Traditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe

Based on the authors fieldwork among the people of Zezuru, this study focuses on children as clients and as healers in training. In Reynoldss ethnographic investigation of possession and healing, she pays particular attention to the way healers are identified and authenticated in communities, and how they are socialized in the use of medicinal plants, dreams, and ritual healing practices. Reynolds examines spiritual interpretation and remediation of childrens problems, including womens roles in these activities, and the Zezuru concepts of trauma, evil, illness, and death. Because this study was undertaken just after the War of Liberation in Zimbabwe, it also documents the devastating effects of the war.