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The Medicine Man among the Zaramo of Dar es Salaam The Medicine Man among the Zaramo of Dar es Salaam Published by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies in cooperation with Dar es Salaam University Press Cover: Zaramo Mganga Ndamba, photo by Ingmar Lindqvist Editing: Mai Palmberg Type-setting: English Unlimited Ltd Esbo 02230 Finland O Lloyd Swantz ISBN 91-7106-299-8 Printed in Sweden by Bohuslaningen, Uddevalla 1990 CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 Traditional Medicine Men and Muslim Clerics as Healers 1 The Traditional Waganga 2 The Call and Training of the Mganga 3 The Urban Mganga's Consulting Room 4 The Mganga and His Patients 5 The Making of Medicines 6 The Methds of Cure Used by Dar es Salaam Medicine Men 7 Payments Involved in Traditional Healing Services Notes to Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Other Types of Medicine Men and Women 1 The Itinerant Waganga, Witchcraft Eradicators 2 Mzimu - Spirit Shrine Keepers 3 Herb Sellers 4 Street Sellersmawkers 5 Muwizi, Circumcisers 6 Midwives Notes to Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Diagnosis of Illness - the Diviner 1 The Role of the Diviner 2 Methods of Divining Used in Dar es Salaarn 3 Frequency of Rarnli Divining Chapter 4 The Urban Zaramo and Their Concept of Illness and Misfortune Sickness Sorcery Protection Spirits and Ritual Obligations WorWnemployment Crime and Legal Cases Sexual Problems Sports Politics Miscellaneous: Good Luck, School Exams and Fortune Telling Notes to Chapter 4 Chapter 5 The Changing Role of the Medicine Man in Urban Zaramo Society 1 The Consequences of Structural Change in Urban Zaramo Society 2 The Role of the Medicine Man in Urban Dar es Salaam 3 Conclusions: The Mganga and Modem Medical Service Glossary Bibliography INTRODUCTION This book is based on my Doctoral Thesis "The role of the medicine man among the Zaramo of Dar es Salaam" presented at the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974. The original study began as an attempt to understand the urban Zaramo and the forces which work to preserve their traditional values and culture as well as help them to adjust to the new urban situations. Quite unexpectedly, the mganga, the medicine man, emerged as the one member of society who was involved with most areas of Zaramo life. To find the answers to my questions I was compelled to concentrate my attention on the role of the mganga amongst the Zaramo. This edited version of the thesis omits the basic ethnographic descriptive material given in the original, which covered in detail the history, religious beliefs, social structure of the Zaramo, and examined present day urban-rural interrelationships among them. Over the past one hundred years the medicine man and his work has been grossly misrepresented and misunderstood. Western sensationalism has attached to him the name "Witch-doctor", which calls up visions of bizarre stereotypes of Africans which are both inaccurate and offensive. Rather than generalizations and assumptions of what many people think medicine men are and do, in-depth investigations are needed. Reliable, representative and empirical data needed to be collected on which we could objectively and sympathetically analyze what actually is being done by African traditional healers. This study is an attempt to do just that. Furthermore, it was done in the setting of an African city, Dar es Salaam, the capital of independent Tanzania. This is not a history of past practices but places the medicine man in the context of modem urban society with all its hopes for development, modernization and social change. It was my hope that by interviewing and analyzing the work of numerous medicine men and their clients, we might arrive at a more accurate understanding of this traditional healing profession which touches the lives of innumerable Africans, as indeed of people on all continents. It was not within my competence, nor in the nature of the material, to determine how successful the medicine man or woman is as a medical practitioner. There is no scientific medical way at present to measure the results of their medicine and therapy. We can measure only what they claim to do and what problems people refer to them, as well as the clients' evaluation of their treatment. This is a study of opinions, beliefs and reported activity, not a scientific analysis of traditional medicine and its therapeutic results. The Zaramo people constitute the largest single ethnic group living in Dar es Salaam. Not only are they numerically the largest urban body of The Medicine Man among the Zaramo of Dar es Salaam Tanzania, but they represent similar ethnic groups of peoples from the coastal area which make up fully one half of the total population of Dar es Salaam. To know the Zaramo is to know what goes on in the lives of half the population of the