scientifically established the efficacies of some herbal drugs employed by African healers to cure certain ailments.¹⁹ The healthcare service in traditional African healing shrines deployed traditionally sourced drugs to effect the cure of ailments. ²⁰ The ethnopharmacopeia of African healers consists of locally grown herbs, roots, barks of trees, powdered rocks, animal parts, and other ingredients in making concoction, paste, and mixtures. ²¹ While the general problems of prescriptions, dosage, secrecy, and the need for rigorous scientific testing of African medicine in lab has persisted, the failing African health sectors have largely influenced the renewed interests and the increased patronage for traditional model of wellness.²²

Situating this book in conversation with the preceding thoughts, the different contributions in this work underscores the importance of African healing shrines as an ethnopsychological space in the descriptions of African quest for wellness. The fourteen contributions of this study approached African ethnopsychology from diverse perspectives. While there are no clear consensuses in the writings of these different authors, however, each contribution seeks to interrogate the cultural significance of African healing shrines in specific and broader ethnopsychological perspectives. Each work in this book underscores the strategic importance of African healing shrines in the description of the geography of African wellness. Significantly, each contributor emphasizes the abiding importance of African healing shrines in the traditional and modern conversations surrounding African pursuits and enterprise of wellness. In addition, each contributor presents creative dialogues of African healing shrines in specific and broader terms with the different realities of the African people.

In the first chapter, Umar Habila Dadem Danfulani describes the unique African psychology of wellness especially the multidimensional characteristic of this worldview on disease, healing and wellness. He interrogates the ethnocultural epistemologies which viewed sickness and diseases in their multifaceted webs of relationships. For example, these communal and multifaceted webs of relationships are painful brought to the global attention in the scourge of COVID 19 and the intriguing need for social distancing, quarantine and isolation. The multidimensionality of diseases is readily seen in the scourges and effects of COVID 19 on all human endeavours, thereby underscoring the importance of African ethnopsychology here in its encompassing treatment of diseases in the context of interwoven webs of human relationships. It will be exciting to see how these ethno-cultural epistemologies in the diagnosis and treatment of sickness in its multiple layers of relationships or in the pursuit of wellness in its multidimensional perspectives engage the contemporary global campaigns on social distancing, quarantine and isolation in the wake of COVID 19. While Danfulani did not immediately pursue these interests, however, his work provided important starting point for this discussion in the future.

In the second chapter, Matthew Michael engages the historical encounters of African healing shrines and Christian missions in Africa. He interrogates the aggressive and evangelistic activities of Christian medical missions and the counter-attacks by African healing shrines to reclaim its healing space. Michael describes the historic appropriations of western medicine by early missionaries to Africa in their fight to dislodge African healing shrines in spite of the atheistic and anti-religious disposition of western medicine orchestrated by its formidable alliance with Enlightenment presuppositions. Michael notably observes that if western medicine could be freed from its anti-God orientations and used in the course of evangelism and missions to Africa, African healing shrines enriched by its deeper theocentric vision could also be freed of their anti-Christian elements and deployed in the services of Christian missions. In this way, African Christian missions could directly connect with many African people who still revered the efficacies of African healing shrines, and lived their lives in submission to its scripted ethnopsychologies and worldviews on sickness and healing.

The third chapter by Edward Mawum Makdet Dachalson describes the African psychology of wellness in relationship to biomedicine and its persistent imperial agendas. He probes the different perspectives in the construct of African wellness in traditional African society – and underscores the problematic practices of African healing shrines in modern times. He also engages the church’s works in healing and wellness especially as seen from the Bible and history. At the end, Dachalson calls for the decolonization of biomedicine and the need to integrate African ethno-medicine into the practices of biomedicine particularly in the treatment of the whole person – and not just the disease. In a globalized society, Dachalson reasoned, there is the need to integrate into biomedicine – the ethno-medical practices of different cultures. Seen from Dachalson’s work, the multidimensional perspectives of African ethnopsychology could enhance and complement the deficiencies in modern biomedical practices.

In the fourth chapter, Suleiman Samuel Tama investigates the strategic importance of African shrines in the world of migrations and crisscrossing of borders. He observes that African healing shrines have significant importance in the mapping of migrations in Africa and in other places around the world. He engages the significant role of religion in migration – and the attending negotiations that ensued from the influence of migration on the identity of religion. In particular, he interrogates the problems of local migrations and African healing shrines, and the challenges of African healing shrines in the Diaspora. Tama’s work raises various problems on the relationship between African healing shrines and migrations, but he also underscores the creative presence of African healing shrines in changing the dynamics of a given geographical space because of the active social and religious contributions precipitated by migrant communities. In this regard, Tama’s study probes the ethnopsychology of African healing shrines in direct relationship to migration and mobility of African people in their creative negotiations of local and international spaces. Thus, the work underscores the ethnopsychology of African healing shrines in critical engagements with the contexts of movement and mobility.

