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By <span style="color: #3333FF">Richard Mgamba </span>
27th March 2011
<span style="font-style: italic">Is it a sign of a desperate nation or divine healing of our time?</span>
<span style="font-size: 8pt">Pastor Ambilikile Mwasapile, 76-year-old also referred as Babu, posing with
some his patients, early this week, in his home village of Samunge.</span>
Literally overnight, he was transformed from a humble, poor man living in the dusty village of Samunge in the wilderness of Loliondo in Arusha Region, to a magnet that has pulled millions of people after he started administering a ‘Godly revealed’ magic herbal juice that he claims cures all ailments, including Aids, which has claimed nearly 40 million in Africa alone.
The 76-year-old clergyman-turned miracle healer, Ambilikie Masapila, is today hosting an endless stream of patients (plus curious visitors) who include the political, business people and technocratic cream of Tanzanian society, as well as ordinary men and women, because of his highly publicised magical herb.
A man who had up to the end of last year been unknown beyond family circles, fellow villagers and the Lutheran community for which he had been a spiritual shepherd, is now the talking point and hot media subject within and beyond Tanzania.
His previously sleepy, insignificant, not-easily-accessible home village has similarly shot into phenomenal prominence unmatched by any other location in the country, to which, singly family units and social groups, people of all walks of life – board chairmen, MPs, captains of commerce and industry, servants of God, and the so-called single-meal-per-day wananchi – are trooping by cars, buses, lorries, and motorbikes.
The political angle to the Loliondo drama is suprisingly, as some MPs are sponsoring round trips to Loliondo for their voters, while for years, none of them has volunteered to foot medical bills for thousands of who can’t treat malaria because of poverty.
But cash is flowing easily to hire transport and renovate airstrips in respect of the Loliondo magic cure.
Whether measured by the total numbers of people who have visited the traditional healer or the prominence and affluence of some of the clients who have drunk from the tiny cup, the message is very clear and simple; Tanzanians are easily swayed by events, especially the ones that seem to be giving them a short-cut to their long-term dreams.
Some say the Loliondo rush is an indication of a failed health system, which over the fifty year independence period hasn’t responded to the health demands of millions of people in the country. With an under-funded budget, Tanzania’s healthcare system has in some cases become a ‘ death trap’ , condemning some people to death, not because they are severely sick, but as a consequence of poor medical services.
Tanzania has clocked fifty years of independence – a good half-century – and yet top leaders have put up a health system to which they don’t refer their health problems, but undergo medical checkups or treatment abroad.
In what is a glaring manifestation of selfishness, the same top brass has been encouraging ordinary people to visit the under-funded health centres once they feel sick.
But today, the ruling elite and their voters are at par in rushing to Loliondo in search of healing; the poor and the rich are in the same lane to Samunge village thanks to the ‘equal opportunity’ medical system set up by the Lutheran Pastor.
This rush confirms the sense of desperation that has rocked our nation for years, but also opens a new chapter for critics to question which type of a nation we are.
It’s not just in healthcare where Tanzanians are desperate, but even in economic and social affairs. Just place an advert on the newspapers or any other media stating that if you invest Sh100,000($70), you get thirty times your money and the next morning you will be swimming in billions of shillings from potential investors.
About two years ago, thousands of Tanzanians lost about Sh40 billion in a Ponzi Pyramid Scheme known popularly as ‘Deci’, after the government halted the multibillion project that was being managed by presumed men of God in presumably God’s name.
Deci, run by the Jesus Christ Deliverance Church, is understood to be promising investors 300 per cent interest within a period of between three and 12 months. Thousands of defiant Tanzanian investors have reportedly deposited billions of shillings into the company as bankers express concern it could collapse with investors' deposits.
Deci's 37 branches countrywide have become a popular spot for low-income earners and local business owners. At its Mabibo headquarters in Dar es Salaam, the company is said to be receiving deposits from an estimated 3,000 people per day.
Deci officials claimed in 2009 that they had paid back Sh35 billion in profits and registered more than 500,000 members since last year when their activities picked up.
