Volume 9 Issue 3 September 2011 Visioning Information Technology.docx

Volume 9 Issue 3 September 2011
Visioning Information Technology at Cirque du Soleil
Case prepared by Professors Anne-Marie CROTEAU,1 Suzanne
RIVARD2 and Jean
TALBOT3
Danielle Savoie, recently appointed Chief Information Officer
(CIO) at Cirque du Soleil, was delighted. She had just met with
the firm’s Executive Committee to present the very first
information technology (IT) strategic plan in the history of
Cirque. The plan presented a coherent and organized vision of
IT use at Cirque. The Executive Committee had reacted very
positively to her recommendations, although the members of the
committee were not accustomed to discussing issues as
technical as IT. At Cirque du Soleil, IT was deemed a
significant but not always necessary cost. Indeed, it was
sometimes perceived as a useless expense. Danielle Savoie’s
main challenge now was to discover how IT could best serve
Cirque. She was convinced that in order to meet this challenge,
she had to develop an IT strategic vision that would be accepted
by Cirque’s top management, deploy a highly professional IT
group and enhance the credibility of IT among the leaders of the
firm.
Before being hired by Cirque du Soleil in April 2000, Danielle
Savoie was the Vice-President of Strategic IT projects at
Desjardins, a credit union and one of Quebec’s largest financial
institutions. Obviously, the transition from a financial
institution to one of the world’s most innovative and creative
enterprises represented a major challenge, yet Ms. Savoie also
considered it a very interesting one. Her mandate as the first
CIO at Cirque du Soleil was clear: she had to find an effective
way for IT to support growth at Cirque. She had given herself
three months to assess the current IT situation. It was at the end
of this three-month period that she presented her strategic plan
to Cirque’s Executive Committee.

1. 1 Anne-Marie Croteau is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Decision Sciences and Management Information
Systems at Concordia University, Canada.
2. 2 Suzanne Rivard is Professor of Information Technology
and holds the Chair of Strategic Management of Information
Technology at HEC Montréal.
3. 3
JeanTalbotisaFullProfessorintheDepartmentofInformationTechn
ologiesatHECMontréal.
© HEC Montréal 2011
All rights reserved for all countries. Any translation or
alteration in any form whatsoever is prohibited.
The International Journal of Case Studies in Management is
published on-line (www.hec.ca/revuedecas/en), ISSN 1911-
2599. This case is intended to be used as the framework for an
educational discussion and does not imply any judgement on the
administrative situation presented. Deposited under number 9 65
2011 002 with the HEC Montréal Centre for Case Studies, 3000,
chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal (Québec) Canada
H3T 2A7.
Cirque du Soleil – A Fantastic Journey1
In 1984, a group of street entertainers established in Baie St-
Paul, a small municipality located east of Quebec City,
convinced the Quebec government to subsidize the development
of a show that would be presented as part of the festivities
surrounding the 450th anniversary of the arrival of Jacques
Cartier in Canada. The show was titled Cirque du Soleil, and the
group was founded by Daniel Gauthier and Guy Laliberté. The
intention behind the show was to reinvent the concept of the
circus. Until then, most circuses were based on the traditional
model created by Barnum & Bailey and Ringling Brothers in the
1880s in the American Far West. The type of entertainment
offered by these companies had barely evolved over the years,
and their shows generally incorporated a variety of acrobatic
acts, clowns and animals.

