A review of plants used in divination in southern Africa and their psychoactive effect

Numerous indigenous healing traditions around the world employ plants with psychoactive effects to facilitate

divination and other spiritual healing rituals. Southern Africa has thus far been considered to have relatively

few psychoactive plant species of cultural importance, and little has been published on the subject. This

paper reports on 85 species of plants that are used for divination by southern Bantu-speaking people. Of

these, 39 species (45 %) have other reported psychoactive uses, and a number have established hallucinogenic

activity. These findings indicate that psychoactive plants have an important role in traditional healing practices

in southern Africa.

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http://www.sahumanities.org/ojs/index.php/SAH/article/viewFile/247/208

Ritual uses of palms in traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Ritual uses of palms in traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Palms (Arecaceae) are prominent elements in African traditional medicines. It is, however, a challenge to find detailed information on the ritual use of palms, which are an inextricable part of African medicinal and spiritual systems. This work reviews ritual uses of palms within African ethnomedicine. We studied over 200 publications on uses of African palms and found information about ritual uses in 26 of them. At least 12 palm species in sub-Saharan Africa are involved in various ritual practices: Borassus aethiopum, Cocos nucifera, Dypsis canaliculata, D. fibrosa, D. pinnatifrons, Elaeis guineensis, Hyphaene coriacea, H. petersiana, Phoenix reclinata, Raphia farinifera, R. hookeri, and R. vinifera. In some rituals, palms play a central role as sacred objects, for example the seeds accompany oracles and palm leaves are used in offerings. In other cases, palms are added as a support to other powerful ingredients, for example palm oil used as a medium to blend and make coherent the healing mixture. A better understanding of the cultural context of medicinal use of palms is needed in order to obtain a more accurate and complete insight into palm-based traditional medicines.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4222890/