Abstract

Hidden away from the public gaze, women and men, most of them migrants gather to participate in healing sessions using the steam-bathing hut they have erected next to a mining dumpsite in the south of Johannesburg. Steaming as a healing practice take elements from the African and Christian traditions. In post-apartheid South Africa, we have seen this practice reinvigorated by immigrants from neighbouring countries. For participants in the steam bathing, steaming responds to a multiplicity of material, physical and metaphysical challenges linked to life in the city they use it to address problems that are believed to have spiritual causes. In its current fashion, steam bathing is done collectively with both men and women steaming together the steam bath shacks are erected in the outskirts of the city. This work documents the urban and current form of this practice paying attention to what drives participants to use this healing system as well as how the body is prepared for cleansing, in this process the blending of African and Christian traditions are observed. This paper is based on an ethnographic work conducted by the authors who were witnesses and participants in steaming and its associated healing ritual at the Wemmer Pan Park  in southern Johannesburg. It includes a series of interviews conducted with the prophet leading the steaming practice, and participants, members of various African Initiated churches.

Keywords

African independent churches, migration, healing, body, steaming, vomiting, biomedical, contemporarily, HIV/AIDS,