Preservation and Heritage Theory

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As expressed by Nilson & Thorell (2018:9-10), heritage represents a fact or situation that is observed to exist or to have happened within a traditional historical discourse and that cultural heritage refers to the modern or contemporary society’s use to the past which are transmitted mostly orally. It is argued that the key issue in preservation is to ensure that what had happened in the past and the current developments are stored for future reference. Onyaoku, et al. (2015) argue that there is a gradual extinction of indigenous knowledge including indigenous medical knowledge. It is against this reason that indigenous health practices have protected and defended the health of indigenous communities for generations and as such need to be preserved. Vhomaine’s collective indigenous health knowledge heritage and their practices should be treated as more important than others.

The aforementioned explanations of the preservation and cultural heritage are general assumptions of the theory. To be specific, Georgios (2017) argues that the traditional health practitioners who are Vhomaine in this study and their healing activities, cultural tradition and heritage pass them down from generation to generation orally. The need to preserve all these then arises. The practices of Vhomaine substantially contribute to the reinforcement of their cultural identity and as such plays an important role in the cultural development of the society. The emphasis that such practices of Vhomaine need to be preserved for future generations is a key in this study. The history and culture of Vhomaine and their practices need to be learnt for self-identity and creation of a better future as supported by Georgios (2017).

The preservation and heritage theory forms the basis for the preservation of indigenous health knowledge. Just like the sacred sites where Vhomaine practice their rituals while communicating with the ancestors / living-dead, if that is not preserved, there would be an extreme loss of such knowledge and practices. The preserved knowledge by Vhomaine is said to be a local Knowledge. Vhomaine in this study are from Vhembe District Municipality comprised of four local municipalities. Since they were born and bred within the district, is the confirmation that their knowledge is predominantly local.

According to Hanberger et al. (2015:32), local knowledge refers to knowledge usable

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within a specific contextual environment. Gajardo et al. (2015:354) added that local knowledge contributes to the conservation and preservation and according to Sun (2015:132), such knowledge is situational and local. Nilson & Thorell (2018:39) summed up that such knowledge is transferred through generations. The oral tradition dictates that instead of documentation, the knowledge within Vhomaine is transferred orally from one generation to the next.

Vhomaine, the diviners in this study said that their tacit knowledge of healing practices is preserved by their ancestors or the living-dead. This statement asserts that there is a need to preserve this knowledge. The difficulty is the preservation by the ancestors or the living-dead. The repository of the preserved practices and the indigenous health knowledge is only accessed by the few particularly Vhomaine. This addresses the challenges of preservation. Theories have challenges and without challenges, they cannot be dynamic. Theories only give us a framework, and thus a need to find ways how such practices could be preserved should prevail at the end. The how part of it makes the preservation and heritage theory to be dynamic. Schimke (2021) shows that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie contends that “theory gives us a framework to think about the world, but we should not give it primacy when we do, otherwise we shall start to walk backwards”. But we must preserve the sanctity of the theory. The study suggested that the preservation of the indigenous health knowledge and the practices of Vhomaine, the diviners should be the continuous practice of using the drums / ngoma when calling for the ancestors within the communities they live in and allowing the apprenticeships / mathwasana to walk in public wearing their ancestral attire or costumes called matongo in Tshivenda.

Onyaoku, et al. (2015:35), contributed the reasons for the preservation of traditional medical medicines and amongst them are that there is a general consensus on the gradual extinction of indigenous knowledge systems as a result of colonization;

adoption of Western cultural practices which led to the detriment of indigenous culture and that government favoured Western medicine with its highly developed evidence base care approach to treatment; etc. The question is why during this period of post-

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colonization there is still a fear that the indigenous health knowledge and the practices of Vhomaine will be extinct. Maybe it is because after colonization, people inclusive of Vhomaine remained psychologically and mentally colonized. If this is a reason, there is a problem and there is a need for the African people to decolonize themselves. If Vhomaine and the indigenous people discard and get rid of the indigenous African cultural practices in favour of the Western cultural practices, this implies that they are still colonized. There is therefore a need to re-examine the school curriculum and as such the academic or institutions of higher learning should play leading role. The recommendations of the study have also attested to this. There is also a problem to the government if it advocates the Western medicine instead of working with research institutions to promote and use the indigenous health medicine with the help of Vhomaine. The need therefore arises to investigate the preservation and documentation strategies for Vhomaine who are currently the repository of indigenous health knowledge.

Preservation and conservation of the indigenous health knowledge and the practices of vhunanga is a concern not only to the local Vhomaine, but globally, hence this theory was developed. Onyaoku, et al. (2015) report by using the World Health Organization Traditional Medical Conference held in Beijing in November 2008. It was in this conference where the necessity for the preservation of indigenous health knowledge was accentuated to in the first article of declaration where it dictated that:

“The knowledge of traditional medicines treatment and practices should be respected, preserved, promoted and communicated widely and appropriately based on the circumstances in each country. This can be done through planned documentation of the existing knowledge”.

The above mentioned first article concerns about the health knowledge and practices of Vhomaine. If such practices are not respected, they cannot be preserved, promoted and widely communicated and documented. They cannot be stored in the repositories of Vhomaine. The study proposes that the health knowledge of Vhomaine and their

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practices should be preserved by being practiced openly without fear, favour or prejudice as dictated by section 167 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) to ensure that they are not diabolized and undermined. Vhomaine who are the herbalists are likely to propose strategies for documentation while the diviners will opt to request from their ancestors or the living-dead to use them as their repository and such is difficult to pen down. If the knowledge from the diviners is not penned down and the knowledge holder dies with the knowledge, such knowledge is said to have been lost. In the same vein, Vhomaine, the diviners, in this study do not agree that such a knowledge could be lost as it belongs to the ancestors / living-dead whom in this case serve as the repository of the knowledge. At a later stage, the knowledge will resurrect and be transferred to the chosen Vhomaine who will then practice it. It can be concluded that indigenous knowledge and the indigenous health knowledge of the herbalists can be recorded in written form, but not the practices of the diviners.

The outcomes of the study suggest that Vhomaine within Vhembe District Municipality do maintain and protect the environment which keeps their fauna and flora species.

Vhomaine depend on these species for their medicinal purposes. They are also involved in awareness campaigns to ensure that the natural environment is sustainable and that the ecosystem is not degraded. Such education which protects the environment is of value to Vhomaine. The knowledge of mitupo i.e. customs and clan names, as revealed by the study is an indication of how knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next. Such mitupo store the knowledge and serve as a repository.

The young ones need to orally know mitupo by memorization, imitation, or by documenting through penning down in a book. The knowledge of throwing and reading the incised bone tablets or u vhala mawa a thangu is inherited from one generation to the next. The secrecy of this activity hinders documentation in a written form. The study further indicates that inter-marriages also preserve the indigenous health knowledge that is in the hands of Vhomaine. In this way, the preservation / conservation and heritage theory helps to attain the desired outcomes of the study.

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