The Magical Healing Dance Of The San Bushmen

The Magical Healing Dance Of The San Bushmen

 

These people were believed to have come from one of the oldest surviving lineages of mankind. The San people of Namibia and Botswana, who were formerly referred to as the Bushmen.

 The San Bushmen
The San Bushmen dance

Conservation has eroded people’s native lands, and they have gone with their practices because their way of life is tied to the ancient time.

 

However, in some San Communities in the Kalahari region, the trance dance is still alive. The dance is the most prominent cultural and religious practice that the San people still practice. The dance is used for healing sick people and healing some of the negative habits of the people. A ritual-like practice that produces an altered consciousness through hyperventilation and rhythmic dance. Historians believe that this trance dance was recorded by southern African rock art. The healing dance comes in many shapes, and they still produce the same effect; healing the sick.

 

Some women may sit around a fire and do their rhythmical clapping and singing medicine songs while their healers dance around. Many people, including the women, are healers in these communities.

 

The ritual is a night-long affair that ends the healers in an altered state; in the altered conscious state, the healers experience healing energy that is carefully channeled to the sick people. The healers do this by touching the sick people on their torso or body parts affected by sickness.

 

Often feeling great pain and screaming during this dance. It’s believed that the dance also drives away disputes and anger in the community. Sometimes, the healers, when in a trance cast themselves into the fire as their spirits leave their bodies on a frightening, painful, and dangerous mission to save their people. The people care for the healers or shamans who are on trance by rubbing them with sweat and there is a flicking of flywhisks to ward off encroaching arrows of illness.

Similar Posts