A sangoma is a diviner and healer of the Nguni peoples of southern Africa who works through a relationship with the ancestral spirits.
Called by the ancestors
The sangoma is understood to be called to the office by the ancestral spirits, often through an illness or affliction that is recognised as the summons and is resolved only by accepting the calling and undergoing a long and demanding initiation and training under an established sangoma, so entry to the office is not by choice or appointment but by a call that must be answered. Once trained, the sangoma divines the causes of illness, misfortune and disturbance, communicates with the ancestors on behalf of clients, and prescribes the ritual and the remedies that will restore harmony.
Divination and its place
The divination is typically performed by throwing and reading a set of bones and other objects, or through dreams and possession by the ancestral spirits, so the sangoma works through a relationship with the ancestors rather than through herbal knowledge alone, which distinguishes the office from that of the inyanga, the herbalist, though the two roles often overlap in one person. The sangoma holds a respected and central place in the religious and medical life of the Nguni communities, and traditional healing of this kind remains widely practised alongside modern medicine in southern Africa. The office represents the diviner-healer who mediates between the living and the ancestors, and whose authority rests on the calling by the spirits and the training that follows it.