Sinethemba Makanya // The title of my PhD research project is “Ukugula Kwabantu[1]: The Construction of Mental Health by Traditional Healers.” Throughout the process of my research, however, I have realized that my question is not necessarily whether or not “mental health” exists within the traditional healing canon, but rather, it is a question of…
Author: Sinethemba Makanya
I am a Mellon Foundation scholar and am currently reading for my PhD in Medical Humanities and Psychology at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER). I work as an applied drama facilitator at Themba Interactive, an organisation that utilises applied drama and participatory methods to tackle complex issues related to HIV and AIDS within correctional centres, with orphaned and vulnerable children as well as their caregivers, high school students and their teachers. I am a Fulbright Alumnus who completed her MA in Drama therapy at New York University in 2012. I am the first black drama therapist in Africa. I am currently using my research and training to help me think through how drama therapy can integrate with indigenous knowledge to offer integrated approaches to healing.
I have published an article in The Arts in Psychotherapy titled, ‘The Missing Links: A South African Perspective on the Theories of Health in Drama therapy’, and have written a chapter titled, ‘Between the traditional and the theatrical: Forms and performances of healing depression in South Africa’ for the book “Applied Theatre: Performing health and well being” due out in 2016.
I have taught Acting, Theatre in Education and Drama in Education at the University of Pretoria as well as Applied Drama and Dramatherapy and acted as research supervisor at Drama for Life at Wits University. I have worked with the Institut fur Theatertherapie in Berlin giving workshops and masterclasses, for conferences based on her integration of indigenous healing and drama therapy.
I am a singer and songwriter and have performed in many venues in New York such as Museum of Modern Art (MoMA in Manhattan), the Brecht Centre, the International African Arts Festival, on the Central Park Summerstage, the Market Theatre (Johannesburg) and many others. I am mother to my beautiful Khanyisa iNkosazane who like her name implies, lights up my life.
Ukugula Kwabantu: A Call to Expand the Understanding of Mental Health
Sinethemba Makanya // South African morbidity data show that mental disorders are the third highest contributor to the local burden of disease, after HIV and other infectious diseases (1). The rise in the number of people in South Africa with mental disorders highlights the growing burdens of mental illness that the country faces. Yet despite…