The Nature, Goal, and Core Business of African Traditional Medicine

In this paper, I argue that African traditional medicine (ATM), as practiced in a southern African context, involves a relational and interconnected inquiry into conditions of disease, and this investigation is grounded in an African philosophical worldview that integrates human, environmental, and spiritual dimensions (relational and interconnected thesis). Second, its goal is healing, rather than curing, particularly as healing encompasses not only the relief of disease symptoms but also the restoration of a person’s social and spiritual relationships (healing thesis). Finally, its core business is to understand and explain the circumstances and cause(s) of pathological conditions, often through methods such as divination (understanding and explanation thesis).