The first show presented by Cirque du Soleil was dramatically
different from the traditional circus: it featured no animals,
spectacular costumes, a modern original musical score, more
sophisticated characters than the traditional clowns, and
astonishing lighting. It combined the spectacular side of
traditional circus, like acrobats and a big top, with the more
dramatic and sophisticated elements of theatre.
Audiences and critics alike were immediately conquered.
Success was instantaneous. Cirque du Soleil succeeded in
redefining the circus experience for the audience by capturing
the imagination of the public. The show was presented in 10
cities in Quebec. In 1984, 73 people worked for Cirque du
Soleil. This first show established the foundations and the
concept. During the years that followed, Cirque grew very
quickly. By 2000, Cirque du Soleil had evolved from its modest
beginnings to become a complex organization with operations in
several cities and shows on the road around the world. In 2000,
Cirque du Soleil had three permanent or resident shows:
Mystère, which had been presented at Treasure Island in Las
Vegas since 1993, Ô, presented at the Bellagio in Las Vegas
since October 1998, and La Nouba, presented at the Walt
Disney World Resort since December 1998. At the time, Cirque
also had five touring shows, which moved every two months.
The firm inaugurated its international headquarters (IHQ) in
Montreal in 1997. The headquarters were also known as “the
Studio.” It was at the Studio that all the activities related to
show creation and production took place, as well as support
activities such as casting, training studios, and costume and
accessory creation. Support activities such as marketing,
logistics and human resource management, as well as
information technology, were also centralized in Montreal.
In 2000, Guy Laliberté became the sole owner and Chief
Executive Officer of Cirque du Soleil. At this time, Cirque had
regional offices in Las Vegas, Orlando, Amsterdam and
Singapore, for a worldwide total of close to 2,000 employees.
An office in charge of managing the permanent shows in Las

Vegas and Orlando was established in Las Vegas. It was
responsible for supporting each show by overseeing operations,
finance, human resources, marketing and IT. Three regional
offices supervised the touring shows; the regional offices had
structures similar to that of the Las Vegas office. All shows
touring in America were supported by the Montreal regional
office,
1
CirqueduSoleil,“AFantasticJourney,”http://www.cirquedusoleil.
com/cirquedusoleil/pdf/pressroom/en/historique_en.pdf. © HEC
Montréal 2
while the shows that were presented in Europe were supported
by the Amsterdam regional office and the shows presented in
the Asia-Pacific area were supported by the Singapore office.
Mission of Cirque du Soleil – Invoke, Provoke, Evoke
The mission of Cirque du Soleil is to invoke the imagination,
provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people around the
world.1 Experts have described Cirque du Soleil’s strategy as
being the “simultaneous pursuit of both differentiation and low
cost.”2 By “reinventing the circus,” Cirque du Soleil has been
able to develop a cost structure that is significantly lower than
that of traditional circuses. First, Cirque’s shows do not use
animals. At the time of the creation of Cirque du Soleil, this
was most unusual, and it immediately set Cirque apart as a
special class of circus. The decision not to use animals also
helped lower Cirque’s cost structure compared to traditional
circuses. Indeed, circus animals are costly to shelter, transport,
feed, and maintain in good health. Second, most traditional
circus shows feature three rings where performers present their
acts concurrently. This approach not only diverts the attention
of spectators, it also raises the cost of a performance. Cirque du
Soleil opted for a single ring that would captivate the
audience’s attention.
Reinventing the circus also involved crossing boundaries and
bringing some of the drama, artistry and sophistication of

theatre into the circus acts. A Cirque du Soleil show is not a
series of unrelated acts, as is often the case with traditional
circus shows. Rather, the audience is offered a theatrical
performance featuring acrobats, gymnasts and clowns rather
than actors. Indeed, as early as 1985, Cirque’s shows were
created and directed by gifted theatre directors. Among the key
conditions that have allowed Cirque du Soleil to sustain its
differentiation advantage is its ability to find and nurture key
talents, including acrobats, athletes, dancers, singers,
musicians, clowns, writers and actors.
Cirque du Soleil – A Unique Business
At Cirque du Soleil, a touring show is a very complex matter.
As Danielle Savoie describes it:
When we raise our big top, in some field out in the middle of
nowhere, what we’re actually building is a village, and it needs
electricity, phones, water, offices, Internet and, of course, a
computer network. A tour is a little village travelling from city
to city; a village that is practically self- sufficient, with its own
kitchen, its own workshop for maintenance and repairs, its box
office, and its heating and air conditioning system. It’s a village
of about 150 people, and it needs the very best technology to
meet their needs, which range from basic bandwidth
requirements to ticket sales, payroll and phone systems. And
this is a village that moves every six or seven weeks, which
means that it has to be constantly torn down and set up again.
Everything has to be precise and methodical. Every part, hose,
wire, piece of rigging and bolt has its place to make everything
supremely efficient. So, if you think assembling IKEA furniture
is
1 CirqueduSoleil,“CirqueduSoleilataGlance,”
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/cirquedusoleil/pdf/pressroom/en/
cds_en_bref_en.pdf, page 1.
2 W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, “Blue Ocean Strategy,”
Harvard Business Review, Vol. 82, No. 10, October 2004, p. 76-
84.
© HEC Montréal 3

