314 ZULU WITCH DOCTORS. 



get liis medicine and pay up like a little man. But if his child 

 IF sick with an acute fever, and he calls the white doctor over the 

 hills four or hve miles to see the child, and the doctor calls every 

 day for a week or two, the account which the doctor must send 

 in will he utterly heyond the resources of nine natives c^iU of ten 

 in the countr}'. 1 do not hesitate to state that a white doctor 

 who does a family practice in a purely native community, will 

 have the greatest difficulty in living in a manner befitting a white 

 man and a medical {practitioner. It is my opinion that it is utterly 

 imj>ossil)le for the needs of the native population in Natal to he 

 adequately met by European practitioners. 



We should gixe to our native population competent and well- 

 trained medical men, and we should ultimately abolish the present 

 type of witch doctor anl medicine man. To do this I propose 

 that we give the more advanced of the Zulu yoiuig men a good, 

 practical course in modern medicine ; that when they have passed 

 satisfactory examinations we license them as Native Medical 

 Practitioners, and when there are enough oif these to meet the 

 medical needs of the natives, that we abolish the present type 

 of \\'itch doctor and medicine man. This coidd not be done in a 

 day. It would dott])tless be many years bef(>re we would be in a 

 position to abolish the old type medicine man. But the longer 

 we delay to start, the longer it will be before we accomplish 

 anything worth while. 



Such a liody of Native Medical Practitioners would not have 

 the same dif^culty in living in the native communities that Euro- 

 pean doctors would. The European doctor should have at least 

 £500 }>er year if he is to live in a manner befitting a white medical 

 practitioner. A native, even an educated native, will live on ii(X) 

 a year and get fat on it. This difference in living requirements 

 makes a body of native practitioners a possibility for the country, 

 while white practitioners for the same work w<;idd be an imjira,-- 

 ticable ])roj)osition even if the white debtors were available. 



The native race in Natal is clamouring for education. All 

 the primary schools for natives are filled to overflowing. The 

 l>oarding schools and higher schools are turning applicants away 

 every vear. There is probably no department C'f higher educa- 

 tion that the native would take to as eagerly as to the study of 

 medicine. If we gauge the native's ability to master the subject 

 of medicine by the visible intellect of the heathen kraal boy who 

 works in our kitchen, the case seems hopeless. If we judge 

 from the brighter intellects among the Zulus, the case is far 

 otherwise. 



In i8yi a Zulu yoimg man, John Nembula, graduated from 

 one of the best medical colleges in America and came back to 

 Natal, and successfully j)ractised medicine until his death a few 

 years later. Dr. B. N. Bridgman was associated with him in work 

 for .some time, and says of him: — 



He graduated from a Chicago medical school — Rusli Medical, I think. 

 I knew him at Adams Mission Station, where he assisted in the medical 

 work about 1894-1896. He was a man of excellent character, and his 



