The beauty of the Zezuru culture

She was a herbalist. She had the ability to dream dreams and interpret them and she interpreted other people's dreams too. (Ayifembera) Chido was born in Mhondoro near Zvimba in the early 1940. She had several siblings because her father was a polygamist, Guru. There were three women, wives to her father, in the compound. It started very early in her life to have elaborate dreams that took and shook the family of its meaning all the time. She would tell her father what she dreamt and what the dreams would mean to the family. Her most vivid dream was, "she was playing with other girls when a strong wind came at it took her and was blown by the wind to a very far off land. She saw or met people, she had never seen before, they started introducing themselves one by one. It was the linage of her ancestors of her father's side.

They told her she has been chosen to attend this special ceremony of the people of her clan. They started clapping hands in the way the Zezuru people clap hands in reverence. (Kuwuchira) I was suddenly elevated to a bigger chair and was told all the totems of my clan. I saw six people all males and was told, it is the succession of the people who protected "gona raMachingura." I had the duty to keep it and maintain them and respect them." Then she woke up sweating and trying to find out where those people she was talking to could be in the yard or in the compound. She would tell her father that there are people in the compound whom she had been talking to. She would dream again, she would be told to come and follow the old Sekuru because he wanted to teach her herbs that were vital to her clan. She followed and she was shown all of them and also their use and healing powers. Sekuru would then tell her to go back home as it was enough teaching for that evening.  She woke up then it was four o'clock in the morning she went outside to find the man who was with her. She shouted and her father came out of his hut and asked what she saw. She told her father that some old man, "VaSekuru," was here. He took her to the forest and showed her the herbs for healing the clan of the VaZezuru. Her father told her to go and sleep. She did, indeed but she could not sleep as she feared to have again dreams telling her of the importance of preserving the clan and its rituals.

As time went on, her father was convinced that his daughter was a special person, indeed she was possessed with some spirit in the family that had healing abilities as well as interpreting the dreams in the way King Chaminuka did, gamba reMazezuru. She was only 10 years when she was sent to a n'anga to see if indeed she was possessed by who exactly in the family tree that had passed on. The father to Chido was told by a n'anga that his daughter is possessed. He needed to get a second opinion and a third one. It was confirmed by three n'angas who told the father the same thing. Yes, she was possessed by a male spirit, Sekuru. The spirit Sekuru was of her father's line of succession. Again the spirit had jumped several generations only to land at this girl Chido. It was an old spirit and it wanted its place in the home. His father was reticent to send a young and growing child for such comprehensive training to become a n'anga. The training itself challenges grown-up people, now a child of 10. He left it open-ended until she was fifteen and at some stage he had to concede indeed, when so many events had happened all suggesting one thing; this girl ane mamhepo. He let his daughter go for the inevitable training that was going to take years until she was qualified to heal in the community.  Very few n'angas had the knowledge to do the training to become a n'anga or herbalist. Chido omitted school and was sent for training at the age of fifteen years. 

She was the youngest in this training village. Already five clients were in the home all in the middle of their training. A hut was made for her by her father and he made all arrangements necessary regarding her period of her stay and how the facilitator would be remunerated. He left his daughter there with a heavy heart, all uncertainties gathering in his mind. His consolation was, if it's not her calling to heal the clan, she would come back and they would not waste time with her, that he was sure about that, after all she is a young woman.  Those were the days when n'angas were truthful and honest with their knowledge and wisdom, they were sovereign in dealing with the people always.  The training started with observing the Chief N'anga or the "teacher" or facilitator, what he did during the session on his healing early in the morning. They would be there when he cast his bones and translated each and every bone, its position and what position is the moon. The moon meant a lot in determining the illness. How much information is a patient giving to assist in the diagnosis of their illness? As time went on, they would be in a position to assist the "teacher" in finding and determining the illnesses and he would evaluate them later. In the evenings, there would be mbira music that would be played for them to dance. This was the most important time as they would be calling the very ancestor to come and possess them. The ancestor comes sometimes in the music dance and he speaks in her or him and tells the Chief N'anga that he is indeed in her and would like the grandchild medium to possess the knowledge of the healing, retain the dignity of the family and uphold all knowledge in her power to look after the vaZezuru people. This emotional occurrence should happen many times so that the teacher would establish the connections and enhance his teachings in the directions required by the very ancestor. It can also be said with equal truth that the evenings were the most enjoyable times in the entire training. He would ask them to come with him to the forest to look for those herbs and he would be telling them what herb is good for what disease. To master this knowledge is to master the very purpose of being a n'anga. No mistake is allowed or even tolerated in determining the knowledge of herbs. The best n'angas are always identified in communicating the art and knowledge of the herbs. After about 30 months, they would know if they were called for this profession or not. Usually, it is apparent the first few months of their stay. But because staying at these n'angas can be so pleasurable, they stay longer to participate in the fields and other home duties. Sometimes it would be their due payment or remuneration. They had to work in the field sometimes too as it meant that they would stay in the village four to five years in a row, 50-60 months.  

