Traditional Doctors in Uganda: Types of Healers

What is a traditional doctor?

In Uganda, a traditional doctor is someone who treats illness and personal problems using knowledge passed down in families and communities: plants, rituals, divination and, for some, contact with spirits. In Luganda people speak of basawo b’ekinnansi (singular omusawo w’ekinnansi, often typed online as “omusawo wekinansi”). One researcher who worked with Ugandan healers translates the term as “doctors of native medicine”.

Healers are not all the same. Researchers who interview healers in Uganda describe several distinct roles, and many healers combine more than one.

1. Herbalists

Herbalists prepare medicines from roots, bark, leaves and seeds. A 2024 study of Baganda healers calls them abanozi b’eddagala: healers who know plants and do not work through spirit possession. In a survey in Nangabo sub-county, near Kampala, herbalism was by far the most common practice (67% of respondents). Most Ugandan herbal products sold in shops come from this group. For which plants are commonly used, see medicinal plants in Uganda.

2. Diviners

A diviner looks for the cause of a problem, not only the symptoms. Baganda healers call this process kulagula, which researchers describe as a cultural way of assessing and diagnosing ill health. A study of healers in northern Uganda recorded methods such as throwing cowrie shells, consulting spirits and close observation of symptoms. In the same study, some healers said that when the cause is unclear they send the patient to hospital for tests.

3. Spirit mediums

Spirit mediums say they are chosen by spirits and speak or heal on their behalf. In Buganda these healers are known as balubaale (singular mulubaale) after the Lubaale spirits. In the old Ganda religion, as recorded in 1911, the medium was called mandwa. In western Uganda, mediumship is linked to the Cwezi and emandwa traditions.

Becoming a medium is described as a calling, not a job you simply choose. In a 2024 study, Baganda healers described four stages: signs that a person has been chosen, a ritual to explore the ancestral spirits (kwaaza lubaale), five to ten years of training under a senior healer, and a public pass-out ceremony.

4. Bone setters

Bone setters treat fractures, dislocations and sprains with massage, splints and herbal preparations. In the Nangabo survey bone setting was reported by about 10% of respondents, all of them men. Serious injuries, open wounds, or limbs that turn cold, pale or numb need a hospital at once. See traditional healer or hospital.

5. Traditional birth attendants

Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) have helped women give birth in villages for generations. In 2010 the Government of Uganda banned TBAs from conducting deliveries and asked women to give birth in health facilities. A Ministry of Health official explained that TBAs cannot manage heavy bleeding after birth, a leading cause of maternal death. Reporting from 2018 found that many women still use TBAs. Today the safe role for a TBA is support, advice and taking the mother to a health facility.

How people become healers

Healers in northern Uganda told researchers about four main paths: inheriting the work from a parent, being called by a spirit after an unusual illness, learning medicines in dreams, and apprenticeship to an older healer followed by a handover ritual.

What about “witch doctor”?

In English, “witch doctor” first meant a healer who fights witchcraft, not a witch. Europeans later applied the term to African healers in general, and it is now widely seen as inaccurate and colonial. Many Ugandan healers make a sharp distinction between themselves and abalogo (witches, people believed to cause harm). One researcher noted that healers were frustrated when the media mixed the two up. Read more in witchcraft in Uganda and what is juju.

Finding a healer

Whatever type of healer you visit, the same safety rules apply: know their real name and place, agree on prices first, and never stop hospital treatment. Our safety checklist explains how.