In the fifth chapter, Matthew Michael and Olayemi Akinwumi describe the sacred geography of African advertisements particularly the competitive indexes in the modern mapping of this dynamic space. The work interrogates the mediatisation of African healing shrines in its combative quest to reassert its presence in the public domains of advertisement. In doing this, the study underscores the radical expressions of African ethnopsychology in the contemporary repositioning of African healing shrines to dialogue technology. Since the town-criers and other local means of advertisements are now becoming obsolete – African healing shrines are reinventing themselves through the creative appropriation of technology especially the media to assert their relevance and importance in the competitive mapping of the modern stage. In this regard, African healing shrines are in critical mobility away from immediate restrictions of their physical geography to the wider opportunities of a sacred geography made available via technology. For Michael and Akinwumi, there is a totemic relationship between African healing shrines and the media space that directly shows the movement of African story of wellness from the limited local audience to a global one. Seen from this perspective, the study engages the ethnopsychology of African healing shrines in creative conversations with media technology particularly the quest to move African healing shrines from their original roots to the demands and challenges of the sacred geography of a globalized world.

In chapter six, Bitrus A. Sarma interrogates the creative dialogues and tensions between African healing shrines, Christian missions and miracles. He presents the ethnopsychology of the African people in conversation to miracles particularly in the animated context of African missions. Grounded on the worldview of the Bible, Sarma reiterates the challenges, continuity and discontinuity between the biblical descriptions of shrines and their contemporary usages in Africa. In particular, Sarma probes the ethnopsychology of divine healing, the expectation of miracles, and the contemporary fascinations of popular African Christianity with miracles and healing. He describes the contrasting worldviews in the ethnopsychologies of healings as promoted in traditional African healing spaces and Christianity especially in the Bible and present context of missions. For example, the praxis of these different contexts, according to Sarma, suggests that – while Christians – from the point of view of the Bible – may accept sickness as the will of God, however, the extreme focus on this present world in traditional African worldview seeks healing and wholeness here and now by all means. Consequently, the absence of an eschatological vision of wellness that could be fully realized in the afterlife distorted and overshadowed African quest for wellness now – thereby imposing a psychological exhaustion on African pragmatic struggles to escapes pains and sufferings now – and to promote the desired state of wellness in this present world.

In chapter seven, Joseph O. Fashola and Theophilus O. Fashola discuss African metaphysics of security in direct conversations with African healing shrines. The chapter interrogates the various theoretical problems in the studying of African traditional religions particularly the Eurocentric agendas which unfortunately often sabotage Africans natural and active inclinations for the religious and the metaphysical. From this premise, Fashola and Fashola challenge these misconceptions, and reiterated the significance of African healing shrines in the modern discourses of policing and security, thus providing creative initiatives in addressing the many challenges of insecurities that had characterized the African continent in recent times. According to them, the revered status of African shrines in most parts of Africa could be appropriated for the security of life and property because many Africans recognized the metaphysical powers associated with the shrines. But most importantly for Fashola and Fashola, the interdependence of the human family and the promotions of this moral ideology at African shrines could be harnessed in the present global quest for security and wellbeing of all human beings against the radical forces of violent interpersonal conflicts. Seen from these different perspectives, Fashola and Fashola in this work creatively appropriate the ethnopsychology of security from African shrines in order to address the security challenges of our modern world.

In chapter eight, Nathan Chiroma interrogates the emerging practices of professionalism among African healing shrines and Christian prayerhouses. He describes the quest to professionalize African healing shrines and Christian prayer groups through the creative appropriations of practices and beliefs of biomedical establishment. This growing trend suggests that the specialization of African traditional healers and Christian healers underscores the biomedical influence on these healing spaces – and the creative repositioning of themselves as competitive alternatives to biomedical structure. The emerging competitive environment of African healing spaces presents an important trajectory in Chiroma’s work. This trajectory lies in the thriving of psychiatry centers run by traditional and Christian healers who often employed both physical and spiritual means to cure mental psychosis of their sick clients. According to Chiroma, the failure of conventional psychiatric hospitals in most part of Africa has turned many African healing shrines and Christian prayerhouses into specialized spaces for treating psychiatric clients. These and many developments in the treatments of cancer, infertility and other sickness underscore the emerging appropriations of biomedicine practices by traditional and Christian healers in the specialized treatments of ailments in these cultural substitutes to hospitals. Seen from these different perspectives, Chiroma’s work interrogates the ethnopsychology of African people in the praxis of contextualized healings and the specialized appropriations of biomedical practices in competitive conversations of wellness by African traditional and Christian healers.

