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Hard-pressed Zimbabweans turn to traditional medicine
ZimOnline
July 10, 2006

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/YAOI-6RKA25?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe

HARARE - A long queue snakes out from 54-year old Johannes Mangere's house in the poor suburb of Sakubva in Zimbabwe's eastern city of Mutare.

Right at the gate, is a clear sign board inscribed with the words: Traditional Doctor: specialist in all ailments.

For once, it would appear the rich and poor are all mingling together in a true spirit of communalism as they drag themselves in the dust at this humble home waiting to access services that range from lucky charms to medication for sexually transmitted infections and breast cancer.

"Yesterday, the queue was so long I could not get treated. This morning I have been here by 5am but there were already six people ahead of me in the queue," says 29-year old Jacob Phiri.

With the costs for medical care rising every day on the back of a severe economic crisis that has seen inflation shooting beyond 1 000 percent, many Zimbabweans are resorting to traditional healers, once the object of scorn and derision.

Despite President Robert Mugabe's government formal recognition of traditional healers in the early 1980s, the healers had remained largely marginalised in medical circles with most Zimbabweans only visiting the healers at night under the cover of darkness.

But attitudes seem to be changing in Zimbabwe, almost at the same pace at which the southern African country's economy is hurtling towards total collapse.

According to Mangere business has never been this good.

"I have to turn away some patients at times because of high demand. I believe we are now some of the most sought after healers because our charges are reasonable," he says.

Zimbabwe's public health delivery system, once regarded as one of the best in Africa, has virtually collapsed after years of mismanagement and under-funding.

Many in the country, including supporters of Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party, readily admit that state hospitals have become little more than places where people go to die because they have neither equipment nor essential medicines due to a shortage of hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. In many cases hospitals can administer only pain killers to patients.

The private clinics that have tried to fill in the gap left by crumbling public hospitals are not easily accessible to the majority as their charges are way beyond the reach of most ordinary citizens. For example, private clinics last week hiked their consultation fees by between 80 and 100 percent, a move health services experts said effectively shut the door to the private hospital to most ordinary Zimbabweans.

"People used to shy away from visiting n'angas (local Shona name for traditional healers) and would try to keep their visit secret. Not now," says respected social scientist Gordon Chavhunduka.

"Our members are experiencing a boom and we are upgrading our operations to meet rising demand," adds Chavhunduka, who is the president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA).
And the little story of Eunice Masoko, a 45-yearv old mother of two, bears testimony to Chavhunduka's claims.

Masoko says when she was charged Z$100 million at a local private hospital for treatment of her heart ailment, she simply walked away as she could hardly afford such an amount and today she says she is forever grateful for that decision to walk away from the hospital.

"Out of desperation I visited a traditional healer who had been recommended to me by a friend," Masoko says with a happy grin on her face.

She adds: "The healer diagnosed my problem and gave me some herbs. I was told to pay what I could afford and that I could only pay after ascertaining that the herbs had worked. I gave him Z$5 million only and for that, look how healthy I am now. He was able to cure me."

Even Zimbabwe government ministers appear to be backing traditional healers with Women's Affairs and Community Development Minister Oppah Muchinguri telling villagers in Manicaland province to make use of traditional healers.

"Sometimes the hospitals are too expensive or have no medicines. You have to use herbs. We used to do it before, we can still do it now until the situation improves," said Muchinguri in remarks that appeared to pass a vote of no confidence in state health institutions.

But talking to many in the small crowd that is slowly forming up at Mangere's home, one gets the feeling that probably Muchinguri's advice to Zimbabweans could be a matter of preaching to the converted.

For example, Simon Munamato, who is a long-time patient of Mangere, says he last visited a hospital about four years ago.

"The hospitals are expensive and yet there is no food or medicines. So why should I waste my time when the guy next door can fix my health problems?" he says, summing up the views of many here and elsewhere across crisis-hit Zimbabwe.

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