Zikhona Kokoma

Fellow: Department of Anthropology, MA

I am Zikhona Kokoma, an anthropologist who writes about traditional healers. I am currently doing my Masters Degree in Anthropology. My MA research project was inspired by my Honours thesis, which investigated the different ways in which traditional healers manage Impambano (mental illness). This was an eye-opening project that revealed that traditional healers are understood only through the realm of health and illness. My MA research study seeks to erase this single story by focusing on healers’ ritual aesthetics. It will explore how practice, music and songs, dance, and fashion recreate the meanings of being a traditional healer in contemporary South Africa.