She had to undergo an intensive training to be a herbalist and the training took several moons, it could be 60 to 80 moons until one got the wisdom to treat people. During the training she was told she was indeed possessed with a male spirit of several generations in the clan. She was the father, Baba and sometimes she could be called Sekuru. When the spirit was present in her, she spoke with the voice of a man because she had transformed into Baba or Sekuru. She was depended on the position of the moon all the time to be able to cure illnesses in the society defined to her. After completing her profession as a n'anga she returned, but already there was a home for her as she could no longer stay at her father's homestead. She was a father herself. She had many clients who were able to pay her in cash and kind. As a result, in a short space of time, she had accumulated a substantial number of cattle and goats. She had a lot of money too, in the sense of the word she was rich in cattle, goats, fields of land where she ploughed and money that she kept in her hut and never was kept in the bank.

Chaminuka waive Gamba redu
Chaminuka waive mufemberi
Akasia mbiri kurudzi rwemaZezuru
Vose vakatadza kumubaya, nenzira yemakwikwi
Waigara kumakomo
Chaminuka mufemberi
Akavaudza kuti vatore kamwana
Ndiko kakazouya kumubaya
Kuti uyu mufemberi wemaZezuru
Ndiko kuzofa kwake, Chaminuka mufemberi
Chaminuka!

She could only do her work if the moon was present, but the moment the moon "died" she stopped healing. Residents needed to know that she could not perform reasonable service if the moon had "died." For her to know what kind of illness the client had, she had to perform some ceremony with her "bones" and ask the bones what is wrong with the client that was present in front of her. The direction of the cast bones in relation to the present position of the moon that told her exactly which disease the client was suffering from and what medication she needed. The magnitude of the illness measured the price she would then need as remuneration for her services. There were some illnesses that did not need her to consult the bones. For example if a woman was childless, these are the illnesses she could do very at low cost and most of them were very successful, no bones were cast to treat barrenness. Childlessness had the advantage of not paying up front. Only when the child was born did they go to the n'anga to pay their dues and give thanks to the Sekuru for casting the evil of their childlessness out of them. A n'anga is a very honourable profession in the land of the vaZezuru in Zimbabwe and also in all other ethnic groups in the Sub-Sahara. They enjoy a very good social status, hence one would find charlatans posing as n'angas to get the prestige enjoyed by them. It is very challenging nowadays to distinguish the good ones and the bad ones. Chido performed her profession to the best of her ability. She never cheated anyone, she made referrals to other n'angas if she found the case a challenge, or she just told the clients to go to the hospital, giving all the signs of a professional person. She would decline clients who came to her if the moon was dead. But the clients would insist that they should be treated as the illness could not wait until Sekuru's time to heal was ripe. This is the most trying time for n'angas to tell their clients to go to the hospital as they cannot perform any meaningful diagnosis of the disease during the absence of the moon.

Sekuru Chido never worked at the field. The people who came to her for treatment worked in the fields sometimes if their illness meant that they would stay in her home for some time she observed the progress of the treatment. She had many huts where these people lived and this was the case the whole year round. So ,she would ask them to work in the fields as a way to pay for their living in her homestead. Such setup needs some very firm discipline, but since she was the Sekuru, it was easy to maintain the discipline. In the evenings, there would be mbira-music played by the clients and there would be dancing to the music, making the evening a colorful event. Time and again Sekuru Chido would dance too, to the delight of all clients at her homestead. There would be neighbors and people living in the surrounding area who would come to enjoy the evening too.

