Conceptual Framework

Indigenous, precolonial cultures each have distinct practices for individual health, community cohesion, and connection with the natural world. They tend to rely on embodied rituals and oral ways of transferring this wisdom from generation to generation.

Africa’s embodied arts-based healing practices are community-based and require participation, both essential aspects of the African philosophy of ubuntu (Edwards, 2011; Edwards et al., 2009; Mutwa, 1996). With ongoing psychology-based studies and a commitment to neuroscience research, we could establish how these practices, which we define as contemplative, could promote social cohesion and support resilience and aid collective human flourishing, particularly given the dehumanization of the colonial and apartheid eras.

Although there has been some research on relational practices (Kok & Singer, 2017) and movement practices (McGonigal, 2019; Schmalzl & Kerr, 2016), most of the secular mindfulness and Buddhist meditation practices that have been the object of research are conducted in silence, stillness, and solitude. Empirical research studies (both qualitative and quantitative) have revealed significant benefits of these meditation practices (Davis & Hayes, 2011), namely, affective benefits, such as emotion regulation (Carmody, 2009) and increased flexibility (Farb et al., 2010; Hawley et al., 2014); intrapersonal benefits (Siegel, 2007), including self-awareness (Lutz et al., 2016), morality (Sevinc & Lazar, 2019), and fear modulation (Brown et al., 2012); and interpersonal benefits, such as pro-sociality (Weng et al., 2013; Zaki & Ochsner, 2012) and relationship satisfaction (Carson et al., 2006). Tang et al. (2016) describes how:

Growing evidence has indicated that mindfulness practice induces both state and trait changes: that is, it temporarily changes the condition of the brain and the corresponding pattern of activity or connectivity (state change), and it also alters personality traits following a longer period of practice. (p. 29)

In a meta-analysis of mindfulness, loving-kindness, and compassion meditation practices, Donald et al. (2019) found an association between meditation practice and altruism. Of interest was that mindfulness alone (with its focus on nonjudgmental awareness) predicted prosocial helping behaviors even without including loving-kindness and compassion practices. The researchers identified that greater empathic concern, emotion regulation, and positive affect were key to enhancing pro-social behaviors. Also relevant for this article was their conclusion that intergroup bias was reduced immediately following a mindfulness meditation, suggesting that “mindfulness fosters ethical and cooperative behavior across a range of interpersonal contexts” (Donald et al., 2019, p. 119).

Some mindfulness facilitators have raised a concern that silent sitting practices do not always give beneficial results for participants with a history of trauma (Treleaven, 2018). Rhythmic movement practices, however, have been shown to release trauma held in the body (van der Kolk, 1994) and could therefore be an important prerequisite for, or alternative to, sitting practices. Arts-based therapies and indigenous contemplative traditions show promising results, as they are movement-based and conducted in community settings (Makanya, 2014). Kok et al. (2013) and Dana (2018), extending the work of Porges (2007), have theorized that the human nervous system is best regulated by social connection and social engagement. Synchronized movements (during dance or drumming) and vocalization have been shown to support experiences of connection and belonging (Bensimon et al., 2008). Empirical research has also revealed considerable health benefits of arts-based therapies, such as improved interoception and body awareness, concentration and focus, stress reduction, and the ability to relate to self and others with kindness, compassion and acceptance (Stuckey & Nobel, 2010).

With the high incidence of mental health and other social disorders worldwide, exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic (World Health Organization, 2019), the need to find ways of working skillfully with body-mind connections necessitates deeper exploration. Ancient cultural practices may well hold the key to supporting resilience, enhancing human well-being, and flourishing in these times of global mental health crisis. Although they may not have been tested yet in clinical trials,

metaphysics are heuristic frameworks, derived partly from experience, partly from intuition, tested, nuanced, and course-corrected with practice and validation in individual and collective experience. (Banerji, 2018, p. 9)

We selected five contemplative healing practices that are commonly performed within the Southern African context: umphahlo, umgidi wokulingisa, isicathamiya, iintsomi, and djembe drumming. These are described in greater detail by Draper-Clarke and Green (2023) and shown in video format in Draper-Clarke (2021).

Umphahlo uses instruments, song, and herbs (mpepu/sage and snuff) to invite and welcome the ancestors (the living dead) into the space to seek their wisdom. They are called with head bowed to show humility, and healers make it clear that they are ready to listen at a multisensory level to the messages of the living dead.

Umgidi wokulingisa has been translated as a stamping ritual, which in traditional contexts leads to an altered state of consciousness or trance to remove the usual barriers between the living and the living dead. Framed within a drama therapy context, it has been used to bring the energy of loved ones into the circle, enabling deep healing and connection (Seleme, 2017).

