News / National
Traditional healer survives on soft drinks, buns
09 May 2015 at 20:51hrs | Views
The old woman has also not bathed using soap or any other detergent and neither is she a fan of lotion, petroleum jelly or any other moisturiser on her skin since she was young.
Nhakiwa area in Uzumba is fondly known for the popular traditional dance, Jerusarema/Mbende.
The dance routine is also performed by people from Murehwa and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe districts in eastern Zimbabwe.
What makes it interesting to locals and tourists alike are the sensual and acrobatic movements by women in unison with men.
They are driven by a single polyrhythmic drummer accompanied by men playing woodblock clappers and by women hand clapping, yodelling and blowing whistles.
Nhakiwa area is also close to the scenic Murehwa Caves that attract tourists from different parts of the country and abroad.
In this part of the country, roads are dusty.
Cow dung is littered in fields while vegetation is fresh.
One's lungs can enjoy the fresh rural air.
Of the many dust roads, one goes past Nhakiwa Township and snakes towards the east.
It also leads to the home of another wonder of the area - a traditional healer by the name Mbuya Chirenje.
Besides being a prominent traditional healer in the area, Mbuya Chirenje claims that she has survived on drinking and eating only two things - Coke and buns - for the past 80 years.
She claims to not have eaten the staple sadza, rice or any other meal as her spirit does not allow it.
She is also known for something else.
The old woman has also not bathed using soap or any other detergent and neither is she a fan of lotion, petroleum jelly or any other moisturiser on her skin since she was young.
Mbuya Chirenje's skin is dark, looks rough, wrinkled and whitish from layers of dry dead skin cells.
She feels comfortable in her own skin and does not complain at all, as she sits in the hot sun, which further burns her already "baked" skin during our interview.
The list goes on.
Mbuya Chirenje also claims no camera in the world can capture her images and dares us.
Possessed by three spirits - Mupata, Mavhura and Boroma - whom she says protect and guide her, Mbuya Chirenje claims her clients include people with problems ranging from marital, to financial and those troubled by evil spirits.
No one knows her exact age. Her children do not know theirs either.
Neither does she have a birth certificate nor national identification card.
Her only form of identification is a Zinatha registration certificate.
Mbuya Chirenje had nine children, two of whom died a few years ago.
The remaining children only obtained their birth certificates on the same day much later in their lives.
An employer at a farm in Goromonzi had forced her to register them after noticing all were missing in the country's records.
Even if they are not sure of their own ages, Mbuya Chirenje's children guess their mother could be around 90-years-old.
It is not clear how they calculated the age, maybe they could have counted her wrinkles.
Son Fordus Muredzeni is more of a detective -the bad cop - when it comes to screening visitors who want to see his mother.
Muredzeni first enquires about the purpose of our visit, particularly why we wanted to interview his mother.
Then warns us against filming or taking pictures of Mbuya Chirenje saying if one films or takes pictures of her the images will never see the light of day.
"Mbuya speaks one of the Mozambican dialects, so she will not understand you, Sekuru (the spirit that possesses her) will not understand you so direct your questions to me and I will interpret them," explained Muredzeni.
He says his mother is a unique woman, who has been through a lot of challenges from childhood.
"She was born in Mozambique; we don't know the exact year but her parents died when she was very young. She refused to eat sadza, rice, or even bath with soap. No one knew what was happening," he added.
In years that followed, Mbuya Chirenje blossomed into a young woman then came to Zimbabwe as a refugee where she met her husband who worked in Goromonzi commercial farms.
They went to live in Nhakiwa after independence.
Muredzeni said the spirits (Mupata,Mavhura and Boroma) play different roles in Mbuya Chirenje's life, particularly in carrying out her duties as a traditional medical practitioner
"At times when a patient comes, we hear Mbuya talking with another voice saying wait for 'Mavhura' who specialises in healing cancer and other deadly diseases, which means the spirits have different roles in her life as a traditional medical practitioner," he added.
Her daughter-in-law, Revai Muredzeni, said the spirits charge the patients for treatment in meticais, the Mozambican national currency.
Converted to United States dollars, the money is about $20.