city. At the time of the 1967 census, there were 19,122 Zaramo households in Dar es Salaam which would mean about 63,000 people. To this figure could be added several thousands more who live on the periphery of the city and thus are not included in the census. I chose three representative areas of the city from which to administer questionnaires to 150 Zaramo: Ilala-Buguruni, Kariakoo and Magomeni. The sample of informants was selected by visiting every fifth house on the street or in the area. An equal number of men and women were interviewed. These 150 Zaramo informants were adherents to Islam: ninety-eight per cent of the Zaramo population are Muslim, and only 2 per cent are Christian. One hundred Zaramo clients of waganga were interviewed mainly in the waiting rooms of the waganga's premises and, thus, also represented a fair cross-section of the Zaramo population living in various parts of the city. As waiting for the mganga often involved sitting for a number of hours, it meant that information from the clients could be gathered in a natural, unrushed manner. In order to locate practising medicine men, a street-by-street search was made in the Ilala and Kariakoo ("Mission Quarter") areas. A total of 53 traditional medicine men and 7 Muslim clerics practising medicine were found and interviewed in these two areas. An additional 30 medicine men and 2 Muslim cleric practitioners were interviewed in other major areas of the city. At first it was thought that waganga would be suspicious and unco- operative with strangers and in particular with a European seeking information about their work. For the most part this proved not to be so, but it was usually a very slow process to get to meet them during their working hours. The procedure was to sit in line with the other clients waiting to see the mganga for treatment. Because of the hours of waiting involved, usually no more than two waganga could be interviewed in a day. We approached the waganga unannounced, like any other patient. Then we stated simply that we were from the University College of Dar es Salaam and were writing a book about the work of the waganga in the city. We asked if they would have a few minutes to give us a little information and whether we could return at a more convenient time for additional information. The response, with few exceptions, was positive and open. On a number of visits we were allowed to observe the mganga as he dealt with his patients. Through revisits and after gaining the confidence of several waganga to the point of becoming friends, we were able to obtain the information needed for this study. Introduction I think that it was actually an advantage to me to have been a non-African in this context, because there could be no fear on their part that I might have been collecting free information in order to become a mganga myself, nor that I might sell the information or use it against them. Although not always fully understanding the reason for the research, most informants seemed pleased when told that the information would be put into a book which their children could one day read. The waganga did not try to hide the fact that they were practising traditional or Islamic medicine, which indicated that they did not sense any conflict between their work and the general government policies. Neither did it appear that they practised socially unacceptable medicine, even though some such aspects would seem inherent in their work. Three basic methods were used in gathering information over a period of five years: (1) questionnaires, (2) interviews, and (3) observations. The findings were constantly compared with the rural Zaramo research which was being conducted at the same time by my wife, Marja-Liisa Swantz. Although the questionnaires provided invaluable information concerning the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the Zaramo, this study is not based primarily on questionnaires. They were used mainly as an introduction to the various topics and to gain some quantitative data about the changes taking place in thought and practice. Deeper insight and additional inside information was gained through discussions and interviews. The results of the questionnaires were then either verified or shown to be misleading. In addition to interviews with 84 waganga, 9 Muslim clerics, 100 clients and the Zaramo general survey, I had additional interviews and tape recorded conversations with no fewer than 200 further Zaramo informants. P was fortunate in having Mr. Ajuaye Chuma as a full-time research assistant for three years. He is a Zaramo school teacher and an experienced interviewer, fluent in both Swahili and Zaramo. He administered the questionnaires and conducted the interviews in close consultation with me, and he also did extensive translation of Zaramo and Swahili texts and tape recordings into English.

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