Before ‘Deci’, there was another Pyramid Scheme Self Progressive Association or Upatu in Kiswahili, which rocked Dar es Salaam and upcountry between 1997 and 1999. Its leader was Stephen Kakete, a man who promised to multiply your money ten times within three months, and pay you back the profit as well as your capital.
The Upatu scheme collapsed suddenly with millions of shillings, which Tanzania’s fortune seekers had initially invested.
Though both Deci and Upatu were viewed as just ordinary organized criminal outfits, the truth about these games wasn’t told. But the bitter truth is that all these initiatives sum up a desperate nation riddled by poverty amid rich natural resources the country owns.
While Tanzania was battling these pyramid schemes, in neighbouring Uganda, the country faced a massacre of nearly 500 people who perished in their church as they waited for the world to end in December 2000.
Known as the Kanungu cult operating under the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, which was a breakaway cult from the Roman Catholic Church founded by Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere and Bee Tait in Uganda, it managed to fool the desperate minds of hundreds of Ugandans before it became their grave.
It was formed in the late 1980s after Mwerinde, a brewer of banana beer, and Kibweteere, a politician, claimed that they had visions of the Virgin Mary. The five primary leaders were Joseph Kibwetere, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara, Dominic Kataribabo, and Credonia Mwerinde.
In early 2000, followers of the sect perished in a devastating fire and a series of poisonings and killings that were either a cult suicide or an orchestrated mass murder by sect leaders after their predictions of the apocalypse failed to pass.
Back home in Tanzania, there have mushroomed preachers claiming to perform miracles like healing the sick, raising the dead, giving people financial prosperity and many more.
Some of these preachers have been selling the so-called anointed oil at exorbitant prices, while others charge a lot of money to pray for the sick and fortune seekers.
In a country where our common enemies, which are ignorance, diseases, poverty and hunger still reign supreme, it has been easy for thousands of multitudes to be lured by these self glorified preachers.
Taking advantage of a desperate society where for five decades, the economy has failed to enable millions to share the national cake, these preachers mainly from the revival churches have introduced what they call ‘the gospel of material prosperity.”
With well coordinated miracles, thousands of desperate people have been flocking in these churches in search for material prosperity through the miraculous way. Borrowing a leaf from Nigeria, a nation rich in oil resources but with many still languishing in poverty, some local preachers have been taking their believers for a ride, thanks to their gospel that focuses more on material prosperity than spiritual prosperity.
But the truth is that both are desperate people; the preachers and their disciples; Pyramid scheme operators and their customers; Loliondo magic healer and his clients.
While some gospel preachers have strongly challenged the Loliondo magic man, saying divine healing should be issued freely, the very same people have been charging their believers exorbitant amounts to buy the allegedly anointed oil.
This anointed oil is imported from Nigeria, but none of the preachers is ready to reveal why the allegedly divine oil should be sold so expensively.
While the preachers want fancy and lavish living through the umbrella of preaching the gospel, the believers also in return need better health, quick fortunes and peace of mind through the self proclaimed men of God.
At the same time Pyramid Scheme operators are desperately looking for fancy cars, posh homes and a thick wallet through unfounded investment scheme that gives 300 percent return in the blink of an eye.
In a nation where people need short-cuts or quick success without toiling for years, traditional healers, fake preachers and masters of pyramid schemes conquer above everything.
Is he traditional or divine healer?
Defending his medicine this week, the Loliondo magic man distanced himself from the traditional healers, saying his was a divine healing revealed to him by God.
“God revealed this to me, and it wouldn’t work if it is served by any other person, or in any other place,” he said.
According to the magic man, that’s why he normally starts his medical services in the morning by a prayer because apart from being herbal medicine, it’s origin is purely divine, which also needs those taking it to have faith in almighty God.
Biblically divine healing is well documented; Jesus healed the sick instantly.
While biblically, divine healing is a super natural thing, done by the power of God, in today’s world, where everybody claims to be a man of miracles from heaven, it becomes very challenging to believe it.
