Indigenous African Healing Practices as a Resource for Entrepreneurial Promotion: Insights From Tsonga Traditional Health Care System in South Africa

Abstract

Indigenous health care models have continued to play significant roles in the development and sustenance of livelihoods in African communities. Such models are used not only to provide affordable community health care services but also as an employment resource for traditional practitioners within African communities. Yet, for lack of documentation and lack of discussion in the management and Indigenous Knowledge System literature, the models are hardly incorporated into the official health care services of African countries. This chapter addresses this problem by documenting the benefits and merits of the entrepreneurial principles embedded in the Tsonga traditional health care practice. First, it highlights how the unique indigenous traditional model is used for administering health care in a selected Tsonga-speaking community in South Africa. Second, it analyses the entrepreneurial principles embedded in the model. Finally, it discusses how such principles have been used as tools for entrepreneurship and enhancing the economic upkeep of the traditional health care practitioners (THPs). The chapter's main argument is that even though the Tsonga traditional health care practice model is complex, mystical, and in most cases challenging to explain to a non-native, it presents a great entrepreneurial opportunity for South Africa.

Citation

Lee, K.S., Decide, M.T., Mokgoatšana, S. and Ekene, A.K. (2023), "Indigenous African Healing Practices as a Resource for Entrepreneurial Promotion: Insights From Tsonga Traditional Health Care System in South Africa", Adeola, O. (Ed.) Casebook of Indigenous Business Practices in Africa, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 187-208. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-251-520231019