Talk:Inyanga

Definition
In the book "Things Fall Apart" It says a girl was mixing inyanga in her pot. How can you mix a healer?


 * I would suspect that the author was unfamiliar with the African term and got it wrong. The herbal medicines that an inyanga mixes are called muti. 64.142.90.33 (talk) 08:20, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

In the edition I am reading the text is "Obiageli had been making inyanga with her pot". In an article I found "inyanga" translated as "the pride of a peacock". I guess she was showing off her skill at balancing the pot over her head.

(source: http://chatafrik.com/articles/psychology/what-seems-to-trouble-the-igbos) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.25.130.22 (talk) 19:58, 15 August 2019 (UTC)

Merge with nganga
I support a merge. Wizzy&hellip; &#9742; 09:17, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Merge Is not a good idea
I think that merging these two articles is reductionist to a degree that will actually decrease the sum total of knowledge at Wikipedia. 64.142.90.33 (talk) 07:44, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

I boldly removed merge tag
The merge tag was added to this article in 2009. It is now 2011. The merge did not happen, and the article has been greatly lengthened since the original merge proposal. Today i edited boldly and removed both the merge tag and the stub tag from the article. 64.142.90.33 (talk) 18:17, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Merge with Sangoma Article
I am started a new section as this is a proposal of a merge with a different article as to those discussed above.

I would support a merge of this article with the sangoma article. Unlike a merge with the nganga article, which I can see why this could be deemed as reductionism, I don't believe a merge with the sangoma article is reductionist. I have yet to come across someone that identifies themselves as an inyanga that does not also practise throwing the bones or pray to their ancestors to facilitate healing. I am interested if anyone knows an area or specific inyangas that actually do not incorporate any type of divination or spiritual practice into their healing. Similarly, I'm interested to know of sangomas that do not use any form of muti in their healing practice. There is sufficient references to support that the distinction between the 2 is becoming increasingly redundant. Although I personally prefer the term inyanga, (which is what most traditional healers that I have met call themselves), they are more commonly known as sangomas, especially to the general public. I actually think that the article split probably creates greater confusion than a single article that sufficiently covers both the practices of ancestral diviniation and use of mutis. Nevertheless I will expand this article, until we can further the discussion of a merge. Mycelium101 (talk) 09:39, 11 June 2012 (UTC)


 * I thought that Inyangas were primarily concerned with affairs of the body, while Sangomas were primarily concerned with affairs of the heart/head, but this might be my western simplification of the issues. Naturally there is a great deal of overlap. My reference is KheKheKhe, a highly respected Sangoma whom I met several times. I never saw him throw bones (not saying he didn't) and muti I saw him dispensing was more of the magical kind rather than the healing kind. But I claim little authority. Wizzy&hellip; &#9742; 09:56, 11 June 2012 (UTC)


 * wow, Quick response :), and let me 1st say wizzy, thank you for your contributions so far in this area. Yes, this is why the distinction is so fuzzy that I believe the distinction causes greater confusion than clarifies it.  I don't believe that inyangas or sangomas generally distinguish between western concepts of magical vs physical.  Regardless of how the symptoms manifest, ie physically, emotionally or phsychologically, the primary focus is the cause - ie is it caused by ancestors, witchcraft or impurities?   All inyangas that I have worked with, also use a combination of prayer and muti to find lost objects, dispell witchcraft, prevent people from going to jail, help 'turn things around' in your life, keep families together etc.  ie not only physical healing, but emotional, psychological & spiritual healing too.  They all used divination, have a strong emphasis on dreams and their primary focus is appeasement of the ancestors with a strong use of animal sacrifice.  My main point is that the practices and beliefs of inyangas and sangomas overlap so much so that, in my experience, it is more based on what the healer refers to themselves as, than what they practice or believe.  My proposal is to make the dinstinction in the sangoma article as a new heading, and use one article to discuss the practices and beliefs of both inyangas and sangomas as they are pretty much indistinguishable. I would be happy to hear some more thoughts on this before anything happens though.  Mycelium101 (talk) 10:54, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * If I understand correctly, Sangoma and Inyanga are two descriptors for traditional shaman in South Africa who have specialized in different types of arcane knowledge. If the two terms are used in the same areas/among the same communities and have the same distinction of meaning throughout, my next question would be, are there other types of shaman in South Africa? Do other communities draw the same distinctions but use different words because of language differences? If that's the case, I would propose changing the name of the article to something like Shamans (South Africa) and then combine Sangoma and Inyanga and have both articles redirect to the new one (along with any other words that mean either of these types of shaman in other South African languages. Then the various terms and variations in meaning/role/practices between communities could be explored in the main article. That way the article will be exhaustive and of maximum utility because anyone seeking related knowledge will come to it (i.e increased readership) - and it will avoid creating a dozen stubs about essentially equivalent topics. Lemurbaby (talk) 04:48, 13 June 2012 (UTC)


