Witchdoctors ... and my blessed life

I was born on 29 July 19.. in Bulawayo.
Like most babies in our community, I was born at home and delivered by a lady named Mrs. Gilgower, who was a skilled and very much practiced midwife. Nearly all our generation, born in Bulawayo,owe our safe arrival to this lady. The birth was unremarkable except that I presented with an unusually loud voice. This was categorized as "good" by Mrs. Gilgower.

Soon thereafter I was conveyed to Kezi for the important business of a"lungisa" ritual. In terms of Ndebele custom it is considered wise, if not necessary, that a new born is taken to a sangoma and subjected to a lungisa ceremony in terms of which the ancestral spirits are invoked to provide support, guidance and protection for the child.
The sangoma who performed the ritual on me was known as Fuyane. Apart from being a sub chief he was both a herbalist and a spiritualist. He was extremely well respected and people of all races traveled from far and wide to consult him.

There was an unusual aspect to my consultation. After the ceremony he presented my mother with 6 goats as a present for me. In later life, 10 - 20 years later, when I visited my relatives in their village, one of the first mini rituals that would occur was that goats would be pointed out as being my goats from Fuyane even though the original six were long, long gone. There would be more in later life about my association with Fuyane.

Some 19 years later Salisbury was visited by a renowned sangoma apparently all the way from South Africa. He set up a tented consultancy on the grounds of Rufaro Stadium. My Aunt Moira, mother of Helen Crowley,  pleads with me to take her for a consultation as no one else will..
When we arrive there is a very long queue of persons of all races, though mostly African. Aunt Moira eventually has her consultation and, on emerging, insists that I have one too.
I try to decline, protesting that it is a lot of money at £5 a consultation. I take home about £40 per month. She insists saying that she will pay for me. The receptionist gives me instructions, telling me to take off my shoes, enter the inner room, via a reed curtain, turn to my left and then sit down to face the sangoma.
I follow her instructions and enter the inner sanctum which is festooned with the bric-a-brac associated with persons plying their trade in the spirit,occult and herbalist world. There are gourds, masks, clumps of plant material, pots of herbs and other artifacts everywhere. I am not in a doctor's surgery. I am in a den of wizardry. As I turn to face the sangoma I notice that he has a white enamel dish, containing clear water, on his right hand side. On his left hand side he has a live tortoise.

The tortoise suddenly spins onto its back.
The sangoma jerks his head up to look at me and, with his left hand, pushes me firmly in the mid-drift, so as to indicate that I remain standing. With his other hand he takes the tortoise and places it next to the enamel dish facing me. It turns to face the dish and stops. He bends over and the dish and the tortoise are now concealed from my view by his back. There he remains perfectly still for what seems a long time with his left hand still in my mid-drift.

Suddenly he jumps up, face alight with expression, and exclaims - "Do not sit - no,no - do not sit…” and then switches to a dialect, which I do not understand, seemingly addressing someone in a tone of incantation. I have seen and heard this before when my Aunt Mamquebu, Uncle Willie's wife, invoked the ancestral spirits except with her I was able to understand some of it.

Then he fixes his eyes on me and says excitedly - "Today is a great dayfor me ... a very great day ... I am so happy ... I am so honoured to be in thepresence of so great a spirit ... the spirit of a man who was the greatest sangoma at that time ... the time of your birth - when he came to know you ... his spirit is with you ... he will be with you … all of your life" 
I have little doubt that something extraordinary is taking place as I feel the hairs on my skin pricking up. The man has surely picked up my link to Fuyane,the renowned sangoma who "fixed" me up at birth in the"lungisa" ritual. But how????

He goes onto to counsel me. It is "good news". I am to have a long life. It will be a "meaningful" life as I will be ever concerned with important issues, in public service, and required to do good for humans by the ancestral spirits. The forces of evil will be ever present but will never succeed provided I do not indulge in evil.
There is so much power in the voice he speaks in. The last time I have felt something similar was in 1958, at my Confirmation in the Catholic Church, when the great Bishop Adolph Schmidt said "Pax Tecum" and smacked me on the cheek symbolically.
Later i was to relaize that he was predciting that my life was to be about standing for good"without fear, favor or prejudice" .. the judicial oath of office. 

He embraces me tightly and, after reverting to the unknown dialect for a shortwhile, he bids me farewell again repeating that it is the happiest day of his life.

Thereceptionist is instructed to refund the fee of £5.

When I re-join Aunt Moira she wants to know how it went and why the refund? I am unable to say anything for a long time as I am in a state of deep astonishment. Then I say to her - "Do you know that Fuyane is with me?"
She looks at me intently and quizzically. Then she asks -"Who is Fuyane?" She knows nothing about Fuyane. The sangoma was from out of the country and could never have known Fuyane either.

I am astonished to the core as to what has occurred.

How right was this man to be proved ... about me being in the public eye and on every other point … … to this very day ..... my life has been a concern with what is important, especially as I have served as a Judge of the High Courts in Zimbabwe and South Africa. I am also the architect of road crash compensation systems in Botswana and Namibia. That journey has been incredible for a human being that started life in Sacred Heart Home, Bushtick; orphanage and home for children in need of care.
At that Home I was introduced to this Lady and her Child and taught the prayer that starts "Hail Mary full of grace ..." and ends"pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen".  I have had a life long association with that Lady and that prayer has got me out of some incredible fixes.

Along that road I have encountered many who, as predicted, attempted to muster evil against and on me. They have all failed. Today I stand loved and/or acknowledged by countless humans across this planet. It may be undeserved. But that is the way it is ... and was foretold.

I feel that I have a life that has been fulfilled.
Symptomatic of what kind of life it was is also illustrated by this meme that shows icons of Africa whose hands I have shaken ... and I was appointed a national macro management manager by Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. 

It is not over. This little voice of truth and justice is right now being funneled to a forum of immense proportions.
My life has been so good and will end well.
It is my wish that yours will be the same.

Goto -- theother.orgfree.com
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Also go to ----- http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/index.html

To get a book that will enthrall, intrigue, entertain and provoke very meaningfully go to --http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/book_page.html


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