In chapter nine, Yako Ibrahim Handan and Yusuf Gajere describe the influence of the ethnopsychology of African healing shrines on African Independent churches. This ethnopsychology of African healing shrines is seen in the appropriations of cultural practices, beliefs, narratives and worldviews of African healing shrines in the services of the Christian God by African Independent churches. According to Handan and Gajere, the spiritual and cultural resources from African healing shrines were contextualized and put to new use in the Christian worship, prophesies, sermons and liturgies of African Independent churches. Historically, this appropriation of African healing shrines in the services of the Christian faith accounts for the large patronage and supports for African Independent churches in their emergence on the African continent. For Handan and Gajere, the African Independent churches stood in combative relationship to mainline churches who often ridiculed or even demonized the cultural appropriations of the practices, beliefs and worldviews undergirding the spiritual encounters and ministerial activities of African Independent churches. Consequently, the study of Handan and Gajere engage the creative appropriations of African healing shrines by African Independent churches particularly their psychological reenactments of the African worldviews and ethnopsychology in the services of the Christian God.

In chapter ten, Okugya Osumanyi reiterates the cultural significance of Bori sect particularly their use of the musical performance as a vehicle of psychocultural therapy in northern Nigeria. This study underscores the general importance of music in African healing shrines – and probes the specific ethnopsychology of music in therapeutic performance of the Bori sect. According to Osumanyi, African healing shrines are therapeutic spaces because they creatively appropriate the use of music for healing, health and the pursuits of wellness. For Osumanyi, the therapeutic character of Bori performance comes largely from the creative merger of the Bori songs with the worldviews of African people on spirit’s possession. Since Bori musical performance is associated with the moment of personal and community crises such as serious illness or epidemics, critical turning points of marriage, the moments of national instability, they performance provided psychological therapy and cultural resources for their clients and devotees to deal with the existential needs of these periods of crisis. Seen from this perspective, Bori performance in the study of Osumanyi presents the ethnopsychology of music particularly the psychological appropriations of music to deal with the human struggles expressed in individuals and communal psychosis.

In chapter eleven, Gbasha Clifford Terhide interrogates the influence and impact of traditional African shrines in Tiv land in central Nigeria on contemporary revitalization of Catholic Charismatic deliverance praying ministries in Tiv society. He observes that the integration of the ethnopsychology of the Tiv traditional shrines is responsible for the immense appeal of Catholic charismatic deliverance movement among Tiv people. According to Terhide, the ethnopsychology of the traditional Tiv shrines are appropriated by these Catholic Charismatic priests to meet the spiritual fears, social psychosis and the cultural expectations of Tiv Christians. While the efficacy of biomedicine is generally acknowledged by many Tiv people, priority in the quest for healing and wellness is given to Akombo, or traditional healing spaces. In this way, the activities of the church situated in this context thrives only in critical appropriations of the ethnopsychology of the Tiv people which gives prominence to African traditional healing spaces in the quest for wellness. For Terhide, due to the uncanny similarities in the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Charismatic priests and traditional Tiv healing spaces, it seemed these Charismatic priests have now taken over the traditional position of Or-ishor/diviner. Consequently, the patronage enjoyed by these Charismatic priests in Tiv land naturally comes from these different appropriations of the animated spiritualities, resources and practices from Tiv Traditional healing spaces. Seen from this perspective, Terhide’s study suggests the lingering impact and creative appropriations of the traditional ethnopsychology of the Tiv people in the service of the Christian God.

