A week ago, 25-year-old Joe Zumruu and his 12-year-old sister, Purii, became the latest entrants to the international traditional healing immigrant community in Francistown.
What is interesting about the pair from Djibouti, apart from the fact that one is a minor, is their surprisingly low consultation fee - pegged at five-thebe.
“We have been traveling all over Africa healing people and Botswana is the 24th country we have been to so far. We have been sent by a spirit to heal people for free except for the five-thebe consultation fee that enables my herbs to work on the patient. I don’t charge a fee because I don’t buy the herbs I use for healing. We manage to survive on our satisfied patients’ goodwill. This is the time for people to get help. We are only in the country for a short time before the spirit tells us to go away,” says the denim-clad Joe Zumruu with a chain of beads around his neck and a little knobkerrie in his hand.
Beside him, quietly sits Artwell Ruzvidzo, a Zimbabwean who has been “healed” by the young doctor of a spate of fits which started a year ago. He has staged a replay of the Jesus legend and followed the healer around as an assistant. For the most part, the disciple is overwhelmed by a seemingly genuine humility as he recounts how after being saved from the claws of the ailment, he went back home for his mother who was also afflicted by a similar disease. According to him, she is also now healed - thanks to Zumruu.“Healing fits is simple for me. I simply ask the patient to bring along a live chicken, which I use to transfer the fits to. I give the patient medicine to drink as well as the chicken. The two will then have fits attack and start shaking. When this happens I slit the stains of both (the chicken and the patient) with a razor blade. I then bring the two bleeding wounds into contact. The fits will immediately leave the patient and enter the chicken. The patient will be forever free of the disease like Artwell,” says the doctor who also claims to be able to read palms and foretell the future. The story of the duo’s lives is the stuff that fantasies are made of. It goes thus. One day the little girl doctor, Purii went washing clothes by the river in her native Djibouti when out of the blue, waves pulled her into the water. In his older brother’s words, a mermaid - half woman half fish - took her to the belly of the river and trained her as a traditional doctor. A few days later, she emerged from the aquatic depths with a basket full of herbs and went on a healing spree that is still raging on to this day. “As for me, I took after my uncle who was also a traditional doctor. One day I just fell sick. I contacted some traditional healers and they told me that a spirit wanted me to follow the path taken by my uncle and my grandfather. The beads and knobkerrie here were inherited from my grandfather and I have worn them since I started practicing,” he says. The Djibouti duo has already met some traditional healers in the city who welcomed them to practise their brand of healing. He expresses surprise at the fact that in Botswana, one can be trained to become a traditional doctor or train others.
He reveals that in his home country, traditional healing is just a chance calling from a spirit, not a career choice as he has observed here. He also got a cultural shock on seeing traditional herbs sold in the flea markets and pharmacies - a practice that is unheard of in his country. Joe, who communicates well in English, a language that he learnt through his many travels across the continent, is illiterate. He never had the time or the inclination to go to school, as the healing thing is a fulltime lifetime devotion that he and her sister cannot escape. He speaks with a gentle demeanor in his face with a voice that calmly exudes a strong sense of conviction in what he is saying. “We are not supposed to marry or make love. I have never known a woman in my life and I will never sleep with one. Sex for us is a taboo that we reverently observe,” he says.
Zumruu advises people to see beyond their youth and have faith in their capabilities and traditional herbs.
“They must truly believe in herbs. Even before the Bible, there were herbs. I can remember that sometime back, there were no clinics and we were still living, helped by herbs. I also believe that there is God and that he is the one who put me to this,” he says.
