Imagine the grief of losing your husband, then imagine having to sleep
with one of your recently deceased husband's male family members in
order to remove the curse of his death from yourself. I can't imagine
broaching this subject with my father-in-law, let alone getting it past
my mother-in-law, but I am confident it would not end well for any of
us. 'Sexual cleansing' is one of the many rituals practiced by the
Zambians we worked with that, to me and I'm sure many others defies
common sense. However during our three months in Zambia we were to learn
that understanding these seemingly barbaric customs was much more
complicated than judging what we saw according to the values or our own western society.
The majority of patients we saw at the On Call Africa clinics admitted consulting traditional healers first and were turning to western medicine either opportunistically or as a last resort. The traditional 'medicines' and treatments prescribed for their various ailments included cutting, tattooing, drinking or eating herbal potions, rubbing pastes over the body and prayer. Hamish and I were fascinated, albeit often horrified, by these practices and were interested to learn more about the healers behind these treatments so when our time volunteering for On Call Africa came to an end we headed bush in search of enlightenment.
From what we could gather there are three main types of healing in Zambia; traditional healing, faith healing and magic. Traditional healers mainly use herbs, cutting and potions. Faith healers, who most commonly represent the Church of Zion, use prayer and sometimes magic water, vinegar or cranberry juice. Magic is practised by Witch Doctors who in some circumstances use herbal potions and magic to counteract curses but, from what we were told, tend to focus more on cursing and killing people, at a hefty price tag. Should you find yourself cursed, a visit to your local Witch Doctor, which includes the previously mentioned hefty fee, is your only hope - quite a smart little business model for them, morals aside.
Hamish and I were lucky, or as my Mother would say; crazy, enough to make contact with and meet a variety of healers all whom were happy, to various extents, to demonstrate their healing methods. The biggest problem we encountered was convincing local translators, who were understandably terrified of the Witch Doctors, to accompany us. According to locals Witch Doctors can kill simply by visualising their subject in a mirror, even if they have never met them - the so called 'magic gun'. I had doubts about getting mixed up in this unknown world, but curiosity got the better of my fear and thankfully my name never got thrown into a mirror. If I'm honest the Witch Doctor we met in Katapazi was one of the most charming and entertaining men we met all year. But then again, perhaps we were just under his spell!
The one occasion I was genuinely frightened was during a session with a female traditional healer, Bridget. We were ushered into a tiny mud hut where she swayed around, eyes rolled to the back of her head, calling to the spirits through prayer. By calling to the spirits I mean really bloody yelling to them. There we were witnessing screaming Bridget's hugely personal encounter when the absurdity of the situation struck me and I developed the nervous giggles. My suppressed laughter was curbed when Bridget turned things up a notch by grabbing a knife and wildly flung it around the hut before stabbing herself in the palms. 'F@ck, she's going to kill us all' (sorry for the naughty language Granny!) was the thought that flew through my mind but luckily Bridget's performance turned out to be just that and not a drop of blood was shed. A couple of hours later, as my cross legged position and the lack of fresh air in the hut became almost unbearable, I considered taking the blunt knife to myself, while the morning had been fascinating it seemed that Bridget was reluctant to give us up and so stories and rituals were repeated two or three times before we were allowed to say our farewells.
Almost everyone we met in Zambia, black or white, educated or illiterate regaled terrifying first hand accounts of witch craft in action. Humphrey, the On Call Africa cook and handyman, came across a Zimbabwean Witch Doctor on his Uncle's farm near Lusaka in central Zambia who had flown using witch craft (not a local airline as I had first presumed) from Zimbabwe after the spirits had told him he needed to kill a relative in Lusaka then drink his blood so that he could save himself from dying. Our chats with locals revealed that killing and drinking the blood of a family member was a fairly common anti dote for curses. An English volunteer at an orphanage told how one of the children died within two hours of stepping over 'mutti', a cursed bundle of sticks, bones and animal tails. These stories were told with such faith and conviction that at times refusing to believe them was impossible.
It wasn't all ceremony and conspiring with the spirits. Many healers
simply administer herbal medicines based on the ailment. These potions
were often at best harmless but in a number of cases, like administering re-hydration drinks or steam baths for colds, quite useful. Other
potions were unfortunately downright dangerous. A great example of harmful practise was administering ginger enemas through a bamboo stick for the
treatment of malaria, which aside from not curing malaria causes severe,
often fatal, diarrhoea and dehydration.
Cutting was a hugely popular treatment, used by almost every single patient we met, despite the fact they weren't able to report very positively on the benefits. The cutting is meant to release the disease or negative energy from the body and is used for anything from a headache, where cuts between the eyes are very common, to fertility where a female's vagina would be cut (whereas a man's fertility problems would be treated with a gentle herbal potion...go figure!). Seeing young babies with cuts on their bodies was particularly upsetting but it was a difficult issue to tackle as cutting is one of the only day to day health care options available to the villagers and deeply ingrained beliefs exist about the benefits. Thankfully word has got around that sharing razor blades can spread HIV and so patients are now required to supply their own which is a huge advance and a warming reminder that health education messages are getting through and that charity work can have a positive impact!