Revai claimed that she has never seen Mbuya Chirenje eating sadza or any other food except soft drinks (Coke) and buns.
She said for all the time she has known Mbuya Chirenje, the old woman has never used soap when bathing or oil her skin after bathing.
"I have been here for 15 years and Mbuya has not eaten rice or sadza or any solid foods. She does not use soap when bathing. She just pours water on her body. She doesn't oil her skin either," her daughter-in-law said.
Muredzeni also said, sometimes the spirits come as animals mostly as a python.
"At times a python visits her. It just comes and rests besides Mbuya Chirenje. It does not harm anyone. At one point we tried to kill that python but surprisingly Mbuya Chirenje woke up with scars all over her body the following morning. We concluded that while we thought we were hitting the snake, it was her we were assaulting," said Muredzeni.
More strange things happen.
"Since the spirit that possesses her doesn't visit us (her children), it does so in the form of a buck or a python.
"Sometimes we see a buck while working in the fields, when it comes very close to us it just disappears, then we hear her (Mbuya Chirenje ) saying she has just visited us," narrated Muredzeni.
The most strange yet interesting about Mbuya Chirenje's story is that when she dies, she will not be buried the ordinary way.
"When mother dies, we will demolish the hut at the back. We will place her body in a tree, and wait for the spirits to come and collect her at night. She will then begin her journey to another world," said Muredzeni.
Muredzeni said spirit mediums do not necessarily die but they just transfer from this physical world to another where they will live again.
Muredzeni said in that world Mbuya Chirenje will marry again and have more children.
Mbuya Chirenje's husband died last year and she believes he will also remarry someone else in the other world.
Unlike most traditional healers who keep juju or herbs at their premises, Mbuya Chirenje only looks for herbs to deal with a particular patient at a time.
Muredzeni assists her and the spirits guide him whenever he doesn't know the herbs.
"Mbuya Chirenje's spirits also tolerate other religions such as Christianity as long as they do not offend her.
"We are Christians here. We go to church (Johane Masowe) and Mbuya Chirenje does not mind it. Sometimes we even come and have church meetings and services here," Revai said.
Stranger than fiction is the best explanation of Mbuya Chirenje's life and her claims to an afterlife.
Nhakiwa area in Uzumba is fondly known for the popular traditional dance, Jerusarema/Mbende.
The dance routine is also performed by people from Murehwa and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe districts in eastern Zimbabwe.
What makes it interesting to locals and tourists alike are the sensual and acrobatic movements by women in unison with men.
They are driven by a single polyrhythmic drummer accompanied by men playing woodblock clappers and by women hand clapping, yodelling and blowing whistles.
Nhakiwa area is also close to the scenic Murehwa Caves that attract tourists from different parts of the country and abroad.
In this part of the country, roads are dusty.
Cow dung is littered in fields while vegetation is fresh.
One's lungs can enjoy the fresh rural air.
Of the many dust roads, one goes past Nhakiwa Township and snakes towards the east.
It also leads to the home of another wonder of the area - a traditional healer by the name Mbuya Chirenje.
Besides being a prominent traditional healer in the area, Mbuya Chirenje claims that she has survived on drinking and eating only two things - Coke and buns - for the past 80 years.
She claims to not have eaten the staple sadza, rice or any other meal as her spirit does not allow it.
She is also known for something else.
The old woman has also not bathed using soap or any other detergent and neither is she a fan of lotion, petroleum jelly or any other moisturiser on her skin since she was young.
Mbuya Chirenje's skin is dark, looks rough, wrinkled and whitish from layers of dry dead skin cells.
She feels comfortable in her own skin and does not complain at all, as she sits in the hot sun, which further burns her already "baked" skin during our interview.
The list goes on.
Mbuya Chirenje also claims no camera in the world can capture her images and dares us.
Possessed by three spirits - Mupata, Mavhura and Boroma - whom she says protect and guide her, Mbuya Chirenje claims her clients include people with problems ranging from marital, to financial and those troubled by evil spirits.
No one knows her exact age. Her children do not know theirs either.
Neither does she have a birth certificate nor national identification card.