 * @Mycelium101 - your description above fits my idea of a Sangoma. My idea of Inyanga is herbal remedies for pain and physical afflictions. @Lemurbaby - black south africans might not understand the word Shaman. It is a western word - not that familiar in South African English. Wizzy&hellip; &#9742; 10:43, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * @Lemurbaby - I agree with Wizzy. The term shaman is rarely used in South Africa.  The term sangoma is the most widely & popular used colloquial term to collectively describe all traditional healing practices, however I would imagine some groups do not accept the term.  (Eg.  I know of many inyangas that insist on being called inyangas not sangomas, even though they practice the descriptions I outlined above, where even some of their clients and members of the community refer to them as sangomas.) I do not know enough about the Xhosa traditions (igqirha) to know how they feel about being called sangomas though. The only term I know that is used and accepted collectively is Traditional Healer.  It is used in most formal traditional healer organisations to categorise all traditional healers, from sangomas to inyangas to faith healers to birth attendants.  That being said, I would think that most, if not all people looking for information on South African traditional healers would search using the term 'sangoma' as a starting point.  My concern is that, as Lemurbaby outlines, if I were to expand the inyanga article, it would essentially need to have the same info that the sangoma article does as there are no clear distinctions anymore between the 2. All the practices outlined in the sangoma article from thwasa to healing with muti to drumming to ancestral trance can apply to both inyangas and sangomas (although, admittedley, this could be more of an urban phenomenon where there is much more significant overlapping and mixing of cultures).  I'm not saying all sangomas use muti or all inyangas use prayer/spiritual practices, but the overlap is becoming more the norm than the exception, and with no clear practical distinction between the 2, it would be very difficult to define what goes into an inyanga article and what goes into the sangoma article.  Coming back to Lemurbaby's point, I would be hesitant to recategorise it due to the widely popular usage of the term 'sangoma', however if it was, I would suggest the most acceptable collective terminology would be something like 'Traditional Healers of South Africa'. @Wizzy - FYI - Lemurbaby is a Good Article reviewer and has kindly offered to help review the sangoma article to see if we can get it to Good Article status.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mycelium101 (talk • contribs) 13:15, 13 June 2012 (UTC)