Women approached her for love potions. It was interesting to find that as her spirit medium was male, she could not assist women to give love potions to their husbands. She was well known for her correctness and it is this aspect of her not assisting women to give their men poisonous substances to tame them down from their sex escapades out there that made her outstanding. Sometimes women just felt their husbands did not love them enough. Sekuru Chido never spoke much, she never told people conversations she had with her clients making her to be very professional in her dealing and was loved by the society she lived in. People feared most her serene and deep silence in crowds and presence of many people.

Sekuru Chido was childless, she was not allowed to marry as the spirit she possessed was male and she could not keep a male in her bedroom as it would neutralize her powers and ability to heal. Nobody really questioned how she dealt with her sexuality. Was she asexual? Did these many people in her homestead delete her natural desire to have some semblance of sexuality in her life? Did she have to prove to the society that since she is gifted with such extra ordinary powers therefore she could brave her face to annul that very basic natural instinct? She never showed any signs of weakness by engaging in any erotic affairs with anybody even the clients who also made advances. Men were redundant in her life and it was obvious. She was in the spotlight and she enjoyed the limelight, powerful without measure and she embraced this openly. Her day would start early in the morning before sunrise. She would start singing her mbira-music that would assist her to evoke the spirit and tell the spirits to give her enlightenment and that she has to heal today. Then the people would start arriving. And like in any clinic, they would sit in a line and she would be calling them one by one and attend to them. She would never ask them why they came but would start asking her spirit for the answers and if she cannot connect she would tell them she did not connect so what do they want. They would tell her what they want and she would connect again to her spirit for some answers until she got the way forward. A session can be about 30 to 60 minutes. In one morning, she can attend about four people to five at the most. She does not make it in the afternoon as she would be exhausted from the morning secessions. She would attend to other issues, either go the forest looking for herbs and seeing the progress in the fields. There are always helpers at Sekuru Chido's home. There are many of them, men and women who do not have any home of their own they would come and stay there or relatives of very underprivileged parents. One can sincerely say that these homeless people were her children she looked after.

Gona iro, gona raMachingura rapedza hama
Gona iro
Hama dzapera kufa
Hinde hinde bvunzai Sekuru kuti
Gona raMachingura rapedza hama sei?
Ndiwe muroi ndiwe
Ndiwe wapedza hama
Ndiwe muroi hapana mumwe ndiwe wapedza hama

If she was not having her healing sessions a normal day would start like this; she wakes up very early as usual. She would ask younger residents to go buy bread, it would be four to five loaves of bread. The other residence would be making fire, to heat water for tea and make porridge (rezviyo) for Sekuru Chido because she did not eat bread herself.  She would go to the kraal to monitor the milking and having the chance to see her cattle, the size, how healthy, do they dip often, go for water every day. When the breakfast is ready, all residents gathered in one place and there would be serious eating for the morning. She gets very happy and satisfied just by seeing people having meals that is likable to eat, and bread and tea was one of the rare delicacy items of the day. The women would start cooking immediately after breakfast, there should be food in this home at any time of the day but those main meals remain sacrosanct, lunch and evening meals to be attended by all. A goat would be slaughtered to increase the relish choices that accompany sadza. (Mealie thick porridge)  There would be thick milk as well making the variety of food choices variable to the delight of all the residents. It is a pleasure to stay at Sekuru Chido's homestead, everyone knows this in the village, visiting her is also a great thing as one would be treated to above standards.

One can say with equal truth that Sekuru Chido does not cry. There is no reason for her to do so. The reverence she gets from the society is so elevated, tears cannot even afford to escape her eyes at any time. It is the society that expects her never to go so low. Crying is for lesser mortals and normal human beings and not her. She was certainly higher than that. She moves within those definitions with which the society has defined for her. She is also masculine when she is addressed casually in many village gatherings and it is for this reason that she cannot casually let out cries that would reduce her levels of respect. Crying is done by women and not men. Because there are so many people who claim to have power or are possessed with special ancestral spirits it is coming very challenging to get a genuine n'anga nowadays. It is for this reason that n'angas such as Chido would never be easy to get. The trade and their space have been crowded by modern hospitals in the country, rendering them as illicit herbalists and irrelevant in this 21 century. But indeed herbalists would always be there as long the traditions are adhered to and exist, this aspect would be sustained somehow.

