Thokolosi actor turns to traditional medicine

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Staff Writer | Friday March 23, 2012 00:00

 

However the character was no more when Norman Moloi's drama returned to Btv's programming. Moriri had taken a different path in life, away from the promise of glamour that comes with the silver screen to practise traditional medicine in his home village of Modipane. The 33-year-old claims that God called him to the vocation. He says that he 'died' twice before he could finally accept his calling.

'I was in South Africa when the first incident took place. I was alone at a farm I had proposed to buy. I lost my breath and felt dizzy. I quickly sat down because I was afraid of falling badly. From then on it was like I was dreaming. I saw an old man who led me on a certain path. On one side of that long path were girl toddlers and on the other were boys with their mothers,' he relates. Moriri says he was scared when he woke up and went to his cousin's place near Rustenburg. But that decision was to further complicate matters. He was chased out late in the night. He moved to another cousin where he witnessed the landlord assaulting his host with a metal rod on the face, accusing him of accommodating strangers in the house. Things became even more complicated for the young man, days after the incident. The cousin who had chased him away called a few days later informing him that their uncle who was also a traditional doctor had passed on in Modipane.

'I had to leave but I had no money. The same cousin gave me R200 for transport. I discovered that the money had gone missing on arrival at the bus stop. A car came along and the driver asked me where I was going. I replied that I was headed for Modipane. He just told me to climb in,' he narrates.

'As far as I knew it was a South African taxi. The only way it could take me across the border was on special request but we had not talked about money,' he says. Without Moriri's guidance, the taxi man drove all the way to Modipane. He relates that just as they were about to pass the young man's house in Modipane the taxi man asked, 'whose house is this?' 'I started to wonder if this guy knew me from somewhere. When I asked him how much I owed him for the trip he told me this was just to help me. He told me he was going back to South Africa. I was left with even more questions. I just went inside the house and fell asleep shortly after. In my sleep a certain old man wearing some khakhis came to me and told me to go and tell the elders that my uncle whose uncle I had returned for was supposed to be buried before sunrise as per tradition. I then woke up,' Moriri says.

The old man's instructions were honoured. Upon return to his farm in South Africa, he experienced further misfortune. He had failed to honour a clause in the farm's purchase contract, which specified that he should pay a R250,000 deposit within three months. The farm owner's agents had obtained a court order barring him from entering the premises.

'I headed to a certain female traditional doctor in Rustenburg who told me that I was going to be a doctor. I was angry because I went there looking to regain my farm. A friend told me that there was a powerful traditional doctor in Lesotho who could help resolve my problems. That failed. I was desperate and headed to Kwazulu-Natal,' he says.

Stranger things were to happen once he was in Peter Maritzburg. The man he consulted for his problems did not provide immediate answers but took him to some waterfalls where three rivers meet.

He relates that the Zulu man told him that they had to jump into the water. He was scared to death.

'But I just said let me do it. I had expected to drown in the stormy waters but to my surprise I fell on my feet. I was standing on a flat surface. My companion also dived in. He was also floating. Suddenly I felt something standing right behind me and the doctor told me it was my snake, a big snake which held the key to my future,' he tells Arts and Culture.

After the scary experience, the Zulu doctor told him to rush back to Modipane, as there was a sick old man who would provide him with answers about the snake. He wasted no time and rushed back home. But he did not know who the sick man was, he says.

The following morning a certain Moloi told him he had something for him. He instructed the young man to come to his house. 'He was from the clinic,' he says. He says that the man surprised him because they were not acquintances. 'I quickly realised that he could be the man I was told about in Maritzburg. When I visited him he gave me a small stick with a snake sculptured on it. He told me to keep it safe and put it under my pillow every time I went to bed,' he says.

On the same night another strange dream came. The old man wearing khakhis revisited him. He claimed that the old man gave him a small piece of candle and told him to wake up and burn it at a nearby hill. When he got to the hill he tried to light the candle but failed on two occasions.

'Something would blow the match stick off,' he says. He turned to see what blew off his matches. To his surprise the old man appeared and told him that he had become a doctor. He tells Arts and Culture that the only thing he was trained in was how to talk to his bones through poems. Many have however doubted if Moriri was really called to the vocation, suspecting that he just sought refuge in traditional medicine after other economic ventures failed. The police once interrogated him after money went missing at the 2006 University of Botswana Freshers' Ball. His company, HQ Promotions co-hosted the event. He however insists that he was chosen by God to help the masses. He quashes the common belief that it is unholy to practice as, or consult traditional doctors.

'God recognises the practice because there was a time according to the bible when a Jonas' ship got stuck in the waters. After prophets failed to identify the problem a traditional doctor told the crew that there was a man at the base who had stopped the ship,' Moriri says. Although he is aware of some traditional doctors who claim to have powers to help women meet their Mr Right, Moriri claims that he can only help protect a couple's union.