For human beings, the biggest challenge is lack of ability to recognize whether all these miracles are divine or just manmade powered by the evil spirits.
Faith healing is the belief that religious faith can bring about healing either through prayers or rituals that, according to adherents, evoke a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or healing is related to religious belief. In common usage, "faith healing" refers to notably overt and ritualistic practices of communal prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are claimed to solicit divine intervention in initiating spiritual and literal healing.
Claims that prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing." It can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.
The term is best known in connection with Christianity. Some people interpret the Bible, especially the New Testament, as teaching belief in, and practice of, faith healing.
There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, Aids, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, and various injuries.
Of course God has many ways of showing miracles to his people; in some cases documented in the Holy Bible, he gave his servants magical touch enabling them to lay their hands on the sick to offer a divine healing.
To some people God just sent a word and they were healed, according to evidence documented in the Holy Bible.
But, it seemed as time changed, God has also changed his way of giving his servants the divine healing power and that’s why he might have given the Loliondo healer a ‘magic tree’ instead of the touching power.
Exodus 15:26 [God] said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”
Sometime according to Bible scholars, sickness is like a punishment from God to those who fail to listen carefully and do what is right in his eyes. This is why today, there are those who preach that Aids pandemic is a direct punishment of God after man failed to honour the sixth commandment: You shall not commit adultery.”
Traditionally, African societies have nurtured traditional healings, before they were interrupted by the coming of white Missionaries, who claimed to preach the goods news from god but also at the same acted as the agents of Colonialism.
Seen from a cross-cultural perspective, diverse traditions of healing, which respond to different conceptions of illness itself, fall under the heading of what may be called faith healing.
According to a research by Mariana G. Hewson, PhD, in many traditional cultures, illness is thought to be caused by psychological conflicts or disturbed social relationships that create a disequilibrium expressed in the form of physical or mental problems.
Disequilibrium may be caused by psychological or spiritual factors, or both, that relate to African cosmology and “threaten the intactness of the person.” In traditional cultures, then, healing emphasises righting this disequilibrium.
In contrast, medical science (and, hence, western medicine) rests on the axiom of Cartesian dualism, or the separation of mind and body, which holds that healing is correcting disease by using appropriate medical and surgical procedures; the primary concern is healing the body and eliminating physical suffering.
In her research titled, “traditional healers in Southern Africa”, Hewson says that traditional healers hold an esteemed and powerful position in southern African societies.
“Their role is that of physician, counselor, psychiatrist, and priest, and people visit a traditional healer for problems ranging from social dilemmas to major medical illnesses. Most of the work of traditional healers concerns protecting clients from possible afflictions.” She says in her research.
Because most afflictions are believed to come from destabilizing forces, protection against them involves warding off the negative forces of witchcraft and maintaining equilibrium with other people, the spirits, and the ancestors (recently departed family members).
Thus, protection includes propitiation for real or possible offenses that are wittingly or unwittingly incurred against others. Protection may be accomplished by performing ceremonial acts; using medicines against disequilibrium; or wearing totemic objects, such as wrist bands for infants.
Traditional healers consult the spiritual realm by invoking and conferring with the ancestors. This consultation involves the use of naturally occurring psychotropic substances that are ingested, sniffed, or smoked in a ceremonial pipe. In addition, healers use their dreams, through which the ancestors give them diagnostic insights.
In most African societies, traditional healers determine the nature of problems by examining the symptoms directly and by using questions to reveal the illness in the context of the patient's life, social relationships, and physical environment. They find out as much as they can about the patient's signs and symptoms and any psychosocial phenomena, attempting to determine why the illness happened when it did.
In Loliondo’s case, the public is divided. While others see the retired Pastor as a divine healer, some believe the magic man is just another traditional healer but with a different style of doing his work publicly.
The Loliondo’s magic man has repeatedly said that his healing service was a direct gift from God, revealed to him a in dream three times, and therefore it’s divine healing done not through prayers or laying hands on the sick.