Isicathamiya is a type of cappella developed by migrant Zulu communities combining singing (often call and response) and dance. It enables an embodied understanding of the history of South Africa, particularly of mine workers living in hostels.

Iintsomi is part of the oral tradition rooted in Africa and is often translated as storytelling. However, it encompasses a sense of an invitation to participate in a storytelling moment. The participants are part of the story, and while there is a formal structure, it is the energy of the participants that builds the story. Many iintsomi moments do not have a clear conclusion but rather are left open-ended to encourage reflection (Busika, 2015). This oral tradition has been a way of transferring African cosmology to children and the community for generations.

Djembe drumming is carried out with a sense of moving into conversation and enabling the drummer’s intention and words to be transmitted through the vibration of the drum. This allows for a conversation to be held between the drum and the drummer as well as within the whole drum circle community. The word ngoma has a meaning similar to vibration or resonance, which allows the transmission and receiving of messages. The word is also used for the skin of the drum, which calls people to it, as well as a type of dance or a nighttime dance ceremony. It is the root of the word sangoma or healer, someone who can receive messages from the ancestors.

Umphahlo

The traditional healer (1) described the changes that took place within her once she had accepted her calling. Before, she said, “I had no control of myself—my thoughts and words,” but afterwards, she noticed she could manage her energy better, becoming “more balanced and still.” When she attended to her spiritual practice, “the world slowed down and became so much more peaceful.” Even in her schoolwork, she had previously described herself as “dyslexic and dumb in academics,” but afterwards, she felt like, “a born genius” and achieved high grades.

The traditional healer (2) also recounted how wild he was before accepting his calling and how he searched in different traditions until “My ancestors kept poking me, saying ‘you need to come home.’” He demonstrated the phahla practice, inviting the group to join in the singing, creating a visceral sense of the sacred. Both healers later spoke to the state of self-transcendence that is achieved through this practice so that they can sense the energy of clients and offer healing rituals and insights.

Both healers confirmed that they have felt a deep sense of sacred purpose (ubizo) since accepting their calling, which contributed greatly to their psychological well-being.

The codes emerging from the transcribed reflection sessions on umphahlo included sense of purpose and guidance, humility, emotion regulation, deep listening, present moment awareness, understanding one’s cultural heritage, revitalizing cultural practices, connection with spirit (ancestors/nature), experience of self-transcendence, and interdependence/interconnectedness.

Umgidi Wokulingisa

After the drama therapist (3) offered the umgidi practice, several participants noted enhanced capacities for empathy and compassion. One participant expressed the healing potential of the practice:

the whole country is traumatized, it needs counseling…this session today, the gift you have given, I thought, I want my family to attend this session.

In discussing changes that the facilitator had noticed in creating this practice, she said, “I tend to be particularly in my head and think a lot, and when I connected with this practice, it allowed me to let go, and just be.” She also spoke to the experiences of her African clients, who had been able to access symbols from their unconscious with positive effect. She questioned what would emerge in sharing this practice with other cultures. The neuroscientist responded, “There are three different white cultures here to confirm that this process works perfectly.” She expanded, from a neuroscience perspective, explaining,

You are not just accessing the limbic system but have gone much deeper…As soon as you engage movement and engage the spine, you are engaging the whole brain…We engaged with our primitive brain and all the way up…While I was having my experience, I was also able to analyze the experience, and I was reasoning while accessing. We all accessed love, and love is in the substantia nigra and the ventral striatum…which is activated with compassion. We were accessing language and deep personal stuff, which is cross cultural…You are accessing brain-body integration, and we can only integrate through the body. That’s where this power is, and your setting up allowed us to have emotional experiences while still analyzing them.

Drawing from the transcription of both the practice and the reflection session, the following codes were identified: sense of safety, rehumanization, healing, empathy and compassion, joyfulness, playfulness and childlike curiosity, harmony and unity in diversity, resilience and agency, interdependence and interconnectedness, and revitalizing cultural practices.

Isicathamiya

The creative director (5) presented a story of his life growing up during the violent end of apartheid and guided the group through a dance enactment, offering an embodied experience of life “deep in the shaft, digging for gold.” Songs are not just songs; they are a story or information or problem solving. The rhythm of the song and movement helped work teams lift heavy objects. “If you use the wrong leg, you’ll kill someone, it’s going to fall and chop his leg off.” During the personal retelling of history and the presentation of isicathamiya, participants were visibly shocked, experiencing a visceral sense of the horror of the time.

In the reflection session, the neuroscientist advised that, given the facilitator’s childhood experiences, it was no surprise that he had failed his high school leaving exam, as the brain’s working memory is impaired by trauma. In ensemble practices, such as isicathamiya, stamping allows trauma to be released from the body, and singing creates a sense of solidarity. The call and response also enable a transcendence from the mind’s turmoil. The group reflected that sharing these embodied practices with school communities could also heal trauma-impacted minds and help young people achieve their potential.