In chapter twelve, Cyrus Damisa Suru discusses the creativity of African healing shrines in Edo State, Nigeria in addressing the problem of poverty. Suru’s study underscores the appropriation of the African ethnopsychology of wellness and abundance to speak to a human context challenged by poverty and destitution. For Suru, the Ipore shrine has repositioned itself to cater for the economic needs of its poor clients through animated declarations and prophetic oracles to poor people from different communities who seek its guidance. Through these ministrations to its poor clients, there is an entrenched belief that this African shrine does not only provide healing and wellness, but it is established to alleviate poverty of its poor and sick clients. While Suru did go further to show the competitive dimensions of this poverty alleviation agenda by Ipore shrine particularly in conversations to Christian churches among the Ososo people, the study underscores the revitalization of African shrines to meet the new challenges of a modern world where economic inequality, poverty and destitution have sabotaged the dreams of many African people in their quest for wellness and abundant life. Considering these different perspectives, Suru’s study presents the creative use of the ethnopsychology of traditional African shrines to combat the scourge of poverty and economic hardship.

In chapter thirteen, situated in Edo state, Nigeria – as the preceding work by Suru, Maria E. Aganoke investigates the influence of traditional healing spaces on the prayers, preaching and spiritual activities of some selected Christian prayerhouses. She engages the appropriations of African traditional healing shrines in the conversations with the Christian prayerhouses in this sampled community. While she used the problematic semantics of syncreticism to describe these appropriations, however, she clearly underscores the importance of these cultural exchanges in the increased patronage of Christianity in the context of her study. Of course, Aganoke’s study shows the spread of traditional healing spaces in the region under study, and the emergence of Christian prayerhouses in combative dialogues with these traditional shrines. This arrangement also underscores the negotiations of identity and the creative quest to survive in the competitive agenda of this sacred geography. Unfortunately, the popular polemics of Christian prayerhouses against traditional African shrines often overlooked the immense contributions of these spaces in their sconstructs of wellness. Consequently, through her study, Aganoke presents the dynamic appropriations of the ethnopsychology of African shrines in the service of the Christian prayerhouses.

In the last chapter, Daniela Calvo probes the ethnopsychology of exslaved/Black communities in Brazil especially the creative appropriation of healing and wellness within the template of an African ethnopsychology. Calvo observes that the health traditions of Candomblé (Black communities in Brazil) come from the merging of cultural worldviews of wellness from ethnic groups of West Africa, Islam, Amerindian, Catholic and Kardecist spiritism. In spite of these active conversations with other healing spaces, an African ethnopsychology dominates and operates through different encounters. According to Calvo, the terreiros (or temples) that come from the fusions of these spiritualities provide a therapeutic space for Black community in Diaspora and also the wider Caucasian community in their quest for healing and wellness. More specifically, these healing spaces moved beyond the biomedical healing of the physical bodies to rescue dehumanized blacks from social stigmas, sharing of spiritual/physical counseling from older people; participation in ritual support and protection; solidarity for justice and different forms of spiritual care. Historically, these terreiros are also centres of social actions and political movements that combat racism, religious intolerance and different forms of violence, offer legal and medical assistance to the needy population, distribute food and act for the preservation of nature. Ground in the ethnopsychology of the African people, and enriched by the healing orientations of other therapeutic spaces, terreiros describe the adaptation of African healing shrines in the context of the Diaspora – and its revitalization to address the challenges of these new environment. From Calvo’s research, it seems African ethnopsychology has immense creative ability to engage the new challenges of the modern world which are far away from the physical and geographical links to the continent of Africa. Consequently, this study underscores the appropriation of African ethnopsychology of traditional healing shrines to address the existential problems of African communities in Diaspora. However, African healing shrines on the continent must also follow the leading of the terreiros in repositioning itself to fight for social justice, gender equality, work against unhealthy ethnicity, religious intolerance, and to undertake campaigns/protest against bad governments and violence against minorities.

In conclusion, these different contributions of this book have shown the appropriation of the ethnopsychology of the African healing shrines in conversations to sickness, insecurity, poverty, music, hospitals, Christian prayerhouses, and the black communities in Diaspora respectively. These different engagements show salient religious innovations and social creativity in the different conversations of African ethnopsychology in different existential environments. These different studies underscore the continuous significance and the eternal relevance of African healing shrines as the powerhouse of African spiritualities. We have to concede that these different studies in African ethnopsychology and African healing shrines are mere scratches on the surface of the deeper dynamics and operations of African ethnopsychology of wellness in the daily interactions of the African people. We only hope that these pioneering conversations in ethnopsychology of African healing space will deepen further the modest discourses in this book – and create robust understandings of the social construct, the cultural mechanics and the diverse negotiations in African quest for wellness.

¹ See Matthew Michael, Faith Borders, Healing Territories & Interconnective Frontier? Wellness & Ecumenical Construct in African Shrines, Christian Prayerhouses & Hospitals, Numen: revista de estudos e pesquisa da religião (2019): 240-260.

