Exploring the role played by African Traditional Health Care Practitioners in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic – A case study of Allandale Village, Mpumalanga Province of South Africa

Exploring the role played by African Traditional Health Care Practitioners in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic – A case study of Allandale Village, Mpumalanga Province of South Africa

Tsetselelane Decide Mdhluli & Stewart Lee Kugara

Issue: Vol. 12 No.4 2026 Issue Article 2 pp. 141 – 153
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.202612342 Published online 20th May 2026.
© 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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ABSTRACT

The advent of the Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the need to fund and revive the role that African traditional health practitioners play in dealing with pandemics in Africa. Even though the Department of Health notes that African indigenous knowledge systems are not excluded in the search for a COVID-19 cure, gross imbalances in the funding seem to give a glimpse of the legacies of apartheid and colonisation. This is alleged to be ample evidence that the continent had learnt nothing from the previous health challenges (Ebola and Human Immunodeficiency Virus). Against this backdrop, this article explored the role played by African traditional health care practitioners in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Allandale village in Mpumalanga province. Using participatory action research, five (5) African traditional health care practitioners (diviner, herbalist, traditional birth attendant, traditional surgeon and faith healer) were purposively sampled to participate in semi-structured interviews. The study was grounded using Eziko Sipheka Sisophula’s theory to delve into gems of African indigenous knowledge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that due to their unique characteristics and the trust in them, traditional health professionals were crucial to primary care during the COVID-19 lockdown. If the role of traditional practitioners is properly harnessed, the country can yield good health care results and eliminate the dependency syndrome wherein Africa relies on vaccines developed from outside.

Keywords: Traditional Health Care Practitioners, Covid-19, Indigenous Knowledge, Pandemic, Traditional Medicine

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AUTHOR(S)

Tsetselelani Decide Mdhluli is an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Senior lecturer at the University of Limpopo. She holds the following degrees: a Doctor of Philosophy in African Studies, a Master’s Degree in African Studies, a Hons Degree in Gender Studies, a BA in International Relations and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education. She is an author in the following areas: Indigenous Knowledge system, African Philosophy, Gender and Indigenous Studies, African Conflict Management, Poverty and African Resolution, and Research and Community Engagement.

Doctor (Advocate) Stewart Lee Kugara is a Y2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated scholar – Law and Indigenous Knowledge Systems. He is a former Senior Lecturer (African Studies and School of Law – UNIVEN) and former adjunct lecturer at Monash University, South Africa (Now IIE MSA). He is a former Postdoctoral Fellow: University of Limpopo – DSI/NRF Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-3) and The Department of Science and Technology (DST) – National Research Foundation (NRF) Centre in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CIKS) – UNIVEN – 2020. He is an interdisciplinary, intradisciplinary and multidisciplinary author with academic publications straddling the following areas: African indigenous law, intellectual property, traditional leadership, African traditional health and beliefs, knowledge management, African conflicts management, cultural astronomy, human rights, indigenous customary law, poverty and development studies, African philosophy and cultural philosophy, heritage studies and medical anthropology. He possesses excellent experience in customary legal issues (indigenous knowledge systems), research, community engagement and teaching. He is now seeking a permanent career challenge with an opportunity for professional growth.

TO CITE ARTICLE

Mdhluli, Tsetselelane Decide, and Stewart Lee Kugara. “Exploring the role played by African Traditional Health Care Practitioners in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic – A case study of Allandale Village, Mpumalanga Province of South Africa.” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies 12, no.4 (2026): 141 – 154. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20261242