Frequently asked Questions about Sangomas:

What is a Sangoma?
A Sangoma is an African Doctor, a ritual specialist, a healer, a mediator, a negotiater and a diviner. They serve as a link between this world and the world of the ancestors. The word "Sangoma" means “off the drum” and refers to the use of drumming as a means to enter trance. It’s a pity that this term has come to collectively refer to all traditional African Healers. I am in fact a Mungoma, a type of ritual specialist found in the Shangaan tradition in the southern parts of Africa.

Sangomas work closely with the ancestral realm, collaborating with them in order to diagnose and treat clients. (Different traditions might have slightly different ways of how they go about doing this.) To this day people in South Africa visit Sangomas more frequently than western doctors.

Is a Sangoma a fortune teller?

I would like to encourage you to think of a Sangoma as an African "Homeopath" who diagnoses you by looking at where you are at in your life, looking at your environment and the people around you.

Why are you a Sangoma?

Becoming a Sangoma is not a choice, it’s a calling. It’s not a course that you take, but a long and often painful initiation process. My calling came in my early twenties when I developed all kinds of strange symptoms and illnesses. I visited many different types of doctors, homeopaths, psychologists, psychiatrists and a range of other healers over a five year period but couldn’t find any relief. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and had never had any contact with Sangomas and was quite frankly frightened by them and what they represented. At a time when I really had nothing left to lose a friend told me about a man who was practicing as a Sangoma nearby and out of desperation I made my first ever visit to one. It turned out to be a life-changing event for me. He diagnosed the “calling-illness” and shortly afterwards I went to Botswana where I stayed for the length of my initiation.

What can I expect to happen when I consult with you?

The traditional method of divination and diagnosis it through a bone reading. The client is seated on the ground opposite the Mungoma. A short interview follows after which the Mungoma will literally throw a collection of objects on the ground. He/she will then proceed to "read" them and lay out the meaning to the client.

A bone reading tracks the natural cycles inherent in all people. It can be likened to a weather prediction: there are natural patterns in every living thing, and if they are tracked it is possible to diagnose and predict the most likely outcome.

After a diagnosis has been made the doctor might suggest a course of treatment. My treatments are made up of ritual and the use of local herbs and plants that are administered mostly through a course of baths or steams, but treatment varies from person to person.

Why would someone visit a Sangoma?

Sangomas have the tools to take people on very deep transpersonal journeys. They assist and support people who are in transitional states, they mark important events in people’s lives, the balance what is unbalanced and shed light on what has been hidden. They work with what is seen and unseen and liase between the two on the clients’ behalf. They are visionaries and can add a new dimension to your healing process. I work with ancestral and personal blockages, psychological and physical ailments. I also do house and property tyings and cleansings.

What is the role of the Ancestors?

Speaking about our ancestral connection in an African context is a multi-layered concept. It refers firstly to our direct lineage: our parents, our grandmothers and grandfathers. It refers to all those who came before us and those that come after us (our unborn children). If we follow our ancestral lineage back we are related to everyone who is alive today, and if we follow it even further we are related to every thing on the planet and in the universe. In this way when we work with our ancestral connection, we can say that we are working with our connection to everything around us and how we are placed in the world. You are the current incarnation of your direct ancestral lineage, and therefore when we work with the ancestors we are doing deep self-transformative personal work. You are the result of a long line of people. Your ancestors are outside of you, just like your father is separate to you, but also inside you, as his blood runs through you.

Do I have to believe in the world of the ancestors in order for the treatment to work?

No, you don’t. You don’t need to believe in medical science for a panado to take away your headache. The same goes here.

I hear alot of bad things about Sangomas.


My opinion is this: when you consult with someone you consult not only a specific methodology but also a person. If that person has hatred and fear inside of them, chances are they will have bad intentions with you. The chances of you visiting a dodgy Sangoma are about the same as your chances of visiting a dodgy medical doctor; they are often bought by pharmaceutical companies and push drugs and medicine onto people that you don’t need, give you operations you don’t require, all of that riding on the back of greed. The point? Make sure that you are visiting someone who is reputable, do your research, and if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t.