Witchdoctors scramble to make killing from Mandela illness

A Sangoma consults with ancestors on the future of the country without the country’s former leader, Nelson Mandela. [Photo: Patrick Mathangani/Standard]

By Patrick Mathangani

Johannesburg, South Africa: Everyone wants a slice of Nelson Mandela. Even witchdoctors.

Since the 94-year-old icon fell ill three weeks ago, a sort of craze has swept across South Africa.  Witchdoctors and soothsayers, famously known as Sangomas, have joined a frenzied clamour to cash in on one of the world’s most recognised names.

Private companies, tour guides, traders and roadside merchants are making good money from the sudden interest in the nation’s history that his illness has aroused.

A family feud over Mandela’s burial place also intensified as a local paper reported what appears like an attempt by one of his grandsons to seize his home in Houghton, Johannesburg.

The family tussle is believed to be driven by the sheer value of Mandela’s name, which has a potential of attracting huge investments.

Dearly cherished

Despite this, South Africans dearly cherish Mandela, who they view as a messiah who delivered them from the shackles of white racist rule.  Monday marked the 25th day since he was hospitalised with a lung infection and people continued to hold vigils at the Mediclinic Heart Hospital, Pretoria, where he is receiving specialised treatment.

In Soweto, where anti-apartheid crusaders from retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Winnie Madikizela own homes, the Sangomas are offering an unlikely service – predicting the nation’s future without Mandela.

But they also go further, claiming they are communicating with ancestors to find out about his health and what they would want done about the family wrangles. For that, they charge a fee to journalists and tourists.

To critics, such blatant hunger for cash may seem immoral because it exploits a matter that has caused concern internationally. But again, the soothsayers seem to have no written code of ethics.

South Africa’s witchdoctors are well-known around the world for their rather unorthodox ways of defying science. They have been popularised by songs such as Yvonne Chaka Chaka’s Sangoma.

One mother Sangoma even has a school where she teaches recruits how to commune with spirits and other beings in the underworld.  This could reflect a high level of acceptance of her activities by people in a country whose laws recognises the role of traditional healers in health.

The recruits fall to their knees whenever the mother Sangoma passes by. She charges 1,500 Rand (about Sh15,000) for consultations with ancestors in front of television crew, other journalists and tourists. “We would like to know…” one journalist asked when we went to witness the consultations, but was cut short.

“You don’t tell us what you want; we’ll ask the ancestors why you are here.” Then followed a fervent beating of drums, shaking of the body and chants in Zulu. The Sangomas kept touching and dropping bones, dice and small rocks arranged on animal skin. “You are here because of your concern about Madiba’s health,” one said. She would not continue until we confirmed she was right.

“Yes.” “The only thing that is keeping him alive is the ancestors. There are people of the family wishing him to go because they’ll make money.”