Wonder cure sparks rush to Tanzanian village

By Alex Kiprotich and Marc Nkwame

The multitudes crossing river Engaresero in northern Tanzania is akin to the annual wildebeest migration at River Mara. The only difference is that the people in their thousands have no time to hang around the banks, waiting for the courageous one to cross over first because each second is precious.

Not even the bursting bank of the river that has swept several vehicles is a cause to worry.

And the mad rush is about a potent brew that has baffled science and yet said to cure all ailments, being dispensed by Ambilikile Masapile, 76, who is a retired pastor Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

People used whatever means necessary to and even drove across a swelling river to get to Loliondo village for a ‘dose’ of medicine.

The news of the supposed power of his brew has spread like wild bush fire and captured the imagination of Tanzanian and the rest of East Africa.

Masapile’s serving

When we arrived at Dar es Salaam, the talk was all about ‘Loliondo wonder’. Despite a power blackout the last two weeks, nobody talks of the energy crisis. It is all about Loliondo wonder.

"Ushasikia bwana, hakuna maradhi yasiyotibiwa. Loliondo twaenda," this is the message in the streets as people prepare to travel north to the remote village of Samunge where Masapile serves the concoction.

Though the sojourn to the north started in the last two months, the past two weeks has seen unprecedented pilgrimage to the home of Masapile.

The journey is torturous as one navigates the rocky terrain of Sonjo plains to Ngorongoro where there is neither a mobile telephone network nor radio signals.

But this has not deterred thousands of people from all over the country from flocking the humble homestead of the soft-spoken old man with grey hair and bald patches. Getting to his homestead is not an easy task.

When we get there, there are two long queues leading to Masapile’s homestead stretching up to 20km and keep growing as more sick people arrive. There are over 2,000 vehicles with sick people while the rich fly in using choppers. The vehicles are in two files –– those from Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Dar-es-salaam and Nairobi and the other for the ones from the Lake Victoria regions –– Mwanza, Mara and Shinyanga.

Among the sick are people with terminal diseases, HIV/Aids and mental diseases while some go to partake the concoction to prevent illnesses.

Masapile’s treatment is puzzling given that the main ingredient of the wonder medicine is the highly poisonous arrow tree locally known as Mugariga.

The Sonjo tribe, which live in the Loliondo plains, use the sap from the tree to make poisoned arrows that kill in seconds.

The white liquid on the bark of the tree is said to be fatal when it comes into contact with blood and paralyses the respiratory system. Birds drop dead on sucking nectar from the flowers. Hunters in South America, Africa and Asia use the lethal weapons. It is the plant used to make arrow poison in traditional societies of Mara, Arusha and Singida.

So how did Masapile come up with the concoctions that have captured the imagination of the world? "In 1991, I had a dream which directed me to start using some herbal concoctions to treat my arthritis and cure other people’s chronic ailments," he says after taking a small break from serving the pale brownish liquid mixture in buckets in rusty cups that are distributed to the patients by his assistants.

"It was a directive from God Himself. In the dream, I saw a woman who looked very ill and a voice told me to treat her using the herbal mixture which by then had proven to be quite an effective remedy in treating my own ailments," he says.

He, however, says it was not until in 2009, yet another apparition of the sick woman in a recurrent dream prompted him to take action, rolling out a large cauldron and proceeding to brew what has now become a huge national phenomenon.

Ambilikile Masapile serves clients the ‘healing’ herbal brew. [PHOTO: COURTESY]

"It is God who has shown me how to do it and if anyone questions, they can see for themselves that it works. All those who have come here have been healed," he says.

But does the ‘magical’ brew work? One of the ‘patients’ John Mbavai says he and his wife were suffering from acute diabetic conditions but after taking the magical drink, their blood sugar normalised.

"This is our third week and our blood sugar is normal and we even went for medical check ups to prove it. We are healed," says Mbavai.

He adds that other ailments such as insomnia, fatigue and periodical fevers that used to torment him have also disappeared.

Joshua Thedeus from Kijenge claims his cousin has been healed of HIV infection after taking the brew.

Rare approval

"My cousin was diagnosed with HIV last year and he was among the first people to take Pastor Masapile’s magical mix last October. He then summoned up courage and went for HIV tests, guess what? He was found negative," he says.

He adds: "He used to look sick worn out and tired but now he has regained his health and he is not alone, I know lots of people who keep testifying that they have been healed by the Loliondo brew. I have not drank it, but there is no doubt that it can cure all deadly human ailments, that is a fact."

Among those who visited Masapile during our tour is former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, his predecessor, Frederick Sumaye and Opposition Party leader Augustine Mrema, who openly smiled at the TV camera as they gulped Masapile’s concoction.

Masapile’s concoction seems to be winning the approval of even the church. The head of the Northern and Central Diocese of the Lutheran Church, Bishop Thomas Laizer maintained that a number of church officials got healed from their ailments but did not mention what type of diseases.

The Arusha Regional Medical Officer Dr Salash Toure said though Masapile has been issuing his magical cure since August 2010, there has been no case of someone with HIV turning up at any of the region’s health centres wanting to test whether they have been cured.

WAITING FOR MASAPILE: Tales of the wonder cure has many people sitting for days for a sip of the herb. [PHOTOS: REUTERS]

"It is difficult to prove now if the brew is potent because no patient who has gone there returns for a test. However, there was one case of a diabetic patient whom we tested after visiting the healer and was cured, but that is just one case," he says.

A mug costs only TSh500, which is cheap by any standard and according to Masapile, it is meant to be affordable for all and to cure everyone irrespective of financial status.

"God wants everybody to get cured regardless of their financial status," he explains.

He says he will donate the proceeds to the church and use others to pay his assistants. And like the Biblical Prophet Elisha, he refuses all types of gifts and advises the modern day ‘Naamans’ to take their presents to needy persons once they get back to their homes.

"I know you have come with various forms of gifts. Thank you, please give them to needy persons when you get back to your homes," he tells the crowd milling around his mud-walled house.

The drink may be cheap but getting to the remote Sonjo plains can cost one an arm and leg. Motorists have also been enjoying the windfall, charging desperate ‘miracle seekers’ an average of about TSh150,000 (Sh9,000) to take them to Loliondo. The ‘healer’ continues to live in his mud hut at the back of which firewood stoves, boil the barks and roots of the ‘Mugariga’ tree from which a pale brownish liquid is derived. It is not the testimonies from the ‘healed’ people that puzzle us but the fact that they consume highly poisonous tree with no intoxicating effect whatsoever.