Traditional Medicine Nursery
In collaboration with sangoma and PhD researcher Nolwazi Mbongwa and eco-artist Hannalie Coetzee, Water for the Future is developing plans for a traditional medicine nursery.
The nursery is being constructed via the sponsorship of Coetzee’s sculptural vertical gardening containers and will be installed in the location of our indigenous fruit tree orchard, as well as along a secured area on the riverside.
The nursery will grow and protect indigenous and naturalised medicinal plants that are under threat in the wild, also thereby forming a public intervention which co-designs sustainable practices with traditional healers.
Image above and right: Courtesy of Hannelie Coetzee, artist’s project documents 2021.
Medicinal plants are highly in demand in African communities, where healing manifests both physically and spiritually. Alongside rituals and customs, these plants foster a holistic recovery. But unsustainable harvesting from the wild has impacted how healers access these plants. Provincial authorities estimate a minimum decline of 30% nationally over the past 30 years (ref). Decreases in the number of locally-sourced plants available in the muthi markets has also been noted (ref). Cultivation of medicinal plants in an urban context with limited space, such as this wall, can mitigate the decline and also supply material to markets and healers.
Traditional Healers Walk and Workshop
Together with Water for the Future, Nolwazi Mbongwa and Hannelie Coetzee hosted representatives from two of Johannesburg’s biggest muthi markets, Farraday and Kwamaimai, as well as representatives from GDARD (Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development) to tour the pilot site and surrounding urban area, and to hold a discussion on many complexities that traditional healers are facing in securing special plants.
The value and efficacy that plans for a nursery present to muthi sellers was underscored there. As Nolwazi Mbongwa pointed out, organizing the preservation of traditional plants and medicine takes place within the historical tension between markets and authorities. As Khanyi from Kwamaimai agreed, healers and growers continue to be arrested for attempting to grow or harvest what government deems as endangered.
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