Africa in My Bones

On a visit to South Africa in 1981, Dave spent a month with the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. During this visit, he felt that he had finally returned to his roots and he started formulating his theory around the use of wilderness for spiritual practice. On later trips to Peru he came into contact with shamans and these meetings made him realize that the shamans had a deep knowledge of healing, that he, in spite of his medical training, was not privy to.

On subsequent trips to Zimbabwe and South Africa Dave consulted various sangomas, and through the bone readings of the sangomas it was eventually revealed to him that he had been ignoring his destiny and needed to be trained or undergo thwasa. After finding an elderly Zulu mentor, Dave began his training at the beginning of 2000. During the months in training he had to undergo cleansing practices, practice bone readings, collect his own bones, connect with his ancestors and learn how to channel through the ancestors. After months of rigorous training in very basic circumstances, he returned to California as a qualified sangoma. Here he built in his garden a hut or ndumba in honor of the ancestors. He does bone readings for patients, but he remains an allopathic physician. Through dreams and bone readings it was revealed to him that he should not give up his Western practice, and that by remaining in the Western system, he believes that he is giving more credibility to the indigenous one.

This is a thought provoking book written by someone who walks along two roads, who is on the one hand a surgeon of note and on the other a sangoma. The book explores the interconnectedness of life, balancing modern and indigenous, people and nature, physical and spiritual. David Cumes provide a marvelous guide in exploring the potent methods of healing, outside the so-called modern medical setting.