² See Benjamin Ray, African Shrines as Channels of Communication, African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, ed. Jacob K. Olupona, 3-25 (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2011), 26-37; Harrie Leyten, From Idol to Art – African ‘Objects with Power’: A Challenge for Missionaries, Anthropologists and Museum Curator (Leiden, Netherlands: African Studies Centre, 2015); Bolaji Campbell, Painting for the Gods: Art and Aesthetics of Yoruba Religious Mural (Trenton, New Jersey: African World Press, 2008).

³ See Timothy Insoll, Introduction, Shrines, Substances and Medicine in Sub-Saharan Africa: Archaeological, Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, Anthropology & Medicine 18, no. 2 (2011): 145-166.

⁴ See Ferdinand Okwaro, ‘If Your Brother wants to Kill You, Kill him First’: Healing, Law, Social Justice in an African Healer’s Courtroom, The Law of Possession: Ritual, Healing, and the Secular State, eds. William S. Sax and Helene Basu (Oxford: University Press, 2015), 162-189.

⁵ See Michael, Faith Borders, Healing Territories, 240-260.

⁶ See Desmond Ayim-Aboagye, Transcultural Study of Traditional Practitioners in West African Healing Communities with Focus on Ghana (Lulu.com Publishing, 2008); Patrick E. Iroegbu, Healing Insanity: A Study of Igbo Medicine in Contemporary Nigeria (Xlibris Corporation, 2010), 301-517. Also see Helene Basu, Davā and Duā: Negotiating Psychiatry and Ritual Healing of Madness, Naraindas, Quack and Sax, Asymmetrical Conversations, 162-199.

⁷ See Allan Charles Dawson, Introduction, Shrines in Africa: History, Politics and Society (Calgary, Canada: University of Calgary press, 2009).

⁸ There is a pervasive popularity of the power of African shrines in modern Africa which quickly connects the story of wealth, power and success to this sphere. Concerning the dominance of African shrines in public space see Barbara Maier, Victor Igreja & Arne S. Steinforth, Power and Healing in African Politics: An Introduction, Spirit in Politics: Uncertainties of Power and Healing in African Societies (Germany, Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2013), 15-36. Also see Stephen Ellis & Gerrie ter Haar, Spirits in Politics: Some Theoretical Reflections, Spirit in Politics: Uncertainties of Power and Healing in African Societies (Germany, Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2013), 37-47; Arne S. Steinforth, Between Shrine and Courtroom: Legal Pluralism, Witchcraft, and Spirit Agency in Southeastern Africa, The Law of Possession: Ritual, Healing, and the Secular State, eds. William S. Sax and Helene Basu (Oxford: University Press, 2015), 55-81.

⁹ According to World Health Organization 80 percent of Africans promote and prefer going to African healing shrines for healing and the pursuit of wellness than going to hospitals. See Jon C. Tilburt and Ted J. Kaptchuk, Herbal Medicine Research and Global Health: An Ethical Analysis, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 86 (2008): 577-656.

¹⁰ See Rachel King, UNAIDS – Collaborating with Traditional Healers of HIV Preventions and Care in Sub-Saharan Africa: Suggestions for Program Managers and Fieldworkers (Switzerland, Geneva: USAID, 2006).

¹¹ Concerning the contemporary discourses on multiple epistemologies and medical pluralism in the appropriations of healing, diagnoses of diseases and treatments see Harish Naraindas, et al, Asymmetrical Conversations: Contestations, Circumventions, and the Blurring of Therapeutic Boundaries (New York: Berghahn, 2014).

¹² There are modern debates on ethno-epistemologies. Concerning these debates see Masaharu Mizumoto et al, Ethno-Epistemology: New Directions for Global Epistemology (New York: Routledge, 2020); Shaun Nichols, et al, Metaskepticism: Meditations in Ethno-epistemology, The Skeptics (2003): 227-247; Sandra Harding, Is Modern Science an Ethno-science? Rethinking Epistemological Assumptions, Science and Technology in a Developing World (1997): 37-64.

¹³ See Vural Özdemir, et al, COVID-19 Health Technology Governance, Epistemic Competence, and the Future of Knowledge in an Uncertain World, OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology 24, 8 (2020): 451-453.

