The Xesibe People are a Nguni-speaking people that are found in the North-Eastern Parts of

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and the Southern Parts of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

Spirit possession Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept ...

appears among them, and the majority of possessed are married women. The condition of spirit possession among them is called ''

intwaso ''Ukuthwasa'' is a Southern African culture-bound syndrome associated with the calling and the initiation process to become a ''sangoma'', a type of traditional healer. In the cultural context of traditional healers in Southern Africa, the jou ...

''. Those who develop the condition of ''intwaso'' are regarded as having a special calling to divine the future. They are first treated with sympathy, and then with respect as they develop their abilities to foretell the future.O'Connell, M.C. 1982 Spirit Possession and Role Stress among the Xesibe of Eastern Transkei Ethnology, 21 (1): 21-37.

References

Transkei Xhosa people {{SouthAfrica-stub