05/01/2024
Must have for 2024
We are doing two related posts tonight. Please read the introduction in the post immediately below this one.
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Medical lore. J. P. Ndhambi, Circa 1930/40’s – Xitsonga
Keywords: traditional healing, ethics, medicinal herbs, proverbs, remedies, coughs, headache, heartburn, throat sickness, foul breath, chest pains, liver, pain, eyes, constipation, bewitchment, abscess, rheumatism, quarter-evil, scabs, instestinal worms, dysentery, bilharzia, infantile debility, cupping, bloodletting, stomach pains, women’s illness, male infertility, female infertility, vomiting, dropsy, emetic medicine, joints, knee sickness, skin diseases, measles, ears, purgatives, dizziness, teeth, dog-medicine, wounds, burns, lions, mosquitoes, baboons, fish, fontanelle sickness, plague, hysteria, lightning, temptation, catching a witch, pollution, purification, nasal haemorrhage, carbuncles, protective medicines, uses of medicines, expulsion medicine.
Foreword
I would like to thank God for affording me the opportunity to rummage through the ancient life of our ancestors in respect of medical lore.
Greetings all. I am Muhlave Makuhani Matsevele Ndhove. I am from Gondzhwanda under Savi (Hlengweni PE Africa). My grandparents came to the Transvaal at Maxawu village, fleeing wars with the Nguni people. I would like to narrate matters relating to ancestral traditional healing. I would also like to inform you about secrets relating to ancestral traditional healing, that is, before our encounter with the white man. Some of these secrets are now meaningless and have fallen out of practice. However, sometraditional healing practices remain significantly important even today. As a result, some go beyond the proverbs of the ancestors. Therefore, this is strictly only a commentary on traditional healing.
It is my fervent wish and, of course, hope, that people will use medicinal herbs wisely when they are educated and when they have repented and believe in God, in accordance with the law. Two issues are critical here: To learn at the highest level and acquire knowledge and wisdom regarding medicinal practices and to surrender oneself to the authority of our Heavenly Father in respect of the wisdom of learning anything.
There are still people who are more knowledgeable than me in this field of traditional medicine.
I would like to extend a word of gratitude to my father who helped me in writing this article in a legible manner with beautiful handwriting and approved orthography because I had only scribbled and had not followed the requisite laws pertaining to writing.
Proverbs relating to medicine
1. Medicine does not kill.
2. Medicine is not to be thanked.
3. Never undermine or show dissatisfaction for medicine given.
4. Traditional healers cannot cure themselves.
5. A traditional healer is a sorcerer.
6. Man is an elephant, he eats many trees.
7. Medicine cannot be little.
8. Never say farewell at a traditional healer’s place.
9. A traditional healer does not praise themself.
10. A traditional healer cannot be blamed.
Coughs and colds
The bulb of the bulbous plant (Xirhungula) is used as a remedy for coughs or colds, especially in babies. The bulb of the protective plant (nsungwe), pepper-bark tree (xibaha), the low growing shrub “wild mint” (musuzwani), the small tree or shrub called “Krinkhout, violet tree” (securidaca longipendunculata; mudlayindlhovu), the shrub Lowveld “Lemonthorn” (Fagara humilis; manungwani), the small tree Crossopteryx febrifuga (Nkombegwa) are all used to cure colds, fever and coughs. They are all cooked with water and sipped. The creeping water plant (Mbhandhe) is cooked with watermelon (magwadi), The bulb-like onion (mhila) of the bulbous plant is also useful when there is an outbreak of flu. It is placed into a large spherical earthenware pot with a narrow opening (khuwana) containing water and cooked so that it can be drunk.
Head-ache
They put the bulb of the protective plant (nsungwe) in the fire and let it smoulder. They then let the sick person inhale it through the nose. Mujona medicine is cooked and drunk by [pouring] it into the mouth. The leaves of the sour plum tree (Ximenia Americana L. var. Microphylla Welw.) (ntsengele) is cured the same way as the Buffalo Bean (Mucuna Coriacea) (mukhokha), “wild mint” (musuzwani) and termite soil (xifuwanyi).
Heartburn
Steep the Athrixia phylicoides herb with maize powder or maize flour and drink the water in which they were steeped. The slimy substance in the threads of the tree “Dikbas” (Dombeya rotundifolia; Xiluvarhi) can also be eaten to treat heartburn. They chew raw maize and swallow the the juice thereof.
Ndhambi and the man he interviewed – Muhlave Ndove - go on to list a further 54 ailments and the traditional medicine used to cure them. He then lists a further 212 medicines and their uses as used by the Vhatsonga ancestors.