One participant commented that while compassion is innate, healing needs to happen to let compassion resurface. Integration requires containment of ambivalence, of self, safety, emotion, and loss. The group also shared that healing could be considered a contemporary form of activism: “To heal, we needed to heal ourselves within our community.” It is within the collective that we can co-regulate.

During analysis of the performance and reflection sessions, the researchers identified the following codes: overcoming trauma, stress reduction, healing, body-based integration, creativity and problem solving, attunement and entrainment, overcoming oppression, community connection, resilience, and agency.

Iintsomi

The iintsomi stories, games, and praise poem presented by the drama therapist (4) revealed that not only children benefit from this modality. The performative session elicited deep connection, great joy, and delight in all participants. A return to the childlike experience of play energized everyone, offering “a way to tap into the source of life.” This allowed a distancing from an ego-centric perspective and a deepening sense of belonging.

After the iintsomi process, the group reflected using movement, poetry, and sounds. One participant demonstrated, and then explained, “When I feel childlike, light-hearted and joyful, I just want to cartwheel,” followed by another saying, “I am grateful for seeing how quickly my body responded to real play. My middle-aged body has not forsaken me; it was just simply waiting for me to move.”

In closing, the reflection session facilitator thanked the drama therapist for “making us remember the incredible joy, power, rejuvenation and restorative power of play, and that play can hold such deep and profound human experiences.”

This experience of iintsomi storytelling revealed its broader applications when facilitated as a dialogical approach for well-being, allowing participants to build internal strength, creativity and problem solving, and awareness of the environment and community. Additional codes that emerged included rehumanization, collaboration, and empathetic listening, awakening of agency and resilience, body-based integration, joyfulness, playfulness and childlike curiosity.

Djembe Drumming

The performing artist (6) led the drum circle, in the hall to start with and then outside at the fire where the group experienced a deepening sense of connection and social cohesion. In a significant moment, when the drum circle was disrupted by an unexpected visitor, the group held a powerful silence that de-escalated the incident immediately, allowing a sense of integration and a swift return to peace.

The codes identified during the reflection session were connection with spirit, sense of safety, powerful silence, deep listening, present moment awareness, joyfulness, experience of self-transcendence, attunement and entrainment, and community connection.

Emergent Themes

By analyzing each of the sessions and the final reflection session, four central themes were identified from the codes, linking the findings from these practices to findings within contemplative research, and these were sacred sense of purpose, nervous system regulation, pro-social qualities, and community cohesion (see Table 2). These are discussed below in reference to the literature to illuminate the potential contribution of these African rituals to the broader field of contemplative science.

Sacred Sense of Purpose

The healers described how their immersion within African wisdom traditions, and in service of their community, provided a sacred sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. In psychology and contemplative research, this has been reported as “one of the most robust predictors of psychological well-being” (Dahl & Davison, 2019, p. 62). The traditional healer (2) spoke to this saying,

enlightenment, in the African understanding, is not the goal. Once you get more enlightened, you have to go and do your work. This is why we cultivate practice, which involves healing people, communities and nations.

His observation bore a strong resemblance to the compassionate intention of Mahayana Buddhism, where practitioners promise to become enlightened for the sake of all, vowing “beings are numberless, I vow to save them all” (Chodron, 2007).

According to Edwards et al. (2009), the spiritual connection and knowledge of amadlozi provides security for an individual’s identity, which offers a sense of purpose and belonging within their culture. The connection with one’s ancestors places individuals within a deep sense of familial continuity, connection, and purpose, mitigating experiences of meaninglessness and social isolation that are growing public health concerns, particularly in the West (Lindsay et al., 2019).

The sense of purpose was also reflected at a communal level. The group noted that creative arts therapies, such as drama therapy, dance and movement therapy, art therapy and music therapy, provide a promising home for the re-emergence of these wisdom traditions. Movement practices such as umgidi wokulingisa and isicathamiya can effectively be framed as drama therapy or dance and movement therapy processes, offering multiple healing benefits. These interventions are held as group processes, which allow participants to heal in the community, an integral aspect of ubuntu. Participants with an African worldview can feel embedded in these cultural resources that have been passed from one generation to another. Participants from other cultures can also benefit from these experiential, relational and embodied ways of cultivating empathy and gaining insight. For those open to learning from different indigenous knowledge systems, these practices provide an embodied reverence for African relational practices that develop resilience and create cohesion and unity.

Nervous System Regulation

Research participants discussed their personal experiences of trauma-related hyper- and hypo-arousal, describing how prevalent this is within the Southern African context. They also noted that the movement-based practices allowed for nervous system regulation and an integration of trauma by returning to embodied awareness. Participants reported an increased capacity for regulating attention and heightening present-moment awareness, both of which have been shown to be key to trauma alleviation (van der Kolk, 1994).

