Reverend Jan Scholtz
Modern Western thinking about health has been dominated by the biomedical approach but there is much more to a person’s health than his physical health. Health is multi-dimensional and is influenced by many factors. It must be noted that the health of a person can be directly affected by the following series of relationships; home life, the village, the nation, our ancestors, and our relationship with the earth.
The foundational level of relationships is the homestead where life is nourished, supported and reproduced. The next level of relationships is the village, constituted by a series of homesteads. In this approach, every adult is a parent and also a guardian to all the children in the village. To contribute to health, primarily the village needs to have a good moral standard, good public institutions, infrastructure such as potable running water, clinics and shops etc. In one setting people said that a certain village had less health than another because it had no post office.
The multi-dimensional health can be compromised if effective measures at the grass roots is not well taken, this means life at home. In an economy dominated by migrant labor nowadays a post office is crucial for sustaining a relationship with an absent family member. No post office means no relationship, no relationship means no health.
Villages are brought together in the nation and the health of the nation has an important impact upon the health of all of the citizens. Overseeing all this relationships is the realm of the ancestors, the spiritual realm. In traditional religious beliefs and rituals, much attention is paid to the relationship between people and their ancestors. The ancestors look after the people in the homestead, the village and the nation, a disturbed relationship with them can lead to misfortune, discomfort and diseases. Therefore in a religious traditional concept, health depends upon a healthy relationship with the ancestors.
The final relationship is with the earth, where the ancestors reside, and thus in traditional religion the earth rather than heaven is the most important focus. A good relationship with earth is crucial for both religious and scientific exercise. It is more than a commodity to be bought and sold in the market, a resting place of the ancestors that contribute to health and healing.
The arrival of western medicine and its technology have provided new options for health and healing. It have been used in many cases where it have proved to resist the change of time and safe life, and today it is still the same technology that is being used to provide the solution to the new Covid-19 outbreak.
Skilled doctors are deployed at centers and hospitals to combat the pandemic. Modern hospital and facilities are being built to accommodate the Covid-19 victims with best treatment of the modern medicines.