an animal is performed (usually chickens and a goat or a cow). at the end of ukuthwasa and during initiation, early hours of the morning a goat that will be slaughtered should be a female one, that's for umguni, the second one will be slaughtered the following morning after the chickens, which are sacrificed at the river abamdzawo. all these sacrifices are 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 ithwasane 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 thwasane must, in front of the community, call upon their ancestors, find the hidden objects, which includes the skin of the goat, umgamase, the ancestors clothes and return them back to the sangomas that hid them, thus proving they have the ability to "see" beyond the physical world. the heading practice is also done at night after taking off all those traditional clothing you had worn all day, they hide them for that thwasane to look for them again. the graduation ceremony takes three days from friday to sunday, the early hours of the morning the thwasane needs to sweep the whole yard, wash his/her clothes and also to bath at the river; he/she should return home when they are dry. drumming and ancestral dancing isangoma in traditional attire dancing in celebration of his ancestors sangoma can also literally mean 'person of the drum' or 'the drumming one' and drumming is an important part of summoning the ancestors. during times of celebration (e.g. at an initiation) the possessed sangoma is called to dance and celebrate their ancestors. the sangoma will fall into trance (when in trance the sangoma is not conscious of what is happening, so after that he/she will be told of the things he/she had said) where the ancestors will be channeled (which is signified in zulu traditions by episodes of convulsive fits) followed by the singing of ancestral songs. these songs are echoed back to the ancestor via the audience in a process of call and response. the possessed sangoma will then change into their traditional ancestral clothing and dance vigorously while others drum and sing in celebration. history and background the zulu word with prefix is isangoma (pl. izangoma), alternatively it is also spelled as umngoma (pl. abangoma), sa ngoma means 'do ngoma and i sa ngoma means "those who do ngoma", so sangoma or isangoma refers specifically to the practitioner of the ngoma practice. sangoma/n'anga in johannesburg, south africa, performing a traditional baptism to protect the spirit of the baby the term sangoma is often used colloquially in south africa for equivalent professions in other bantu cultures in southern africa. forms of the ngoma ritual are practiced throughout southern and south-eastern africa in countries such as south africa, eswatini, zimbabwe, mozambique, lesotho, kenya, and batswana. in more northern areas the practices are generally more diverse and less organized than the southern practices. among the kongo, the practice is called loka or more negatively doga, a term meaning witchcraft. ngoma is believed to have come to southern africa during the western bantu migration that began around 2000 bce and was further influenced by the eastern bantu migration that occurred until 500 ce. the practice has evolved along with the social problems of its users. in pre-colonial form ngoma songs dealt mainly with issues of hunting. over time the system adapted to include the introduction of guns, and later the racial and class struggles of practitioners under colonial rule. in zimbabwe, the civil war experience led to a revival of ngoma practice with a new emphasis on the spirits of the victims of war. the service allowed the sangoma to help people cope with their own violent acts as well as those they had fallen victim to. an example of this is the tsonga who believe that one of the main alien spirits that can bestow powers of clairvoyance and the ability to detect witchcraft is the ndau spirit. the ndau spirit possesses the descendants of the gaza soldiers who had slain the ndau and taken their wives. once the ndau spirit has been converted from hostile to benevolent forces, the spirits bestow the powers of divination and healing on the n'angna. in addition, ngoma has been adapted by many to include both christian and muslim beliefs. legal status sangomas are legally recognized in south africa as "traditional health practitioners", under the traditional health practitioners act of 2007 (act. 22 of 2007) as diviners alongside herbalists, traditional birth attendants, and traditional surgeons. the act calls for the establishment of a national council of traditional health practitioners to regulate and register a.o. sangomas in the country. however, it was only in december 2011 that the national department of health took action and opened nominations for seats on an interim council. in october 2012, health department spokesperson joe maila advised that the department aimed to have the council up and running by the end of 2012. the interim traditional health practitioners council was eventually inaugurated on 12 february 2013. several sections of the act, dealing with the establishment and governance of the national council and the registration of practitioners, came into effect on 1 may 2014. previously, the south african parliament had passed the traditional health practitioners act of 2004 (act. 35 of 2004). however, the act was ruled unconstitutional after doctors for life international challenged it at the constitutional court, citing the insufficient public participation at provincial level in the drafting of the act. the south african law reform commission received a submission from the traditional healers organisation requesting the investigation of the constitutionality of the witchcraft suppression act of 1957 and the mpumalanga witchcraft suppression bill of 2007, the drafting of which was suspended in 2008. on 23 march 2010 the minister of justice and constitutional development approved a south african law reform commission project to review witchcraft legislation. in march 2012 the south african law reform commission advised that ms jennifer joni has been designated as researcher and judge dennis davis has been designated as project