From his words, during those three different dreams, God revealed to him the tree which would be used to heal various diseases. He goes father by saying that even the amount, which should be charged as well as how to share the revenues was communicated to him by God. The question here is how do you believe that the man who appeared in his dream was God? What if he was one of his ancestors who came to show him how to heal people after praying for years as Pastor but without any healing miracle? Who really knows the face and image of God?
It’s true that in the Holy Bible God appeared to his various servants in different forms depending on the type of the message he wanted to deliver. There are many examples in which God appeared to his devoted and beloved servants, according to various evidence documented in the Holy Book.
However, in today’s world where everyone claims to speak in tongues and finally interpret the message by saying ‘God has told me so and so’, it is very challenging to prove, beyond reasonable doubt that whoever appeared in your dream was really God or not.
But again is it a crime to be a traditional healer? As far as the laws of this country are concerned, it’s not a crime to be a traditional healer. In the Loliondo case, the magic man uses herbal medicine popularly known as ‘Mitishamba’ in Kiswahili, to cure his patients.
There’s no diagnosis or any forms of questions; you just queue and wait for your turn to drink the herbal prepared in liquid form served in small cup. After drinking, you pay Sh500 ($0.33) as the medical fees. The man doesn’t charge more than that though some of his critics say it might be a business strategy of charging low fees but make a killing through a high turnout of patients.
But still, he strongly denies that he is a traditional healer because his magic tree is a direct revelation from God aimed at healing suffering people.
He insists that you need faith to be healed and that’s what the Bible says about divine healing. He starts his service by prayer every morning, requesting God to heal those who sick through the tiny cup filled with ‘Mgagura’, scientifically known as antiaris toxicana.
What puzzles many of Loliondo’s magic man critics is that the tree is among the most poisonous plants in the world, but in Samunge, it has become the life saviour to millions. So far none of the patients have died of being poisoned by the tree, since the magic man started his service last year.
But above all, is this humble man a divine healer, traditional healer or just another scandal in the making?
27th March 2011
<span style="font-style: italic">Is it a sign of a desperate nation or divine healing of our time?</span>
<span style="font-size: 8pt">Pastor Ambilikile Mwasapile, 76-year-old also referred as Babu, posing with
some his patients, early this week, in his home village of Samunge.</span>
Literally overnight, he was transformed from a humble, poor man living in the dusty village of Samunge in the wilderness of Loliondo in Arusha Region, to a magnet that has pulled millions of people after he started administering a ‘Godly revealed’ magic herbal juice that he claims cures all ailments, including Aids, which has claimed nearly 40 million in Africa alone.
The 76-year-old clergyman-turned miracle healer, Ambilikie Masapila, is today hosting an endless stream of patients (plus curious visitors) who include the political, business people and technocratic cream of Tanzanian society, as well as ordinary men and women, because of his highly publicised magical herb.
A man who had up to the end of last year been unknown beyond family circles, fellow villagers and the Lutheran community for which he had been a spiritual shepherd, is now the talking point and hot media subject within and beyond Tanzania.
His previously sleepy, insignificant, not-easily-accessible home village has similarly shot into phenomenal prominence unmatched by any other location in the country, to which, singly family units and social groups, people of all walks of life – board chairmen, MPs, captains of commerce and industry, servants of God, and the so-called single-meal-per-day wananchi – are trooping by cars, buses, lorries, and motorbikes.
The political angle to the Loliondo drama is suprisingly, as some MPs are sponsoring round trips to Loliondo for their voters, while for years, none of them has volunteered to foot medical bills for thousands of who can’t treat malaria because of poverty.
But cash is flowing easily to hire transport and renovate airstrips in respect of the Loliondo magic cure.
Whether measured by the total numbers of people who have visited the traditional healer or the prominence and affluence of some of the clients who have drunk from the tiny cup, the message is very clear and simple; Tanzanians are easily swayed by events, especially the ones that seem to be giving them a short-cut to their long-term dreams.