complicated, imagine what it’s like setting up and tearing down
a big top that seats 2,500. Imagine the logistics when over 55
trailer-loads of equipment have to be hauled from place to
place, and at each site, everything has to be in working order
within 30 hours, not to mention the technical documentation
that’s needed to support this whole logistics effort, because
we’re not talking about moving into vacant office space, we’re
talking about empty land or parking lots.”
At Cirque du Soleil, casting is a key process. Indeed, the quality
of the shows relies heavily on the availability of excellent
artists, acrobats, jugglers, athletes, singers, etc. As Danielle
Savoie describes it:
Casting’s talent scouts are always on the move, travelling to the
ends of the earth. The Casting director [who was there when
Danielle Savoie arrived at Cirque] described the essence of her
work as maintaining a pool of artists for the eight shows that
Cirque had then and the many events, and recruiting artists for
new shows in the future. She and her team roamed the planet
auditioning for a soprano who radiated childlike energy for
Quidam, or an artist with gestures guaranteed to get laughs. Or
they might be headed for a Polynesian temple in search of a fire
dancer for the show Ô. And wherever they are, around the
globe, they needed to record all the information they were
collecting on each artist quickly, and save video references for
each of them.
Not only is casting a delicate and involved activity, but once a
performer is hired, he or she has to go through a series of steps
before actually participating in a show. One of those steps is the
make-up lessons that ensure that performers can apply their own
make-up for the various roles they play in a given show. At the
time, make-up for each part of every show was documented with
35-mm photos and forms listing the products used and the
procedure to follow, all of which was kept in big binders that
the make-up artists had to cart around with them on their
numerous trips to the various Cirque sites. Not only were the

binders heavy, but there was always the risk that documents
could be lost along the way or forgotten somewhere. After the
make-up lessons, the performer had to go to the costume
workshop for measurements. A total of 50 measurements were
taken at different points on the performer’s body. These very
precise data were required to customize the performer’s costume
pattern, which had to be perfectly fitted to his or her
measurements. Cirque has several thousand intricate costume
patterns. Information about costumes and measurements was
being stored in Excel files and in various unconnected
applications. After the performer’s measurements were taken, a
plaster cast of his or her head had to be made, in three copies.
The casts are used to make the masks, wigs, and hats that the
performer wears during shows. Three copies were required
because sometimes a hat, a mask and a wig were made
simultaneously for the same performer. Keeping track of the
plaster heads and their model’s identity was very challenging.
At the time, even though efforts were being made to keep the
information about potential talents in a very organized fashion,
all the information about artists was kept in paper folders of
various colours, with each colour representing a different
discipline. One can imagine the piles of files, video recordings,
pictures and so on that the casting director had to carry around
the globe and send to the International Headquarters.
© HEC Montréal 4
Information Technology at Cirque du Soleil in 2000
Danielle Savoie’s nomination followed a decision by Cirque’s
top management to acquire SAP to support the firm’s basic
business processes: human resources, logistics, and finance. The
implementation of such a complex technology required a re-
examination of how IT was managed and operated. Cirque
needed to implement more organized and professional IT
management than it had at the time.
Upon her arrival at Cirque du Soleil, Danielle Savoie introduced
herself to the general managers and to the key players involved