leader for project 135: review of witchcraft legislation. dr theodore petrus, who completed a doctoral thesis on witchcraft-related crime in 2009, was invited to become part of an advisory committee to assist in the review. white sangomas after a successful initiation in alexandra township, johannesburg, gogo mashele of the tshwane traditional & faith healers forum welcomes new sangomas (including a white thwasa) while there are recorded instances of white sangomas before 1994, since 1994 an increasing number of white people have openly trained as sangomas in south africa. the question of authenticity is still an ongoing discussion. according to nokuzola mndende of the icamagu institute, a xhosa sangoma and former lecturer in religious studies at the university of cape town:an igqirha is someone who has been called by their ancestors to heal, whether from the maternal or paternal side, they can't be called by ancestors. philip kubekeli, director of the traditional medical practitioners, herbalist and spiritual healers association, and phephsile maseko, spokesperson of the traditional healers organisation, see nothing wrong with white sangomas. kubekeli and maseko maintain the position that traditional healing knows no color. several white sangomas, interviewed by the big issue in 2010, claimed that they have been welcomed by the black community in south africa, aside from isolated experiences of hostility. on the other hand, there have also been reports that white sangomas have been less readily accepted by black sangomas. a number of the south african traditions (e.g. swazi and tsonga/shangaan) believe that a foreign or alien spirit can call one to become a traditional healer, which they call abandzawo, especially if there is a significant extreme relationship between one of the healer's biological ancestors and the foreign spirit that occurred in the past. dr nhlavana maseko, founder of the traditional healers organization, explains: foreign spirits are not of your family. that is all it means. foreign spirits are not your ancestors. my forefathers, for instance, were warriors and they killed some people. when these people were killed, they become my family's foreign spirits. there must be a working relationship with your foreign spirit and your ancestors. they have something, an injustice, a murder that must be worked out, must be healed. during training, as the ancestors come out, you have to finish up with your own ancestors first. that relationship sorts itself out, then you are ready to work with the foreign spirits. it happens in a natural way. the ancestors do the work through you. maybe the foreign spirit want to be the important or senior ancestor; when the ancestor of your clan comes, well, they may have to fight it out. you might feel some aches during this time. it is friction among them that is working itself out. relationship with bio-medical medicine inyanga in her ndumba, a sacred hut used for healing. behind her are her mutis, medicine stored in containers. the formal health sector has shown continued interest in the role of sangomas and the efficacy of their herbal remedies. botanists and pharmaceutical scientists continue to study the ingredients of traditional medicines in use by sangomas. well known contributions to world medicine from south african herbal remedies include aloe, buchu and devil's claw. public health specialists are now enlisting sangomas in the fight, not only against the spread of hiv/aids, but also diarrhoea and pneumonia, which are major causes of death in rural areas, especially in children. in the past decade, the role of traditional healers has become important in fighting the impact of hiv and treating people infected with the virus before they advance to a point where they require (or can obtain) anti-retroviral drugs. however, there are no traditional medicines in south africa that have clinically been proven to be effective in the treatment of hiv/aids. a conclusion from a review by unaids in september 2000, regarding collaboration with traditional healers in hiv/aids prevention and care, found that modern and traditional belief systems are not incompatible, but complementary. while for many they provide the healing needed, there are some causes for concern. charlatans who have not undergone thwasa charge exorbitant prices for fraudulent service, and not all countries in southern africa have effective regulatory bodies to prevent this practice. some sangomas have been known to abuse the charismatic power they have over their patients by sexually assaulting them, sometimes dressed up as ritual. repeated use of the same razor blade to make incisions for muti carries hiv transmission risks in regions where the disease is rife. western-style doctors have seen a number of cases of patients with serious gastrointestinal problems through the use of muti, especially in enema form, and have coined the phrase "ritual enema induced colitis" to describe the phenomenon. fraudulent sangomas and scam artists typical flyer advertising found around the major cities of south africa the notion of traditional medicine has been exploited for financial gain by what are often called plastic shamans. in the cape, they often adopt muslim sounding names in order to attract the local cape coloured population, who are in part muslim. they advertise through flyers, posters and adverts that are commonly plastered on the streets and lampposts of cities throughout south africa, especially in densely populated urban areas. the advertisements claim the ability to bring back lost lovers, potions to enlarge penises and spells that will make people rich or provide them with luck. many people have lost significant amounts of money from scams, tricks and false promises that these charlatans use in their cons. many women have significantly damaged their reproductive organs and the ability to reproduce, due to back street abortions. legitimate sangomas are angered by these charlatans and are working to end the trade of bogus traditional healers and fake sangomas through regulation, legal action and awareness. they believe the charlatans harm the reputation of the legitimate traditional healers and also