Some say the Loliondo rush is an indication of a failed health system, which over the fifty year independence period hasn’t responded to the health demands of millions of people in the country. With an under-funded budget, Tanzania’s healthcare system has in some cases become a ‘ death trap’ , condemning some people to death, not because they are severely sick, but as a consequence of poor medical services.
Tanzania has clocked fifty years of independence – a good half-century – and yet top leaders have put up a health system to which they don’t refer their health problems, but undergo medical checkups or treatment abroad.
In what is a glaring manifestation of selfishness, the same top brass has been encouraging ordinary people to visit the under-funded health centres once they feel sick.
But today, the ruling elite and their voters are at par in rushing to Loliondo in search of healing; the poor and the rich are in the same lane to Samunge village thanks to the ‘equal opportunity’ medical system set up by the Lutheran Pastor.
This rush confirms the sense of desperation that has rocked our nation for years, but also opens a new chapter for critics to question which type of a nation we are.
It’s not just in healthcare where Tanzanians are desperate, but even in economic and social affairs. Just place an advert on the newspapers or any other media stating that if you invest Sh100,000($70), you get thirty times your money and the next morning you will be swimming in billions of shillings from potential investors.
About two years ago, thousands of Tanzanians lost about Sh40 billion in a Ponzi Pyramid Scheme known popularly as ‘Deci’, after the government halted the multibillion project that was being managed by presumed men of God in presumably God’s name.
Deci, run by the Jesus Christ Deliverance Church, is understood to be promising investors 300 per cent interest within a period of between three and 12 months. Thousands of defiant Tanzanian investors have reportedly deposited billions of shillings into the company as bankers express concern it could collapse with investors' deposits.
Deci's 37 branches countrywide have become a popular spot for low-income earners and local business owners. At its Mabibo headquarters in Dar es Salaam, the company is said to be receiving deposits from an estimated 3,000 people per day.
Deci officials claimed in 2009 that they had paid back Sh35 billion in profits and registered more than 500,000 members since last year when their activities picked up.
Before ‘Deci’, there was another Pyramid Scheme Self Progressive Association or Upatu in Kiswahili, which rocked Dar es Salaam and upcountry between 1997 and 1999. Its leader was Stephen Kakete, a man who promised to multiply your money ten times within three months, and pay you back the profit as well as your capital.
The Upatu scheme collapsed suddenly with millions of shillings, which Tanzania’s fortune seekers had initially invested.
Though both Deci and Upatu were viewed as just ordinary organized criminal outfits, the truth about these games wasn’t told. But the bitter truth is that all these initiatives sum up a desperate nation riddled by poverty amid rich natural resources the country owns.
While Tanzania was battling these pyramid schemes, in neighbouring Uganda, the country faced a massacre of nearly 500 people who perished in their church as they waited for the world to end in December 2000.
Known as the Kanungu cult operating under the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, which was a breakaway cult from the Roman Catholic Church founded by Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere and Bee Tait in Uganda, it managed to fool the desperate minds of hundreds of Ugandans before it became their grave.
It was formed in the late 1980s after Mwerinde, a brewer of banana beer, and Kibweteere, a politician, claimed that they had visions of the Virgin Mary. The five primary leaders were Joseph Kibwetere, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara, Dominic Kataribabo, and Credonia Mwerinde.
In early 2000, followers of the sect perished in a devastating fire and a series of poisonings and killings that were either a cult suicide or an orchestrated mass murder by sect leaders after their predictions of the apocalypse failed to pass.
Back home in Tanzania, there have mushroomed preachers claiming to perform miracles like healing the sick, raising the dead, giving people financial prosperity and many more.
Some of these preachers have been selling the so-called anointed oil at exorbitant prices, while others charge a lot of money to pray for the sick and fortune seekers.
In a country where our common enemies, which are ignorance, diseases, poverty and hunger still reign supreme, it has been easy for thousands of multitudes to be lured by these self glorified preachers.