Reflecting on our time in the bush from the safety of our London flat it's hard to explain, or even comprehend what we witnessed or how I feel about it. Certainly if these, frankly bizarre to the western world, practices were going on in the context of our lives in New Zealand or England I would have no issue with labeling it all a load of nonsense, however being a part of it all in an area where, day to day, traditional medicine is all you have forced me to open my mind to the unknown. As for the Witch Doctors' magic guns, I'm not entirely convinced by their power but then don't care to be proven wrong either!
Thank you for having us Zambia, hopefully someday we will be back!
The majority of patients we saw at the On Call Africa clinics admitted consulting traditional healers first and were turning to western medicine either opportunistically or as a last resort. The traditional 'medicines' and treatments prescribed for their various ailments included cutting, tattooing, drinking or eating herbal potions, rubbing pastes over the body and prayer. Hamish and I were fascinated, albeit often horrified, by these practices and were interested to learn more about the healers behind these treatments so when our time volunteering for On Call Africa came to an end we headed bush in search of enlightenment.
From what we could gather there are three main types of healing in Zambia; traditional healing, faith healing and magic. Traditional healers mainly use herbs, cutting and potions. Faith healers, who most commonly represent the Church of Zion, use prayer and sometimes magic water, vinegar or cranberry juice. Magic is practised by Witch Doctors who in some circumstances use herbal potions and magic to counteract curses but, from what we were told, tend to focus more on cursing and killing people, at a hefty price tag. Should you find yourself cursed, a visit to your local Witch Doctor, which includes the previously mentioned hefty fee, is your only hope - quite a smart little business model for them, morals aside.
Hamish and I were lucky, or as my Mother would say; crazy, enough to make contact with and meet a variety of healers all whom were happy, to various extents, to demonstrate their healing methods. The biggest problem we encountered was convincing local translators, who were understandably terrified of the Witch Doctors, to accompany us. According to locals Witch Doctors can kill simply by visualising their subject in a mirror, even if they have never met them - the so called 'magic gun'. I had doubts about getting mixed up in this unknown world, but curiosity got the better of my fear and thankfully my name never got thrown into a mirror. If I'm honest the Witch Doctor we met in Katapazi was one of the most charming and entertaining men we met all year. But then again, perhaps we were just under his spell!
The one occasion I was genuinely frightened was during a session with a female traditional healer, Bridget. We were ushered into a tiny mud hut where she swayed around, eyes rolled to the back of her head, calling to the spirits through prayer. By calling to the spirits I mean really bloody yelling to them. There we were witnessing screaming Bridget's hugely personal encounter when the absurdity of the situation struck me and I developed the nervous giggles. My suppressed laughter was curbed when Bridget turned things up a notch by grabbing a knife and wildly flung it around the hut before stabbing herself in the palms. 'F@ck, she's going to kill us all' (sorry for the naughty language Granny!) was the thought that flew through my mind but luckily Bridget's performance turned out to be just that and not a drop of blood was shed. A couple of hours later, as my cross legged position and the lack of fresh air in the hut became almost unbearable, I considered taking the blunt knife to myself, while the morning had been fascinating it seemed that Bridget was reluctant to give us up and so stories and rituals were repeated two or three times before we were allowed to say our farewells.
Almost everyone we met in Zambia, black or white, educated or illiterate regaled terrifying first hand accounts of witch craft in action. Humphrey, the On Call Africa cook and handyman, came across a Zimbabwean Witch Doctor on his Uncle's farm near Lusaka in central Zambia who had flown using witch craft (not a local airline as I had first presumed) from Zimbabwe after the spirits had told him he needed to kill a relative in Lusaka then drink his blood so that he could save himself from dying. Our chats with locals revealed that killing and drinking the blood of a family member was a fairly common anti dote for curses. An English volunteer at an orphanage told how one of the children died within two hours of stepping over 'mutti', a cursed bundle of sticks, bones and animal tails. These stories were told with such faith and conviction that at times refusing to believe them was impossible.
 |
| Jess with 'Dr George' |
Cutting was a hugely popular treatment, used by almost every single patient we met, despite the fact they weren't able to report very positively on the benefits. The cutting is meant to release the disease or negative energy from the body and is used for anything from a headache, where cuts between the eyes are very common, to fertility where a female's vagina would be cut (whereas a man's fertility problems would be treated with a gentle herbal potion...go figure!). Seeing young babies with cuts on their bodies was particularly upsetting but it was a difficult issue to tackle as cutting is one of the only day to day health care options available to the villagers and deeply ingrained beliefs exist about the benefits. Thankfully word has got around that sharing razor blades can spread HIV and so patients are now required to supply their own which is a huge advance and a warming reminder that health education messages are getting through and that charity work can have a positive impact!
Reflecting on our time in the bush from the safety of our London flat it's hard to explain, or even comprehend what we witnessed or how I feel about it. Certainly if these, frankly bizarre to the western world, practices were going on in the context of our lives in New Zealand or England I would have no issue with labeling it all a load of nonsense, however being a part of it all in an area where, day to day, traditional medicine is all you have forced me to open my mind to the unknown. As for the Witch Doctors' magic guns, I'm not entirely convinced by their power but then don't care to be proven wrong either!
Thank you for having us Zambia, hopefully someday we will be back!
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