¹⁴ The field of ethnopsychology engages the unique cultural thoughts, orientations, beliefs and practices of a given people. See Emily Mendenhall, et al, An Ethnopsychology of Idioms of Distress in Urban Kenya, Transcultural Psychiatry 56 (2019): 620-642; Calvin Gwandure, Infantile Colic among the Traditional Shone People: An Ethnopsychological Perspective, Journal of Psychology in Africa 16 (2006): 119-122.

¹⁵ See De-Valera N. Y. M. Botchway, A Note on Ethnomedical Universe of the Asante, an Indigenous People in Ghana, Medicine, Healing and Performance, ed. Effie Gemi-lordanou et al, 136-159 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2014), 160-175.

¹⁶ See J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Signs and Signs of the Spirit: Ghanaian Perspectives on Pentecostalism and Renewal in Africa (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2015), 15-46; Blaise Emebo, Healing and Wholeness in African Traditional Religion, African Islam and Christianity: An Historical-Comparative Approach from Christian Theological Perspective (Aachen, Germany: Shaker Verlag, 2006).

¹⁷ Bryn T. James, Writing Stones and Secret Shrines: An Exploration of the Materialisation of Indigenous and Islamic Belief within West African Spiritual Medicine, E. Gemi-Iordanou et al, eds. Medicine, Healing, Performance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Medicine and Material Culture, 136-159 (Oxford: Oxbow, 2014); see Jacob K. Olupona, The Slaves of Allah: Ifa Divination Portrayal of Islamic Tradition—An Intertextual Encounter, Alternative Voices: A Plurality Approach for Religious Studies, eds. Afe Adogame et al (Germany, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 75-85;David Westerlund and Eva-Evers Rosander (eds.), African Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters Between Sufis Islamists (London: Hurst & Company, in Co-operation with the Nordic African Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, 1997); Abdullahi Osman El-Tom, Drinking the Koran: The Meaning of Koranic Verses in Berti Erasure, in J. D. Y. Peel and C. C. Steward (eds.), Popular Islam South of the Sahara (Manchester and Dover: IAI and Manchester University Press, 1985), See Katharina Wilkens, Drinking the Quran, Swallowing the Madonna: Embodied Aesthetics of Popular Healing Practices, Alternative Voices: A Plurality Approach for Religious Studies, eds. Afe Adogame, et al, 243-259(Germany, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013).

¹⁸ There are contemporary debates on the use of exotic plants among African healers. Concern these debates see Bryn Trevelyan James, ‘The Spirit of the Plant’: Exotic Ethnopharmacopeia among Healers in Accra Ghana, Anthropology Matters 16, no. 1 (2015): 28-71; Wamtinga Richard Sawadogo, et al, Traditional West African Pharmacopeia, Plants and Derived Compounds for Cancer Therapy, Biochemical Pharmacology 84 (2012):1225-1240.

¹⁹ See Sebua Silas Semenya and Alfred Maroyi, Plants Used by Bapedi Traditional Healers to Treat Asthma and Related Symptons in Limpopo Province, South Africa, Evidenced-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2018): 1-33.

²⁰ See M. Fawzi Mahomoodally, Traditional Medicines in Africa: An Appraisal of Ten Potent African Medicinal Plants, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2013): 1-14.

²¹ Mahomoodally, Traditional Medicines in Africa, 1-14.

²² Within the academia, there is recently a paradigmatic shift in the growing numbers of modern studies giving intellectual justifications to the emerging fields of ethnomedicine. From these different perspectives, it seemed African healing shrines have continuous importance and cultural relevance in the mapping of African quest for wellness. See James, ‘The Spirit of the Plant,’ 28-71; Mahomoodally, Traditional Medicines in Africa, 1-14.

African Healing Shrines, the Psychology of Wellness and its Modern Trajectories

Umar Habila Dadem Danfulani

Introduction

In modern discourses on religion, shrine is often an elusive term that generally fails to describe the range of concepts or ideas included in this description.¹ The reason perhaps being because shrine is derived ultimately from the Latin scrinium, meaning box or receptacle, as in containers of sacred meaning and power.² Within sub-Saharan Africa, this can encompass the domed Muslim qubba of Ethiopia or Sudan³ to the single pot yin (destiny) shrine of the Talensi.⁴ Van Binsbergen defines a shrine as an observable object or part of the natural world, clearly localized and normally immobile, and a material focus of religious activities.⁵ Dawson referred to shrines as symbolic vessels.⁶

Shrines are sacred places that serve as the abodes (habitats) of deities, spirits and ancestors (the habitus). Shrines are places of consultation with esteemed extra-human forces towards