in each of the areas related to show production: Creation,
Cirque Image, Finance, Merchandising, Resources, Marketing,
Legal, Production, SAP, Planning and Public Affairs. She then
devoted her first weeks on the job to meeting the people in
charge of the various creative and administrative units in order
to establish her diagnosis. This allowed her to develop an
understanding of the uniqueness of Cirque’s business.
She realized that each touring show had its own unique IT
infrastructure; Danielle Savoie has described the touring shows
as being distinct little islands.1 Yet, according to Ms. Savoie,
the installation of the IT infrastructure of a show was a critical
step. At the time, the technician in charge of installing the
touring show’s IT hardware had to be on site several days
before the other members of the tour in order to ensure that the
IT infrastructure was ready when they arrived. This installation
could take quite a long time, since the technician had to unpack
the servers and reinstall them each time, then connect the
workstations and phone equipment for all administrative
activities – including the many ticket windows of the box office
trailer (nine for Quidam, which was touring in North America at
the time) and the cash registers (28 for Quidam). The
installation was quite cumbersome, involving the use of copper
cables, among other things.
Some of the main features of Cirque’s IT environment in 2000
were:
Servers: several hardware platforms, most of which were clones
assembled on the spot. The majority of the servers ran on
Windows NT 4.0, with some servers operating with Novell
Netware;
Network: a variety of equipment using various standards, such
as Ethernet 10, Ethernet 100, and Ethernet Giga, shared or
wireless in certain sites;
Desktops: a variety of equipment from at least 10 different
suppliers;
Operating systems: various versions of Windows (95, 98, 98SE,
NT 3.51, NT 4.0, 2000) with various levels of corrective

measures (Service Packs);
MS Office Suite in several different versions (95, 97, 98, 2000);
Applications: more than 800 applications and software packages
were installed, many of them supporting the same function –
personal preferences often being the deciding factor. The
applications were most varied and rather unconventional, given
the nature of Cirque du Soleil’s activities. For instance, one
such application tracked the performers’ medical records. This
type of application was deemed extremely important, given the
fact that the performers are a critical resource at Cirque du
Soleil;
1
AliceDragoon,“TheAmazingTravelingITShow,”CIO,Vol.16,No.3
,November1,2002. © HEC Montréal 5
Data sharing: most applications were standalone. The various
shows operated as independent businesses rather than parts of
single organization. Collaboration between employees across
different business units was difficult.
The IT situation was plagued with several difficulties: the
demands made on maintenance support were very high; users
had to change their work methods and adapt to each workstation
or workplace where they happened to be, and this had a
significant impact on their effectiveness; it was extremely
difficult to deploy applications that worked on all the
workstations and in all regional contexts; the infrastructure was
unstable; and it took a considerable amount of time to solve any
technical problems that arose.
After spending several weeks learning about Cirque, Danielle
Savoie came to several conclusions. The IT group was small,
and its role was essentially one of support. Cirque had no
development team, nor did it have any standards or procedures
governing the use of IT. The management of IT was highly
decentralized, each unit acting independently of the others,
without any coordination. This situation is typical of a small
business that has grown rapidly and devoted all its resources to

the development of its core business. The deficit in IT
credibility seemed to be due to: a poor ability to deliver the
desired IT solutions with the required degree of depth,
reliability and operational uptime availability; insufficient
leverage of user investment in terms of efforts and funds caused
by a lack of project management, weak integration of IT
solutions and incoherent technology; a lack of vision with
respect to IT direction in the organization, the delivery of
business solutions, infrastructure acquisition and investments
and technology transfer. In a nutshell, it was clear that in its
current state, Cirque’s IT could not support its growth. A
complete overhaul of IT management was needed.
Information Technology Strategic Plan
The plan developed by Danielle Savoie during the three months
following her arrival at Cirque read as follows: “Establish IT
solution requirements to support and enable respective business
visions for Cirque du Soleil service and products & work
functions requiring significant IT support during the next two to
three years.”1
Danielle Savoie’s observations led her to conclude that in 2000,
the nature of the business landscape at Cirque du Soleil required
a range of IT enabling solutions and technologies that would
depend on each other and that needed to be open so that they
could interact accordingly. In addition, the IT solutions
implemented at Cirque would have to be linked to those of their
business partners so that business plans and agreements could
develop smoothly. It therefore appeared unrealistic to develop
an IT strategic plan based on the adoption of a single set of
technologies, such as SAP, for all IT business solutions. SAP
had already been implemented to support the basic business
processes. One strategic approach would have been to protect
all available options to integrate IT solutions with SAP, as
opposed to adopting, by default, SAP as a unique integration
channel. Another strategic approach would have been to ensure
that IT integration capabilities would be agile and flexible to
support growth and rapid responses to quickly changing,

