The son of His Royal Highness, the late King Goodwill Zwelithini, Prince Nhlanganiso Zulu, expressed his sincere gratitude to representatives from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Disciplines of Psychiatry and Social Work for recognising the need for a mental health intervention tailored to the social challenges facing communities in Inanda, Durban.

The UKZN outreach team, which forms part of the Howard College-based MA’AT Institute, visited eMaqadini Tribal House in Inanda. The engagement with local izinduna, which opened and closed with prayer, focused on mental health and identifying ways to improve the lives and livelihoods of the communities they serve.

The community outreach was also framed around the national Department of Health’s observation of July as Men’s Month, and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group’s (SADAG) recognition of July as Mental Health Awareness Month.

Founded in 2020, the MA’AT Institute is an African-centred mental health and psychosocial support organisation that draws on indigenous African knowledge systems and the Kemetic concept of MA’AT, the ancient Egyptian goddess associated with truth, balance and harmony. Through trauma-informed care and counselling, the Institute seeks to centre African interests, knowledge systems, experiences and culture in its psychosocial services. 

Community Research Officer in UKZN’s Discipline of Psychiatry, Mr Khulani Chiliza, plays a key role in connecting the University with communities and facilitating engagements that support translational psychiatry research for mutual benefit. He said the team was concerned about the Durban PINK (Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu) area – where reported social challenges highlighted the need for culturally sensitive, and locally led mental health interventions.

Chiliza highlighted a project of particular importance to Associate Professor Bonga Chiliza, Chief Specialist and Head of UKZN’s Discipline of Psychiatry. The ‘Neuropsychiatric Genetics of African Populations – Psychosis (NeuroGAP-Psychosis)’ study was established with the aim of expanding understanding of the genetic architecture of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in African populations, with a focus on sample collection and analysis in South Africa.

Chiliza said it was important to launch the intervention at eMaqadini Tribal House and then roll it out to the PINK area, and hopefully, the rest of the province. He said, “We decided to launch it here because we wanted to strengthen the study between UKZN and abaholi bendabuko, with the aim to strengthen mental health.”

Chiliza said one of his highlights was hearing the izinduna acknowledge their need for greater mental health support and capacity-building. They reflected on their own experiences as men and the environments in which they had grown up, while recognising the complexity of the challenges they encounter in the communities they serve. These discussions reinforced the need for effective mental health interventions. “We come in as researchers but they hold the ultimate access to the communities with which we are trying to work,” Chiliza said. 

The deliberation highlighted how easy it was to talk about physical bodily pain but much harder to talk about mental health problems.

Prince Zulu lauded KwaMashu’s Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital as well as the King Dinuzulu Hospital Complex – formerly King George V Hospital – for being of excellent service to eMaqadini community. 

Reflecting on points raised during the group discussion, Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital Employee Wellbeing Practitioner, Mr Mazwi Mdunge, said they agreed that fostering healthy father-son relationships was important in helping boys develop into non-violent, caring and responsible men. He said the group frowned upon father-son disconnection and detachment, as this often led to aggressive non-cohesive future families. 

The prince said mental health was everything, encouraging izinduna to always lead by example; embrace government interventions; destigmatise mental health issues; return to folklore; and commit to the successful transitioning of boys to men. Similarly, he said young (unmarried) women should not be falling pregnant, and that he was appalled to learn of a recent case where an 11-year-old boy was sodomised, and in turn raped and infected girls of his age with HIV. 

Additionally, Prince Zulu lauded UKZN for empowering attendees with such essential awareness strategies. “If we curb HIV in KwaZulu-Natal, we would have won a major part of the battle,” he stressed.

Attendees also discussed the complexities of gender identities, ways of responding to mental health triggers, substance use and abuse, and the values of Ubuntu. They emphasised the need for izinduna to nurture their own mental health so that they could engage positively and respectfully with the communities they serve.

“We need to cause more healing than damage in how we resolve local issues,” they agreed.

Team UKZN said they remained undeterred from their institute’s continued focus on ethical considerations, respect for life, communal personhood, holism, harmony and balance, human and ecological solidarity, as well as justice in health care. 

Words and photographs: Lunga Memela