Ubugqirha : healing beyond the Western gaze

AbstractThis article explores what African languages teach us about the concept of healing using the Xhosa language (isiXhosa) of South Africa as a model. From an African perspective, the names used to label the environment and phenomena guide us on how we should perceive them. For example, in isiXhosa, a healer is called ugqirha, which means they personify ubugqi (the power to perform unexplainable deeds); the concept will be explored to illustrate the ethic behind the sacredness with which healing knowledge is treated. A healer, therefore, embodies the ability to act beyond comprehension. This brings the ethos of Western pedagogy into question. If, through language, we learn that a phenomenon such as healing is beyond comprehension, how then should healing be part of the curriculum? The article concludes that sacred knowledges should be handled ethically and that the ethics of dissemination of sacred knowledge such as ubugqirha are often embedded in their naming.