In Depth

Sangomas at Dawn

Walk along a Durban beach at dawn, and you may see a group of Zulu sangomas (traditional healers), their beads and buckskin adornments covered in brightly colored cloth, wading into the ocean to collect seawater, to be used in muti (traditional medicines) to protect crops. An estimated two-thirds of South Africans regularly consult sangomas, and recently even large pharmaceutical companies have been tapping into their knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants.