‘ Why Are There So Many Drums Playing until Dawn?’ Exploring the Role of Gamba Spirits and Healers in the Post-War Recovery Period in Gorongosa, Central Mozambique
Abstract
In the wake of a civil war, local resources can play a potential role in shaping the recovery process by providing both old and new exegeses for the disturbing effects of the past. Using the case of Gorongosa, this article aims to explore the ways in which the war has impacted upon traditional medicine by creating Gamba spirits that cause havoc but can also transform the psychosocial hurts of war survivors. Historically, traditional healing practice was under the sole responsibility of the Dzoca, an ancestral spirit that for generations was embodied in living people through lineage descent to exercise its healing powers. There is consensus among healers that the Gamba spirit and healers emerged after the war and are rapidly spreading throughout Gorongosa. I explore the emic theories to explain the Gamba’s puzzling origins and the role they are currently playing in Gorongosa.
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In many settings, traditional healing practices make critical contributions to social healing in the context of war.
“In many settings, traditional healing practices make critical contributions to social healing in the context of war.70,104–106”
From Interventions for Children Affected by War: An Ecological Perspective on Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Care (2013) · cites this paper as [105]
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- Authors
- Igreja, V.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Igreja, Victor
- ORCID
- Igreja, Victor
- Venue
- Transcultural Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-12
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 460-487
- ISSN
- 1363-4615 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7471
- OpenAlex
- W2123121848
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Transcultural Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › African Studies and Ethnography
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Cultural, Psychoanalytic, and Sociopolitical Reflections
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › African history and culture studies
- Keywords
- traditional healing, post-conflict reconstruction, ancestral spirits, drumming, traditional medicine
- MeSH terms
- Cultural Characteristics, Humans, Mental Healing, Mozambique, Social Conditions, Spiritualism, Warfare, Medicine, African Traditional
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