C.G. Jung's 1925 'psychological expedition' to East Africa deeply imprinted Jung, gifting him with a clear personal myth. Many of his psychological concepts were elucidated during his five-month journey taken at the age of fifty. (1) Jung’s safari was an archetypal journey - a search for meaning in unknown and mysterious 'primitive' places. Africa to Jung was the wilderness of Soul.

During discursive dialogues in 2016, 2017 and 2018 African traditional healers and Jungian analysts from SAAJA tried to find common ground in the different worldviews. These dialogues were initiated when our illustrious speaker for the March lecture, Peter Ammann, met Nomfundo Mlisa, who is both a traditional healer and a clinical psychologist with a keen interest in Jung. Years before this, SAAJA founding member, Vera Buhrmann also pursued her interest in African healing traditions with the profoundest respect.

Dream analysis and intuition (umbillini) is central to divination in the African traditional healers’ perspective as much as it is also the focus during Jungian Analysis. Within the context of African cosmology, the traditional healer's calling includes an understanding of the role of the ancestors, the causes of illnesses and the use of dreams, symbols, and rituals in the healing process. Jung’s theory encompasses the collective unconscious which is populated by archetypes. Jung believes the symbolic mode to be the cornerstone of mythological images, which are complex structures consisting of different aspects. Nomfundo Mlisa, writes that the “ancestors are dynamic. They have always been there, will always be there and everywhere. Hence, I am sure that my soul met all of you here even before I see you now. Jung met our ancestors, and therefore his language resonates with our African world views.” (2)

Lynne Radomsky draws the comparison between Jung’s view and the “cosmology of the Indigenous Healer as ‘one who lives in an undivided world in which ancestor, dream, plant, animal, body, mind and spirit all belong together’ (Kruger 1974, 30). Jung understood this need when he stated that ‘psyche and matter exist in one and the same world’ (CW 9(ii), ¶413).” (3)

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa wrote: “My grandfather also taught me how to control my powers of seeing and how to sharpen them and make them more accurate and efficient. He taught me the art of breathing properly. He taught me the secret art of joining my mind to that of the great gods in the unseen world. He taught me how to sit still - very, very still - and eliminate all thoughts from my mind and call upon the hidden powers of my soul. In short, my grandfather taught me the Zulu version of what is called in English, "meditation". How to breathe softly and gently like a whisper until you feel something like a hot coiled snake bursting through the top of your head - a fearsome thing that is known as the umbilini. This umbilini, my grandfather told me, is the source, the primal source of the sangoma's powers. A sangoma must be able to summon this umbilini at will through the beating of the drum and through meditation, very, very deep meditation.” (4)

Written for @jungsouthernafrica

References: (1) Blake Burleson (2005) Jung in Africa, New York, London, Continuum.

(2) Mlisa, Lily Rose. (2020). Encountering the other: Jungian analysts and traditional healers in South Africa Part III: The traditional health practitioner’s stance and the world view. Journal of Analytical Psychology. 65. 212-215. 10.1111/1468-5922.12564.

(3) Radomsky, L. (2009). White Skin, Black Soul: Initiation and Integration in African Traditional Healing. Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, 3(3), 33–4 https://doi.org/10.1525/jung.2009.3.3.33

(4) Mutwa, V.C. (2003) Zulu shaman . Dreams, Prophesies and Mysteries. Rochester: Destiny Books, p. 13

Image credit: https://rekord.co.za/121663/another-rough-year-for-mams-sangoma/

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