unpredictable market conditions.
1 “IT Strategic Plan – Stage One,” presented at the Executive
Committee meeting by Danielle Savoie, July 11-13, 2000.
© HEC Montréal 6
It was stated that the critical success factor of the IT strategy
would be the ability of IT integration capabilities to provide
seamless connections between a diversity of IT solutions based
on a significant range of technologies.
Lion’s Den1
After assessing the IT situation at Cirque du Soleil, it became
clear to Danielle Savoie what needed to be done. She had three
major objectives: (1) develop a strategic IT vision that would be
accepted by Cirque’s top management; (2) deploy a highly
professional IT group that would have the required resources;
and (3) improve the credibility of the IT group among the
leaders of the firm. Most importantly, she had to promote the IT
strategic plan to the Executive Committee. The Committee was
chaired by Guy Laliberté, cofounder and owner of Cirque du
Soleil, also known as “the Producer.”
During the Executive Committee meeting in July, Ms. Savoie
used the analogy of a sailboat to illustrate the role of IT within
the organization, knowing that Guy Laliberté adored sailing.
During her presentation, she showed a slide representing a
sailboat. That simple picture had quite an impact. She explained
that the sails were the IT applications that could be fully
deployed – or not – depending on the intensity of the winds or
the business needs. The boat’s hull was a representation of the
IT infrastructure. She explained that without a solid hull, the
boat would sink, which is the same for the business if it is not
effectively and efficiently supported by the right IT
infrastructure. The “helmsperson” holding the tiller was her,
governing IT, and the person standing in the front of the
sailboat, providing direction, was Guy Laliberté.
When she left the meeting room, Danielle Savoie was well
aware that she had just begun the difficult task of carrying out

her IT strategic plan. Her next concern was to set up the proper
governance mechanisms that would help her achieve the IT
strategic plan. For her, the structure of governance was “the set
of mechanisms for decision making, the roles and the
responsibilities necessary to make it possible to align IT with
the business objectives of the company and to maximize the
added-value of IT.”
2011-09-20
1
Beforeeachnewshow,aspecialperformancecalled“theLion’sDen”t
akesplace.Duringthisperformance,eachactisjudged by a selected
group of experts, but most importantly by Guy Laliberté. This is
a very stressful moment for everyone involved in the creation
and production of the show, because a decision is made as to
whether the act, the performers or anything else will be kept or
not.
© HEC Montréal 7
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without permission.
1
Freeman, Rhea
Traditional Healing and Modernization in Africa
Introduction

There is an abundance of scholarly publications on traditional
healing in Africa and some
studies and observations show there is a decline in traditional
healing practices due to
modernization and globalization, changes in religious beliefs,
and the availability of western
medicine. There is no doubt that these factors have had an
impact on many aspects of society
among the various ethnic groups in Africa, however, because
traditional healing is inextricably
tied to socio-cultural and religious beliefs and practices, one
can conclude that traditional healing
will not disappear any time in the near future. In this essay I
demonstrate how interwoven
traditional healing is with the worldview of many African ethnic
groups and how, in fact,
modernization and globalization actually increases the need for
traditional healing.
Belief Systems, Values and Religious Doctrines
The fundamental view of most African ethnic groups regarding
life, disease, and death is
the belief in one God, known by many different names

according to ethnic group, as the supreme
creator with deities and ancestors as members of the
supernatural world who play an integral role
in the physical world (Okwu, 1979, p. 19). Deities derive their
power from God and have the
ability to prevent misfortune and bestow peace and prosperity.
Ancestral spirits act as
intermediaries between the living and the gods and play a role
in rewarding good behavior, or
punishing bad behavior.
2
Maintaining harmony and social order within the community
and preserving harmony
between humans and the spirit world is highly valued for fear of
consequences brought about by
supernatural forces when the equilibrium is not sustained. If
rules and norms are not obeyed,
society suffers the consequences, and likewise, ancestors punish
family members who neglect
filial duties, or are moral offenders (Essien, 2013, p. 239). On
the other hand, ancestors can be

