3l6 ZULU WITCH DOCTORS. 



Natal. Financially, a British education as a solution of our 

 present question is an impossibility. 



The great objection, in my mind, to the local medical educa- 

 tion of natives under present circumstances is the fact that the 

 Government here will not recognise any medical education 

 acquired in South Africa except the education oif the herbalist?, 

 who is usually also more or less of a witch doctor. If I take a 

 native youth and give him a five years' medical course and see 

 that he masters the various subjects, at the end of that time he 

 can get a license as an herbalist and nothing more. He can 

 get such a license, that is, if his chief recommends him and the 

 magistrate approves. He will rank as a native herbalist. If 

 he decides, at the end of five months' study, that he has learned 

 all there is to know about medicine, or if the discipline of his 

 teacher is too severe, he can cut loose and take out exactly the 

 same license that the man can who has studied hard for five years. 

 Under present conditions he has no definite goal to attain in his 

 studies, he has no examinations that he must pass, and he has 

 nothing to hold him to his work. 



The following suggestions must be taken as tentative and 

 not as a final and infallible solution of the question. I think, 

 however, that the solution of the question mu.st be along lines 

 similar to the following brief outline. 



The medical education of the Zulu should not be a superficial 

 hop, skip, and jump through the various subjects. He should 

 be thoroughly grounded in the ^fundamentals and in the theory, 

 and he should be drilled in the practical work and in the ap]>lica- 

 tion of the theories until he is a safe man. The course should 

 consist of at least five years of nine months each. .Vt the end 

 of each year the students should be required to pass satisfactory 

 examinations in the studies of that year before 'being allowed to 

 enter upon the studies of the following year. 



A Medical Education Board, consisting of the Medical 

 Council or other authoritative body apj>ointed by the Government, 

 should decide on the studies to be taken up each year, and should 

 set the examinations to be passed at the end of each year, and 

 should decide, on the merits of the examinations, which students 

 are entitled to pass on to the studies of the succeeding year. It 

 will thus be within the power of this Board to satisfy itself that 

 the medical students are receiving an adequate medical education, 

 and that they are mastering the subjects. 



This Board should also decide what preliminary education 

 a native should have before beginning the course o(f medical 

 study. The passing of the Cape Junior Examination would seem 

 to be a fair standard to set as the entrance requirements. 



On completing the course and passing the final examinations 

 the graduates from the medical course should receive a title 

 diflferentiating them from the ordinary medicine men, such as 

 Native Medical Practitioner or other suitable title, and should be 

 given a licen.se to practise among the members of his own race 

 only. 



