Six days a week a crush of around 460,000 purposeful people — on foot, in careening taxis and crowded buses — surge through the Warwick Triangle, a hectic hub crammed with informal and formal stores, stalls and markets in downtown Durban, South Africa.

The herb or "muti" (medicine) market, located on a bridge with city views — and one of the nine formal markets — is a labyrinth crammed with around 700 vendors who ply a huge assortment of dried indigenous plants, roots, herbs and animal parts. The market is the equivalent of consulting rooms and pharmacy for iSangomas (diviners), iNyangas (herbalists) and those who consult these traditional healers for help with physical, psychological or emotional ailments. It is widely believed in the Zulu culture that the spirits of the ancestors determine one's health, ill health, success and misfortune.

Some distance from the muti market, in a subway area, is the impepho market, impepho being an indigenous incense used by traditional healers to communicate with said ancestral spirits.

Sunday is the one day things slow down at the Warwick Triangle to a pace that allows you to stop, get out of your car if you've driven there, and admire one of Durban's more iconic murals. It graces a large concrete bridge support, covering an area more than two stories in height. The mural depicts the Zulu cultural and spiritual symbol Nomkhubulwane, known as the goddess of rain, nature and fertility.

Nomkhubulwane is the daughter of Umvelinqangi, the sky god from Zulu mythology, says traditional healer Dr. Nomagugu Patience Ngobese, who has a post-graduate degree in African religion and theology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Calling on the Ancestral Spirits

Ngobese is a chaplain at the premier's office in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). We meet at the Tatham Art Gallery, one of South Africa's major art museums, across the street from the colonial-style city hall in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KZN. With an exhibition of African art as our backdrop, Ngobese explains, "It is typical for our people to call on the amadlozi (ancestral spirits) to request that Princess Nomkhubulwane, who is the daughter of Umvelinqangi, speak to her parents for us."

Umvelinqangi, says Ngobese, is not necessarily a male figure. "Men wrote the bible at the expense of women but really, people in the spiritual world are the same." Umvelinqangi and Princess Nomkhubulwane, she adds, predate the arrival of Christian missionaries in Africa. They don't represent a church or a formal religion. They represent Zulu tradition and custom.

"Traditionally in Zulu culture, when there was drought, virgin girls would go to the mountains with offerings to ask Princess Nomkhubulwane to send rain. Drought — and infestation and incurable disease — represent a disconnection with mother earth."

Ngobese says that in response to the HIV-Aids epidemic in KZN, ceremonies involving virgin girls and Princess Nomkhubulwane have been reintroduced.

"Girls go in procession to the mountains to talk with the ancestors and to make contact with mother earth, represented by Princess Nomkhubulwane," says Ngobese. Special food, which will be offered to the ancestral spirits and the deities, is prepared and taken along.

"Traditional beer made from corn, because Princess Nomkhubulwane is also the mother of corn; and samp (ground maize kernels) and indigenous spinach. And sometimes goats and chickens for offerings. The girls carry wood to make a fire. The impepho is lit to call the ancestors so we can talk to them and make our apologies to mother earth for how we have provoked her. Africans have always lived with nature but you just need to look at pollution to see how people have lost respect for the earth."

About Ubuntu and Interdependence

Mother earth — synonymous with mother nature — is responsible for the life cycle that starts when a seed is planted and ends with our return to the soil when we die, says Ngobese. "We need to respect the soil. We need to respect everything in nature. Nature and the earth are what give us life. There is a complete interdependence."

African spirituality, says Ngobese, is best explained by the concept of Ubuntu. Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains, "Ubuntu (is) the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."

Ngobese uses stems, leaves and roots in her own practice to make concoctions to heal patients who visit her at the rural home she goes back to when she leaves the city.

In fact, every formal Zulu ceremony involves food and offerings she says.

"A year after someone dies, for example, we take the spirit of the dead person back home using a branch from a special tree. We then slaughter a goat and a week after that, a cow." Relatives and neighbors are invited to partake of the meat in honor of and to connect with the spirit of the person who passed and all the ancestors he or she has joined.

Traditional medicine, says Ngobese, is all about connecting with the spirits. "You are shown where to find the right healing plants via your dreams. You sometimes are directed to make a concoction to treat a special condition and then you find, once you've made it, the patient comes to you and you are waiting with exactly the right healing medicine to treat them."

Photo credit: Wanda Hennig. Photos include the Princess Nomkhubulwane mural at the Warwick Triangle, Dr. Nomagugu Patience Ngobese at the Tatham Art Gallery, vendors at the "muti" (medicine) market at the Warwick Triangle, and participants at the 2010 Traditional Healers Fair in Durban.