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Nqobile Tshili, [email protected] 

TRADITIONAL healers are sounding the alarm — their ancient practices are under siege. While pastors publicly denounce them, they secretly seek their counsel on spiritual matters. This hypocrisy underscores a disturbing trend — society’s growing disdain for sangomas, fuelled by cultural decay.

The anti-inyanga rhetoric is loudly preached in some churches, yet behind closed doors, the same pastors and prophets turn to traditional healers for guidance. The public openly praises preachers and their prayers, but consulting an inyanga is shrouded in shame, often done in the dead of night. In conversations with Saturday Chronicle, several registered traditional healers lamented this cultural decline, sharing their struggles and the covert demand for their services. The gradual death of traditional healing practices is not just a loss for the healers, but a profound erosion of cultural heritage.

Ncube, a seasoned traditional healer from Old Lobengula suburb with nearly five decades of experience, observed a growing trend towards Christianity. He attributed this shift to the influence of pastors and prophets and noted a decline in the number of young people pursuing traditional healing practices.

“We are increasingly becoming fewer and fewer. In the past, you would find between 10 to 15 people coming here for the initiation process to become traditional healers. 

But now we are handling very few people. Right now, I have four people who are undergoing initiation, and the numbers do not exceed five. But in the past, I used to have so many people within my house and would even transfer some of them to my rural area. The problem is that when people go to churches, they are told to discard izinyoka zakibo (ancestors) and follow Christianity.”

Ncube criticised church leaders who, while condemning traditional beliefs as evil, secretly rely on them for personal gain. He observed that congregants, blindly following their leaders, often discard their ancestral heritage. These pastors or prophets consult with traditional healers for spiritual enhancement, seeking public respect.

“Some of them come to us revealing that they are leading a congregation and want to be respected when they stand before people. We conduct cleansing ceremonies for them where certain rituals such as ukucaba are done, and at the same time, we connect them to their ancestors. But when they go out there, they demonise our practice, even describing our work as evil,” said Ncube.

Ncube expressed concern that church-conducted rituals, often involving spells to expel ancestral spirits (idlozi), don’t always guarantee success. He shared his experience with numerous individuals whose lives deteriorated after unsuccessful attempts to discard their ancestral spirits (amadlozi).

“Some of the people will start becoming ill while others totally become mad. When they start experiencing serious difficulties, they then come to us, and we try to appease their spirits. After consultations, you will discover that they would have tried to abandon amadlozi akibo. So, some of these religious leaders are actually causing a lot of harm, yet they still come to us for spiritual guidance as well, instead of telling the people that the two can co-exist as it is about good, not bad,” said Ncube.

Ncube, a devout Catholic who combines his faith with traditional healing, criticised the lack of understanding surrounding spiritual matters. He lamented the confusion and identity loss experienced by many seeking spiritual guidance.

Mpande echoed Ncube’s sentiments, sharing her early spiritual gifts. She revealed that while traditional healing was once widely accepted, the trend has shifted towards Christianity in recent decades.

“As traditional healers, in the past, we used to have many people coming to us, but now people are running to churches. Even cultural traditions are decaying; a lot of young people no longer practice their cultures as they move to churches. As traditional healers, we don’t see a problem with people going to churches, but discarding one’s identity is what is worrying. Shadows and spiritual roles by going to churches are not working for them,” she said.

Mpande highlighted that even the most truthful preachers can guide their congregants to address their traditional ancestral issues rather than ignoring them. She said that Christianity and African traditions are not inherently at odds; the real challenge lies in people’s misunderstanding of both.

She also pointed out that African traditions reject evil spirits, viewing them as demonic and obstacles to personal progress.

“The evil spirit is cast off; we also do it in our spiritual realm as it is done in churches. But kulamadlozi amahle that serve as our angels if we are to put it in the Christian perspective. So people should be vigilant in differentiating between an evil spirit and a good spirit,” she said.

Mpande stressed the importance of preserving traditional cultural beliefs, noting that they can address many societal issues. She pointed out that some families face struggles because they fail to acknowledge their ancestors.

“We need to revive our cultures because some of the things that are not going well are a result of discarding our cultures. You can discover that there are some families where both males and females are not marrying; some of these things point to signals of things they need to address culturally,” she said.

The elderly woman expressed concern that pastors and prophets often mislead their congregants on spiritual matters, while secretly seeking guidance from traditional healers themselves.

“When pastors come to us, they don’t want to be known. They call me and make an appointment. As you walked in, you saw there is a bench outside where ordinary people sit waiting to be attended. They don’t want to sit outside but would come indoors.

“On that day, I would even give an instruction that I’m not attending to anyone as they don’t want to mix with other people. But we still attend to them as they also will be consulting on their family matters,” said Mpande.

Mhambinyana Ngwenya, a traditional healer with over five decades of experience, asserted that his extensive knowledge and skills could have earned him a Western academic title. He emphasised the importance of preserving cultural beliefs amidst the challenges of modernisation.

“A lot of things have changed, but we should never change our culture. We know where the sun rises and sets, and just like that, our culture is our reality,” he said.

@nqotshili