The Bulb That Names the Guilty: Divination Plants of Southern African Traditional Healers
Kyle Bamboo · August 25, 2026
Among the Zulu, Xhosa, Shona, and San traditional medical practitioners of southern Africa, a particular bulb—Boophone disticha, known as leshoma in Sesotho—held a precise and austere purpose: not to heal a fever or stanch a wound, but to reveal the architect of misfortune itself. When someone fell ill without visible cause, or when calamity seemed … Read more