Taking advantage of a desperate society where for five decades, the economy has failed to enable millions to share the national cake, these preachers mainly from the revival churches have introduced what they call ‘the gospel of material prosperity.”
With well coordinated miracles, thousands of desperate people have been flocking in these churches in search for material prosperity through the miraculous way. Borrowing a leaf from Nigeria, a nation rich in oil resources but with many still languishing in poverty, some local preachers have been taking their believers for a ride, thanks to their gospel that focuses more on material prosperity than spiritual prosperity.
But the truth is that both are desperate people; the preachers and their disciples; Pyramid scheme operators and their customers; Loliondo magic healer and his clients.
While some gospel preachers have strongly challenged the Loliondo magic man, saying divine healing should be issued freely, the very same people have been charging their believers exorbitant amounts to buy the allegedly anointed oil.
This anointed oil is imported from Nigeria, but none of the preachers is ready to reveal why the allegedly divine oil should be sold so expensively.
While the preachers want fancy and lavish living through the umbrella of preaching the gospel, the believers also in return need better health, quick fortunes and peace of mind through the self proclaimed men of God.
At the same time Pyramid Scheme operators are desperately looking for fancy cars, posh homes and a thick wallet through unfounded investment scheme that gives 300 percent return in the blink of an eye.
In a nation where people need short-cuts or quick success without toiling for years, traditional healers, fake preachers and masters of pyramid schemes conquer above everything.
Is he traditional or divine healer?
Defending his medicine this week, the Loliondo magic man distanced himself from the traditional healers, saying his was a divine healing revealed to him by God.
“God revealed this to me, and it wouldn’t work if it is served by any other person, or in any other place,” he said.
According to the magic man, that’s why he normally starts his medical services in the morning by a prayer because apart from being herbal medicine, it’s origin is purely divine, which also needs those taking it to have faith in almighty God.
Biblically divine healing is well documented; Jesus healed the sick instantly.
While biblically, divine healing is a super natural thing, done by the power of God, in today’s world, where everybody claims to be a man of miracles from heaven, it becomes very challenging to believe it.
For human beings, the biggest challenge is lack of ability to recognize whether all these miracles are divine or just manmade powered by the evil spirits.
Faith healing is the belief that religious faith can bring about healing either through prayers or rituals that, according to adherents, evoke a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or healing is related to religious belief. In common usage, "faith healing" refers to notably overt and ritualistic practices of communal prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are claimed to solicit divine intervention in initiating spiritual and literal healing.
Claims that prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing." It can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.
The term is best known in connection with Christianity. Some people interpret the Bible, especially the New Testament, as teaching belief in, and practice of, faith healing.
There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, Aids, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, and various injuries.
Of course God has many ways of showing miracles to his people; in some cases documented in the Holy Bible, he gave his servants magical touch enabling them to lay their hands on the sick to offer a divine healing.
To some people God just sent a word and they were healed, according to evidence documented in the Holy Bible.
But, it seemed as time changed, God has also changed his way of giving his servants the divine healing power and that’s why he might have given the Loliondo healer a ‘magic tree’ instead of the touching power.
Exodus 15:26 [God] said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”
Sometime according to Bible scholars, sickness is like a punishment from God to those who fail to listen carefully and do what is right in his eyes. This is why today, there are those who preach that Aids pandemic is a direct punishment of God after man failed to honour the sixth commandment: You shall not commit adultery.”
Traditionally, African societies have nurtured traditional healings, before they were interrupted by the coming of white Missionaries, who claimed to preach the goods news from god but also at the same acted as the agents of Colonialism.
Seen from a cross-cultural perspective, diverse traditions of healing, which respond to different conceptions of illness itself, fall under the heading of what may be called faith healing.
According to a research by Mariana G. Hewson, PhD, in many traditional cultures, illness is thought to be caused by psychological conflicts or disturbed social relationships that create a disequilibrium expressed in the form of physical or mental problems.
Disequilibrium may be caused by psychological or spiritual factors, or both, that relate to African cosmology and “threaten the intactness of the person.” In traditional cultures, then, healing emphasises righting this disequilibrium.