The drama therapist’s (3) presentation revealed the potential of the umgidi process to allow for creative and flexible self-regulation in relationships and to address psychosocial challenges. Seleme uses this practice to assist clients in undoing ‘maladaptive cognitive patterns.’ It became clear how rituals provide healing for individuals within their community where illness is viewed as a fractured connection between the self and the collective (Baloyi & Mokobe-Rabothata, 2014; Makanya, 2014; Mutwa, 1996). Performing rituals to mark rites of passage is central to many African practices, offering a way to leave behind old roles and responsibilities and step into new ones appropriate to one’s age and position within society (Olupona, 1990). The use of ritual is just as relevant in terms of leaving behind maladaptive personal narratives to step into new ways of being and relating.

This use of sound- and movement-based practices, conducted in community settings, offers important access to cultivating self-awareness. By balancing the nervous system, particularly in situations of trauma, these African indigenous practices enabled a return to the silent contemplative practices taught in Eastern wisdom traditions in a way that could be described as trauma-sensitive (Treleaven, 2018).

Pro-social Qualities

The African healers spoke extensively of cultivating humility, a form of ego transcendence, during the process of supplication, umphahlo, as well as experiencing peacefulness and guidance in their daily lives. They described how their capacities for self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence have developed over time through their healing practices, corresponding to findings in Buddhist and secular mindfulness research (Haimerl & Valentine, 2001; Vago & David, 2012). It would be interesting to explore whether regular participation in these arts-based practices could develop trait qualities of attention, concentration, focus and presence, measured through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, in the way that mindfulness and compassion practices have been.

The practice of umphahlo allows for deep listening, creativity, and insight when requesting help from amadlozi to solve problems. This ability to find connection/communion with ancestors, a perceived higher power or divine presence, allowed for perspective taking and a movement away from a solid ego-centric focus, thus opening the capacity for different ideas to emerge.

On the final day of the research retreat, the sense of well-being in all participants was tangible, and there was a commitment to ongoing discussions around the potential for using these practices to overcome oppression and create opportunities for much-needed healing and, ultimately, human flourishing. In the closing circle, participants reflected on their experiences of harmony, joy, compassion, playfulness, and personal transformation.

Community Cohesion

Community cohesion was a dominant theme, reflecting the underpinning philosophy of ubuntu. The performative practices that required coordinated movement, namely, the isicathamiya call and response, the iintsomi games, and the drumming practice, allowed participants to attune with each other through multisensory listening. These arts-based movement practices elicited a shift into a mode of experiencing in which the cognitive structures of self/other and subject/object were no longer dominant. Instead, the group described a deepening sense of connection and interdependence.

Participants also spoke of a deepening of their own cultural and religious/spiritual identity within an environment of diversity. A metaphor offered by one facilitator was of a hand, each finger is unique, but all are needed, and it was referenced during the closing:

Each finger cannot be the same as the others; it needs to hold its own uniqueness for the community to be formed. Coming here, I asked questions of why am I here? The experience of a space of listening where people are willing to share parts of themselves and people are ready to receive. Wonderful things happen. A community happens. I take that from this experience in terms of how different the belief systems are yet at the same time we were able to meet in a most respectful way.

Not only did the community-held practices seem to strengthen healthy psychological qualities for each participating individual, but they also developed deepening levels of connection across ethnicity/race, gender identity, worldview, and culture within the research group. For example, using isicathamiya to explore the oppressive historical/political system of apartheid provided an embodied experience of the time, deepening levels of empathy and compassion for the suffering of the mineworkers. It also stimulated a discussion within the reflection session about the need for restorative justice.

Practices that support community cohesion align closely with the stated intentions of iintsomi practice, where the storyteller might craft a story to address difficulties arising within the community. The enacted art of storytelling allows for a felt sense of knowing, a shift in consciousness or a sense of understanding, or perceiving something that had previously eluded one’s grasp. Drumming circles have already been adapted widely to secular contexts, and there has been research into both physiological and psychological benefits. Placing drumming back within a context of healing and preventative healthcare, rather than performance, might allow the full benefits of ego transcendence to occur, enabling social cohesion. The work of Bloom (2005, in Núñez, 2016) asserts that while these ritual and ceremonial practices are multifaceted and based in the epistemology of a people, cross-cultural commonalities are definitely worth exploring.

While this article has not focused on humans’ relationship with the natural world, the sense of heightened connection with other living beings was experienced during a walk to the nearby waterfall. Masoga (2005) states that indigenous knowledge provides the basis for problem-solving strategies for communities: “they are life experiences which are organized and ordered into accumulated knowledge with the objective of their being utilized to enhance the quality of life and to create a liveable environment for both human and other forms of life” (p. 22).