When we speak of healing we also speak of sickness because they are connected.  Sickness does not only mean the pains in the body, the malfunctioning of cells in the body. The concept is usually more complex. It refers to an imbalance within the human being, the clan and also within the community, and that needs healing.

Therefore, healing is restoring harmony and wholeness in humanity and its relationships: physical, psychological, social, moral, economic, political and spiritual.  When disharmony occurs, it is experienced as illness in the community.  The causes are multiple:  they could be related to ancestral wrath, natural circumstances.

In order to restore the disturbed harmony, people consult the ancestors either directly or through the healer, in order to establish the true cause and the healing rituals to be performed. (“Ancestors and Healing in African Spirituality”)