the source of good fortune when expectations are met (Okwu,
1979, p. 20).
Most African ethnic groups believe in ancestors being able to
guide events and thus
ancestors are revered (Cumes, 2013, 58). However, members of
the spirit world are also feared
because they cannot be seen and possess power over humans in
the hierarchical scheme of
African traditional religion. Given this perception the
supernatural is of supreme importance in
the worldview of most African ethnic groups (Okwu, 1979, p.
20).
Fundamental Aspects of Traditional Healing
Traditional healers are known by several names according to
different ethnic groups, but
in South Africa the traditional healer is known as a sangoma.
The sangoma tradition has
multiple roots that extend across time, cultures and languages,
and derives partly from pre-
colonial African systems of belief. Healers may be men or
women, however, among some ethnic
groups only men are healers. In any case, there are secret

components of traditional healing that
are transmitted orally and cannot be revealed (Cumes, 2013, p.
58). Healers may acquire their
abilities by heredity, through dreams or visions from the spirit
world, or selection by their
community. Unlike Western physicians, a sangoma does not
need a patient’s history to know
3
what is wrong. Information about plant remedies often come to
healers in dreams, but the power
of the remedy cannot be isolated from the strength of the healer,
or ancestors.
Curative medicines are used to address bad health conditions
and involve plant and
animal substances while protective medicine wards off
misfortune, bad luck and suffering
resulting from forces in the environment, the spiritual world,
envy and the power of the spoken
word (Mulemi, 2004, p. 249).
Medicines can be administered in various ways such as
steaming, inhaling or bathing and

there are medicines for all aspects of health including physical
illness, mental illness, social
disharmony and spiritual difficulties, as well as love potions
and medicines for dreams and luck.
Charms and amulets are used to ward off the effects of curses,
witchcraft and sorcery (Cumes,
2013, p. 58). Rituals are also performed including sacrifices,
divinations, incantations and spells
invoking the names of ancestors for prevention.
These practices are used to prevent accidents, defeat in legal
cases, possession by evil
spirits, anger of ancestors and other health dangers and they are
even used to find lost objects or
people Cosmic and spiritual forces against an individual’s
health and prosperity also affect one’s
possessions and the ability to protect possessions is critical
since livestock and cattle are most
valued (Mulemi, 2004, pp. 249-250).
Scholarly research has documented the importance of the
placebo as a vital tool for the
sangoma who manipulates the power of belief and faith in
combination with the ancestral spirit
assigned to the plant to do distant healing (Cumes, 2013;
Essien, 2013; Okwu, 1979). Since

different tribes and healers may use the same plant to
successfully treat different problems, it
implies that healing is a result of the ancestral spirit and the
placebo rather than the
pharmacological properties of the plant.
4
Factors that May Contribute to a Decline in Traditional Healing
According to Cumes, modernization and globalization are
eroding the practices of
traditional healing (Cumes, 2013, p. 58). Additionally,
traditional healing is changing as
sangomas are exposed to a wide range of other healing
traditions and religious views. African
traditional healing must compete with other modes of healing,
including New Age therapies,
Chinese, Indian and European ‘traditional’ medicines utilizing
herbs and other therapies
(Thornton, 2009, p.19). In a study conducted from 1995 to
2007, results showed that traditional

healing decreased by as much as 12 percent over the period
(Peltzer, 2009, p. 170).
The training one must undergo to become a sangoma is
rigorous, exhausting and
expensive, yet in the government’s view traditional healers are
considered to be a lesser form of
medical practitioner. Attempts by the South African
government to formalize and regulate
traditional healing practices have resulted in sangomas being
excluded from other professions
contemplated under the Health Professions Act of 1974.
Overall, legislation takes a narrow view
of traditional healing practices as “weak versions of medicine
and social work” (Thornton, 2009,
pp. 21-23).
Role of the Traditional Healing in African Society
Belief in the occult is a cross-cultural religious and quasi-
religious phenomenon and
occultism affects normal human life more than realized,
especially with regard to disease and
therapeutics. The occult is a cultural mechanism that ordinary
Africans can use to cope with

massive social change that has increased the divide between the
rich minority and the poor
majority due to modernization and globalization. Both fortune
and misfortune, as well as good
5
health and illness have long been attributed to supernatural
forces, and belief in the occult has
responded to the increased scale of social changes rather than
being diminished by them.
Consequently, the role of the sangoma continues to be highly
valued and sangomas are
adapting to these social changes; they consider themselves to be
members of a profession with a
distinct intellectual tradition, one that undergoes critique,
modification and change in the light of
experience and myriad influences (Thornton, 2009, p. 17).
Furthermore, the tradition will
continue to be perpetuated since the sangoma’s primary
commitment is to an intellectual practice
of teaching and transmission of knowledge (Thornton, 2009, p.
23).

