They have brainwashed and whitewashed our people.
They are made them see their culture, their beliefs as evil.
People tell me, you're a witch, I think yes.
It's not a negative at all.
They worked on our minds and that's why right now,
we are our own oppressors after they've left.
So if you ask anyone, why are we keeping quiet?
They're going to say it's because we are ashamed of it.
But it's not that it's because there's a historical context that
you couldn't tell because your family was in grave danger.
So the demonization of the term witch, or traditional healer,
this came with the missionaries because they wanted to entrench Christianity.
A worldview that condemned indigenous practices and indigenous religion,
and by extension, indigenous culture, to a category
that was meant to demonise what was there.
We are paying for it now.
It's a form of it's another form of slavery.
My name is Mildred Otieno, I m an urban mystic.
I consult with people who have various problems or various issues.
So I use tarot cards.
That's my primary divination tool.
In the reading is where I identify various issues and
not just identify issues but also giving them advice,
practical advice on what they can do to turn around the situation.
My name is Iyalorisa Omitonade Ifawemimo, I'm an Orisha priestess.
The Yoruba believe that when coming on earth, when we're choosing our destiny, we chose
one Orisha with us, which is our guardian.
And the only way that you can know that is through divination.
So when you know that guardian Orisha, that is the guardian Orisha that they will
use
to know about your destiny to know your taboos, to know your weaknesses, to know everything
about you.
I'm Amanda Gcabashe and I'm a sangoma.
A sangoma is a traditional healer, in the African traditional healing systems.
We use elements of nature, water, air, plants in healing.
They sell herbs, roots and plants here that we use for medicine,
for blessings, for rituals, like in consecration of the Orisha
for offerings of the Orisha
I have cleansing baths, I have attraction baths,
we have abundance and manifestation rituals that they can also do,
I look at myself as more of a soul therapist when I speak about souls,
most people would understand it as angels, other people call it your intuition or your
guides.
So that's what I believe in, I believe in the immaterial
that are helping me to change my material,
I really am an interpreter, a medium,
I hear that I see what they show me and then we will have a conversation.
The better we are at understanding the society within which we are located,
the better healing we can do irrespective of the context.
Groups and organisations in Europe, again, particularly in England,
they considered it to be a mission to save the soul of Africa
by bringing in a new form of religion which was Christianity,
which they consider to be far, far, far, far, far superior to African indigenous religion,
which they already targeted and called pagan.
They realised that, for them to completely conquer you,
they will have to dissociate you from your spirituality, from your culture,
and African culture is actually inextricably tied with their spirituality.
They understood that our moral authority at the time was massive.
It was incredible.
We were trusted companions to the kings.
You hit the people where you know it's gonna weaken them
and then you continue.
Christianization came also with Europeanization.
That's why ultimately, the missionaries and the colonial government,
in most cases work hand in hand.
So I think they did a pretty good job because they worked on our minds.
And that's why right now, we are our own oppressors after they've left.
It's not like modern South Africa is friendly to tradition.
And that is the truth.
There's a hegemony of Western ideas, Western ways of healing.
Right now, we ourselves, don't understand our history,
to be able to then start changing the narrative,
and being able to be seen and accepted in the public spaces.
I'm a Luo, from Western Kenya.
Our spiritual belief system, had an Ajuoga, who is a healer, a traditional healer, and
a diviner.
Having gone deeper and studied my own heritage, then, the more I realised that I'm just doing
the same thing,
these people had so much knowledge, and they knew so much.
And it's like, we've relegated that and we've ignored it.
But now I'm beginning to go back and learn and
to embrace parts of their practices into my own.
Don t forget that there was no Western medicine.
And yet Africans lived their lives.
Most of this knowledge was destroyed, replaced by Western knowledge.
The Chinese didn't do that.
The Chinese didn't destroy their traditional medicine.
Africans were made to destroy theirs.
We are paying for it now.
The system of medicine as it is treats them like they are a prescription, they are number.
We don't, we look at the entire human being because health is not only about me,
it's about my family.
It's about my community, and it's about my society,
People totally lost sight of communalism.
Our ways were seen as idolatrous or superstitious.
People are looking at me, how can I make the most money, capitalism,
as opposed to how do I distribute wealth in my community
so that we are all at the same level.
Patriarchy is not our thing.
People may say it is it isn't.
It really isn't.
Women have always been standing at an equal.
Even in our language, this role differentiation wasn't there.
We don't have he or she.
As a healer, we understand that anyone has both aspects
and it's important to be both, then it makes sense that we do not discriminate
against whether you appear male or female.
That's an appearance and a biological thing.
In Western religion, Christianity, you wouldn't see women ascending
the ladders or the echelons of the religion,
but in spirituality or traditional religion, you'd have priestesses
you'd have high priestesses if anything who would lead the entire community.
Women were the spiritual leaders.
We were healers, witches, we were oracles.
And we were appreciated as such.
There is no boundary for women in Yoruba spirituality.
Without women, there's nothing you put on earth that will be successful.
So in Yoruba spirituality, they honour women, they respect women.
We have been taught to hate our culture.
For me, reclaiming my spirituality, and especially my heritage
is a way of me fighting back at the system.
So I'm decolonizing not just my mind, but my spirit.
People are coming to learn about their roots, to know about the Orisha.
When you practice, what you have left, what they have taken from you,
that is when you will be aligned, you will be fulfilled on earth.
Our ancestors have given us this amazing gift through great difficulty.
And I would like to see a lot more healers taking up the role of saying,
we will be the ones who will document you know, about our practices.
We are the people that have been oppressed, and family histories have been decimated,
and yet memory lives within each and every one of us.