Her only form of identification is a Zinatha registration certificate.
Mbuya Chirenje had nine children, two of whom died a few years ago.
The remaining children only obtained their birth certificates on the same day much later in their lives.
An employer at a farm in Goromonzi had forced her to register them after noticing all were missing in the country's records.
Even if they are not sure of their own ages, Mbuya Chirenje's children guess their mother could be around 90-years-old.
It is not clear how they calculated the age, maybe they could have counted her wrinkles.
Son Fordus Muredzeni is more of a detective -the bad cop - when it comes to screening visitors who want to see his mother.
Then warns us against filming or taking pictures of Mbuya Chirenje saying if one films or takes pictures of her the images will never see the light of day.
"Mbuya speaks one of the Mozambican dialects, so she will not understand you, Sekuru (the spirit that possesses her) will not understand you so direct your questions to me and I will interpret them," explained Muredzeni.
He says his mother is a unique woman, who has been through a lot of challenges from childhood.
"She was born in Mozambique; we don't know the exact year but her parents died when she was very young. She refused to eat sadza, rice, or even bath with soap. No one knew what was happening," he added.
In years that followed, Mbuya Chirenje blossomed into a young woman then came to Zimbabwe as a refugee where she met her husband who worked in Goromonzi commercial farms.
They went to live in Nhakiwa after independence.
Muredzeni said the spirits (Mupata,Mavhura and Boroma) play different roles in Mbuya Chirenje's life, particularly in carrying out her duties as a traditional medical practitioner
"At times when a patient comes, we hear Mbuya talking with another voice saying wait for 'Mavhura' who specialises in healing cancer and other deadly diseases, which means the spirits have different roles in her life as a traditional medical practitioner," he added.
Her daughter-in-law, Revai Muredzeni, said the spirits charge the patients for treatment in meticais, the Mozambican national currency.
Converted to United States dollars, the money is about $20.
Revai claimed that she has never seen Mbuya Chirenje eating sadza or any other food except soft drinks (Coke) and buns.
She said for all the time she has known Mbuya Chirenje, the old woman has never used soap when bathing or oil her skin after bathing.
"I have been here for 15 years and Mbuya has not eaten rice or sadza or any solid foods. She does not use soap when bathing. She just pours water on her body. She doesn't oil her skin either," her daughter-in-law said.
Muredzeni also said, sometimes the spirits come as animals mostly as a python.
"At times a python visits her. It just comes and rests besides Mbuya Chirenje. It does not harm anyone. At one point we tried to kill that python but surprisingly Mbuya Chirenje woke up with scars all over her body the following morning. We concluded that while we thought we were hitting the snake, it was her we were assaulting," said Muredzeni.
More strange things happen.
"Since the spirit that possesses her doesn't visit us (her children), it does so in the form of a buck or a python.
"Sometimes we see a buck while working in the fields, when it comes very close to us it just disappears, then we hear her (Mbuya Chirenje ) saying she has just visited us," narrated Muredzeni.
The most strange yet interesting about Mbuya Chirenje's story is that when she dies, she will not be buried the ordinary way.
"When mother dies, we will demolish the hut at the back. We will place her body in a tree, and wait for the spirits to come and collect her at night. She will then begin her journey to another world," said Muredzeni.
Muredzeni said spirit mediums do not necessarily die but they just transfer from this physical world to another where they will live again.
Muredzeni said in that world Mbuya Chirenje will marry again and have more children.
Mbuya Chirenje's husband died last year and she believes he will also remarry someone else in the other world.
Unlike most traditional healers who keep juju or herbs at their premises, Mbuya Chirenje only looks for herbs to deal with a particular patient at a time.
Muredzeni assists her and the spirits guide him whenever he doesn't know the herbs.
"Mbuya Chirenje's spirits also tolerate other religions such as Christianity as long as they do not offend her.
"We are Christians here. We go to church (Johane Masowe) and Mbuya Chirenje does not mind it. Sometimes we even come and have church meetings and services here," Revai said.
Stranger than fiction is the best explanation of Mbuya Chirenje's life and her claims to an afterlife.
Source - herald