Given deep-rooted, traditional beliefs about the supernatural
causation of disease and ill
health, traditional healing is of paramount importance among
African ethnic groups. The past,
present, and future are viewed as a continuum in which cosmic
harmony is essential for social
order and good health (Okwu, 1979, p. 20). Integrated systems
of beliefs, strategies, and
behaviors to prevent illness, restore health and social order, and
to maintain harmony with the
spiritual world have evolved over time.
The spiritual and physical resources used to maintain health
constitute traditional
medicine and healing and are consistent with a worldview that
comes from eons of social,
cultural, and religious beliefs and practices. The notion of
medicine, illness, and healing are
consistent with most African’s worldview and this is
demonstrated in their value systems: social
conduct, cultural perception, myths, ritual, and healing
processes (Essien, 2013, p. 244).
Conclusion

Although there are numerous factors impacting traditional
healing in Africa, including
some that could contribute to the decline in the use of
traditional medicine and practices, the
6
prevalence of occult beliefs among the various African ethnic
groups produces a significant
demand for traditional healing to address illness and misfortune
stemming from supernatural
forces. Furthermore, it is clear that traditional healing rituals
and practices are inextricable from
value systems as well as social, cultural and religious beliefs
and practices for most African
ethnic groups.
Additionally, traditional healers are adapting to the massive
social changes taking place
at the same time they are ensuring that traditional healing
practices are carried into future
generations. Traditional healing practices and knowledge are
not simply being carried forward
from the past, but have a prominent place in the present and the
future.

Works Cited
Cumes, D. (2013). South African indigenous healing: How it
works. Explore, 9(1), 58-65.
Essien, E.D. (2013). Notions of healing and transcendence in
the trajectory of African traditional
religion: Paradigm and strategies. International Review of
Mission, 102(2), 236-248.
Okwu, A.S.O. (1979). Life, death, reincarnation, and traditional
healing in Africa. A Journal of
Opinion, 9(3), 19-24.
Mulemi, B.A. (2004). Medicine: Overview. In P. M. Peek & K.
Yankah (Eds.), African folklore:
An encyclopedia (pp. 247-250). New York, NY: Routledge.
Peltzer, K. (2009). Utilization and practice of
traditional/complementary/alternative medicine
(TM/CAM) in South Africa. African Journal of Traditional,
Complementary and Alternative
Medicines, 6(2), 168-174.

Thornton, R. (2009). The transmission of knowledge in South
African traditional healing. Africa,
79(1), 17-34.
REQUIREMENTS FOR GROUP PRESENTATION AND TERM
PAPER
For an excellent score on your group presentation or term paper,
you need to fully
satisfy the following requirements:
1. Keep the title assigned to you (do not change any letter or
word in it)
2. Your paper should be fully formatted in the APA style
(please see your
instructor for the APA style in current use—upper-/lower-case
characterization,
italicization, website citation, etc.)
3. Provide enough background information (based on existing
literature) in your
introduction and state clearly and fully what you do in your

paper/presentation
(you may use an expression such as, “In this paper I/we …”)
4. The body of your essay/presentation should contain clear
sub-headings and it
should be a full realization of what you promise (in your
introduction) to do in
your paper/presentation
5. Your paper/presentation should contain a well-defined
conclusion
6. Your paper/presentation should have a full APA-formatted
“Works
Cited/References” (see your instructor for the APA style in
current use)
7. Your group presentation should be a coherent whole (not a
mere combination
of ideas from individual group members—please ask for further
explanations, if
this is not too clear to you).
GOOD LUCK!

Volume 9 Issue 3 September 2011 Visioning Information Technology.docx

Volume 9 Issue 3 September 2011 Visioning Information Technology.docx

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Volume 9 Issue 3 September 2011 Visioning Information Technology.docx