It is also interesting to know how the generation of n'angas would survive the competition, the world has become a global village. A herbalist like Sekuru Chido would have to compete with pharmaceutical companies, Johnson & Johnson, Astra Zeneca, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sonafi-Aventis, Novartis, Pfizer. All these companies are globally active and are a multi-billion profit making companies.  These global companies offer a quick-fix treatment for a range of diseases that have been clinically proven. The spaces of n'angas are tight as their treatment is mostly homeopathic, it takes time for the patient to heal when in the herb treatment. This competitive life we live today, where time is a factor, the client base does not favour the homeopathic approach but to get better quickly and be on the business of the day as soon as possible. The n'angas in Zimbabwe have not risen to the global challenge to market their knowledge-base to compete with the other players. Sure, the n'anga approach to medicine and pharmacy was suppressed by the colonial era. After independence, they had a golden chance to rise up to the challenge. Chinese herbal treatment has risen globally and their client base is threatening the big international pharmaceutical industries, whereas the n'angas have thought and acted locally. The tendency of new generation to question the chemically-produced medication is steadily on the rise and the young people prefer and are visiting Chinese herba treatment as a potential alternative to medication produced by the pharmaceutical industries. This is the time when n'angas should have taken the opportunity to market their herbs at global level and compete with other names in the global market. N'angas can treat several illnesses and has been proven to be effective. Childlessness, bronchitis, arthritis, sleeplessness, impotence, all these are illnesses that n'angas can treat very well as it is an established fact.

The other challenges that are faced by the likes of Sekuru Chido is that, because n'angas in Zimbabwe are very unique people and respected in the society, their space is crowded by charlatans and crooks. Zimbabwe has so many of them at the moment. They claim to cure diseases that are impossible to cure by herbal practices. They claim to cure cancer, HIV and many other illnesses. If Sekuru Chido still lived, I would imagine her telling a patient showing all signs that he/she is HIV positive to go to the hospital or clinic for comprehensive treatment. She would never waste time to give false hope to a patient by claiming to be able to treat such a disease.  Most of these charlatans would tell HIV patients to look for virgins and sleep with them so that the disease leaves their bodies and it would go to the virgin girls. Instead of curing themselves, they infect the young girls with this HIV and they are not cured still. Such ignorance is prevalent in these charlatans. They would then find another virgin to inflict to rid themselves of the disease. They have no conscience at all to give such an advice as treatment. It is barbaric to think you should rid yourself of a disease you got out of carelessness to a small girl with all her innocence. We have seen in the last ten years, thousands of young girls and small children and baby girls being sexually abused by HIV-positive men in Zimbabwe. It is also these charlatans who would give young girls and women some false hopes in failing marriages by giving them poisonous love potions to administer to their husbands to improve their relationships with them. These are practices that Sekuru Chido never engaged in. She told them outright the dangers of such medications, firstly it is false and secondly it is hazardous to health. Curiously there are charlatans too in the big pharmaceutical industries, the statins, just to name one of many dangerous medications. Statins are developed to treat high blood pressure, the side effects of which result in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus. Hazardous to humans as well, but because the profit is huge, they would do anything in their power to get their medication on the market to boost their industry. The moral argument remains the same it does not matter how you try to argue the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is scientifically benchmarked whereas the herbalists, whose herbs are homeopathic benchmarked, traditional practitioners whose herbs still needed to be medically proven to be useful at global levels. The herbalists in Zimbabwe and elsewhere are found wanting, to be able to compete at global level with other herb practitioners. For the likes of Sekuru Chido to remain relevant in the local market they still need to redefine their role in the society. There is a lot of scope that they can do to engage in a landscape that is challenging but remains interesting globally. There is need to rise up to the new challenges so that they do not remain cogs in the global marketing machine, they should think locally and act globally.