By MIA SNYMAN
(AP)
JOHANNESBURG — With vuvuzelas so far failing to give a winning boost
to South Africa at the World Cup, some locals are looking for other ways
to help the national team.
In an effort to help Bafana Bafana
make good on their slim chance of advancing past the opening round of
the tournament — the first to be played on the African continent —
people are burning, brewing and smoking.
They are practitioners of
muti, or traditional medicine.
Traditionalists believe a mixture
of herbs, plants and animal parts, such as vulture brains and aloe, can
be used to change luck, heal sickness or enhance performance.
"Muti
works," said Miriam Lethaba, a 62-year-old domestic worker from
Ratanda, a township west of Johannesburg. "It can make Bafana strong."
South
Africa's national team lost to Uruguay last week and needs to beat
France on Tuesday to have any chance of reaching the tournament's
knockout phase. If it fails to advance, South Africa would become the
first host team to be eliminated from the tournament in the first round.
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FILE - Traditiona
(AP Photo/Deni
(AP Photo/Deni
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In
order to avoid that embarrassment, traditional healers — called
sangomas — are doing their best to give the team an edge, convinced that
burning muti at soccer matches can change the team's luck.
"I
believe that muti can improve Bafana's performance," said Abel Zwane, a
50-year-old merchant who sells traditional medicine in Heidelberg,
outside Johannesburg.
Jaco Lushaba, a 40-year-old traditional Zulu
dancer from Ratanda, said he also has faith in the power of muti, but
thinks he may have previously been a victim of someone else's burning
concoction.
"I once lost in a competition where the smell of muti
was everywhere," Lushaba said. "It made me confused and I could not
perform at my best."
Muti developed among the indigenous people of
Africa over centuries. The name comes from the Zulu word for tree. Some
traditionalists burn or brew muti to ensure good fortune and others use
it to predict forthcoming events.
"People go to sangomas to make
muti for good luck and to see into the future," said Ibrahim Hoosen, a
66-year-old Heidelberg man who owns a muti shop.
Sangomas are
found in the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele cultures of southern Africa.
Some
white South Africans, like Ben van der Merwe, have studied with
sangomas and also make muti.
Van der Merwe, however, isn't
convinced that his potions would be of any use to the national soccer
team.
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FILE - A traditiona
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"The only sport-related muti treatment that I know of is
called 'flesh builders,' but I have not heard of anyone who uses muti to
influence Bafana's performance," said Van der Merwe, an Afrikaner from
Heidelberg.
Indeed, muti treatments are well outside the
mainstream, both in terms of medical practice and religious practice in a
nation that is about 80 percent Christian. At its extreme, muti has
been associated with killings for the use of human organs in its
rituals, but that has not been associated with the World Cup.
"These
practices are more spiritual than scientific, therefore we cannot
justify its active ingredients and we cannot comment on the
effectiveness of its methods as our members specialize in conventional
methods," said Dr. Norman Mabasa, the chair of the South African Medical
Association. "But we understand that people have the freedom of
belief."
Angunsto Honwano, a 22-year-old street vendor from
Balfour, south of Johannesburg, is among those skeptical about muti's
ability to help Bafana Bafana.
"Muti works for good luck," Honwano
said. "But for Bafana, they will have to play hard to get through the
first round."
Lushaba said the players just have to have faith.
"The
problem is that there are many different cultures in the Bafana team
and I don't think that they all believe in the power of muti," Lushaba
said. "The only way muti can work for Bafana Bafana is if every member
of the team believes that it can work.
"Muti is about believing.
If you do not truly believe that it can work, then it won't."
Copyright © 2010 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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FILE - A child huddles round a
fire from the biting cold in Soweto, South Africa, Wednesday, June 16,
2010. With the vuvuzelas so far falling short of providing a winning
boost to South Africa at the World Cup, some locals are turning to
other, far more imaginativ
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