In contrast, medical science (and, hence, western medicine) rests on the axiom of Cartesian dualism, or the separation of mind and body, which holds that healing is correcting disease by using appropriate medical and surgical procedures; the primary concern is healing the body and eliminating physical suffering.
In her research titled, “traditional healers in Southern Africa”, Hewson says that traditional healers hold an esteemed and powerful position in southern African societies.
“Their role is that of physician, counselor, psychiatrist, and priest, and people visit a traditional healer for problems ranging from social dilemmas to major medical illnesses. Most of the work of traditional healers concerns protecting clients from possible afflictions.” She says in her research.
Because most afflictions are believed to come from destabilizing forces, protection against them involves warding off the negative forces of witchcraft and maintaining equilibrium with other people, the spirits, and the ancestors (recently departed family members).
Thus, protection includes propitiation for real or possible offenses that are wittingly or unwittingly incurred against others. Protection may be accomplished by performing ceremonial acts; using medicines against disequilibrium; or wearing totemic objects, such as wrist bands for infants.
Traditional healers consult the spiritual realm by invoking and conferring with the ancestors. This consultation involves the use of naturally occurring psychotropic substances that are ingested, sniffed, or smoked in a ceremonial pipe. In addition, healers use their dreams, through which the ancestors give them diagnostic insights.
In most African societies, traditional healers determine the nature of problems by examining the symptoms directly and by using questions to reveal the illness in the context of the patient's life, social relationships, and physical environment. They find out as much as they can about the patient's signs and symptoms and any psychosocial phenomena, attempting to determine why the illness happened when it did.
In Loliondo’s case, the public is divided. While others see the retired Pastor as a divine healer, some believe the magic man is just another traditional healer but with a different style of doing his work publicly.
The Loliondo’s magic man has repeatedly said that his healing service was a direct gift from God, revealed to him a in dream three times, and therefore it’s divine healing done not through prayers or laying hands on the sick.
From his words, during those three different dreams, God revealed to him the tree which would be used to heal various diseases. He goes father by saying that even the amount, which should be charged as well as how to share the revenues was communicated to him by God. The question here is how do you believe that the man who appeared in his dream was God? What if he was one of his ancestors who came to show him how to heal people after praying for years as Pastor but without any healing miracle? Who really knows the face and image of God?
It’s true that in the Holy Bible God appeared to his various servants in different forms depending on the type of the message he wanted to deliver. There are many examples in which God appeared to his devoted and beloved servants, according to various evidence documented in the Holy Book.
However, in today’s world where everyone claims to speak in tongues and finally interpret the message by saying ‘God has told me so and so’, it is very challenging to prove, beyond reasonable doubt that whoever appeared in your dream was really God or not.
But again is it a crime to be a traditional healer? As far as the laws of this country are concerned, it’s not a crime to be a traditional healer. In the Loliondo case, the magic man uses herbal medicine popularly known as ‘Mitishamba’ in Kiswahili, to cure his patients.
There’s no diagnosis or any forms of questions; you just queue and wait for your turn to drink the herbal prepared in liquid form served in small cup. After drinking, you pay Sh500 ($0.33) as the medical fees. The man doesn’t charge more than that though some of his critics say it might be a business strategy of charging low fees but make a killing through a high turnout of patients.
But still, he strongly denies that he is a traditional healer because his magic tree is a direct revelation from God aimed at healing suffering people.
He insists that you need faith to be healed and that’s what the Bible says about divine healing. He starts his service by prayer every morning, requesting God to heal those who sick through the tiny cup filled with ‘Mgagura’, scientifically known as antiaris toxicana.
What puzzles many of Loliondo’s magic man critics is that the tree is among the most poisonous plants in the world, but in Samunge, it has become the life saviour to millions. So far none of the patients have died of being poisoned by the tree, since the magic man started his service last year.
But above all, is this humble man a divine healer, traditional healer or just another scandal in the making?