Ithwasa training

Traditional healer initiation or ithwasa training is a training program for one to become a traditional healer.

A trainee traditional healer trains under another traditional healer for a number of years until they have learned all the basics of traditional healing

An initiate (ithwasa) being led towards the goat that will be sacrificed at her initiation into becoming a sangoma.

Both men and women can become traditional healers.  A sangoma is believed to be "called" to heal
through an initiation illness; symptoms involve psychosis, headache, intractable stomach pain, shoulder or neck complaints or illness that cannot be cured by conventional methods.

These problems together must be seen by a sangoma as twasa or the calling of the ancestors. Sangomas believe that failure to respond to the calling will result in further illness until the person concedes and goes to be trained.

The word twasa is derived from thwasa which means 'the light of the new moon' or from
ku mu thwasisa meaning 'to lead to the light'.

A trainee sangoma (or ithwasa) trains formally under another sangoma for a period of anywhere between a number of months and many years.

The training involves learning humility to the ancestors, purification through steaming, washing in the blood of sacrificed animals, and the use of muti, medicines with spiritual significance.

An ithwasa after drinking the blood of a goat during her initiation The ithwasa may not see their families during training and must abstain from sexual contact and often live under harsh and strict conditions.

This is part of the cleansing process to prepare the healer for a life's work of dedication to healing and the intense experiences of training tend to earn a deeply entrenched place in the sangoma's memory.

During the training period the ithwasa will share their ailments in the form of song and dance, a process that is nurtured by the analysis of dreams, anxieties, and with prayer.

The story develops into a song which becomes a large part of the graduation type ceremony that marks the end of the ithwasa's training.

At times in the training, and for the graduation, a ritual sacrifice of an animal is performed
(usually chickens and a goat or a cow).

The spilling and drinking of this blood is meant to seal the bond between the ancestors and the sangoma.

At the end of thwasa and during initiation, a goat is sacrificed to call to the ancestors and appease them.

The local community, friends and family are all invited to the initiation to witness and celebrate the
completion of training.

The ithwasa is also tested by the local elder sangomas to determine whether they have the skills and insight necessary to heal.

The climactic initiation test is to ensure the ithwasa has the ability to "see" things hidden from view.

This is signified and proved when other sangomas hide the ithwasa's sacred objects, including the gall bladder of the goat that was sacrificed and the ithwasa must, in front of the community, call upon their ancestors, find the hidden objects and return them back to the sangomas that hid them, thus proving they have the ability to "see" beyond the physical world.

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