 * My (little) experience has been in rural Zululand rather than the city - a friend of mine was studying to be a sangoma, and I called around to find out if there was any official recognition (as there is, apparently, in the Eastern Cape). I talked to a few people, and there was never any confusion between Sangoma and Inyanga. So in that environment there is a clear distinction - perhaps it is blurred elsewhere. I am still against a merge - perhaps a note in the Inyanga article about this blurring of roles (which I have not seen) ?
 * A compromise might be to create an article 'Traditional Healers of South Africa' and have both Sangoma and Inyanga point to it, but I think both articles are quite substantial - with the problem only about nomenclature, not content. Wizzy&hellip; &#9742; 14:23, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The idea of merging under Traditional Healers of South Africa seems like a good one to me, especially if there is overlap at times. It would have a Sangoma section (with its sub-sections), an Inyanga section (with its subsections), an "other" section and include another section on overlaps or terminologies in different regions. It's true that many people searching for this topic might search for Sangoma, but they will find the term in the search, and it will redirect them to a much larger and more complex article that might open their eyes to similarities/differences/overlaps between Sangomas and other types of traditional healers. If there were a clear distinction between the groups and no overlap I wouldn't recommend it, but given the apparent reality that the distinction is not clear-cut, the merging seems like the best way to deal with this. Lemurbaby (talk) 17:45, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * @Wizzy - What you have said makes a lot of sense. I would imagine that the dinstinction would be a lot clearer in a more rural setting than in an urban environment, especially townships where the mix and blurring of practices and cultures would be a lot more common.  What I do wish to avoid is making any article top heavy regarding one areas particular POV to the detriment of how sangomas/inyangas practice in other areas/lineages/cultures.  I am conscious of the fact that my expertise/experience is very much based in the urban traditional practices of gauteng/mpumulunga, so any perspective of other practices (eg rural, xhosa or elsewhere) are very valuable contributions to help maintaining a balanced POV.  I did add a final sentence to the inyanga article about the blurring of roles.  This is referenced by page 8 of an online discussion paper on Traditional Healers and their role in a response to HIV/AIDS.  I propose I give it a go and create a page called Traditional Healers of South Africa as a separate article and incorporate both sangoma and inyanga info without losing depth of content or validity of either.  If we all agree it works and it enhances both the sangoma and inyanga articles, then we can decide if we wish to redirect sangoma and inyanga to them.  If it doesn't work, then we can delete the new article and keep them seperate. Mycelium101 (talk) 03:37, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Hold on - I was suggesting that the new article be created and that all the content on the other two be moved to the new article, with redirects used so those searching for either term would find themselves at the Traditional Healers article. What we don't need is several articles that repeat the same content. That was the idea behind creating the Trad. Healers article - to avoid repetition and put interconnected topics on the same page. If these are different topics, keep them separate and don't create a joint page. It sounds like you may need to do some more research to verify what the distinction truly is (especially in rural areas) to determine whether these are truly distinct social categories/roles or if there is significant overlap and the terms are more linguistic differences than anything. Lemurbaby (talk) 04:02, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's also what I am suggesting as an end result. What I am suggesting though, is to create the new article, copy the contents across and merge.  If we all agree that it enhances the topic, then we remove the original articles and redirect.  If we realise it doesn't work, then we delete the new article and revert back to keeping seperate articles as they are now. As this could take a couple of days, how can we do this without messing up the sangoma or inyanga article until all infomation has been sufficiently moved to the Traditional Healers article? Mycelium101 (talk) 04:19, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * You might also check Traditional African religion - though the focus there seems to be West Africa. In my experience South African traditional healers have a more favourable rap than West African ones - where there seems to be quite an emphasis on 'black' magic. On the mechanics - I suggest moving Sangoma to Traditional Healers of South Africa, merging the Inyanga article, then redirecting Inyanga. Wizzy&hellip; &#9742; 09:25, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Agree, let's go with that. Leave a message on my talk page to let me know when you'd like me to revisit it as a Good Article nominee. Lemurbaby (talk) 16:06, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Apologies for the delay in starting this, however I have been moving house and am mostly moved in now. I will perform the merging in the next day or 2 and add some additional reference material and image gallery to the article to enhance it a bit more. Mycelium101 (talk) 07:38, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
 * After a bit of a stop/start as I figured how to move/merge - Inyanga and Sangoma are now redirected to Traditional Healers of South Africa - Merge discussion template has been removed

Different ethnic groups and countries in Africa : Meanings are different and applied differently.
These are two different ethnic groups and countries in Africa. Things Fall Apart is based on Igbo people in West Africa. While both involve ancestors the language is different and applies differently than Iyanga in South Africa. They are not the same. Many African languages don’t translate well into English phonetic letters so Iyganga and Nganga May relate to the same word. Iyalawo (talk) 12:05, 1 July 2019 (UTC)