By Mia Snyman
(CP)
JOHANNESBURG — 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 imaginative means of help.
In order to
increase Bafana Bafana's chances of making it through the first round of
the tournament, the first to be played on the African continent, people
are burning, brewing and smoking.
Muti, or traditional medicine,
is very much in use in modern-day South Africa. 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.
Sometimes, muti can contain human body parts.
"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 on Wednesday and needs to beat France on
Tuesday to have any chance of reaching the knockout rounds. If it fails
to advance, South Africa would become the first host team to be
eliminated from the tournament in the first round.
In order to
avoid that embarrassment, traditional healers — called sangomas — are
doing their best to give the team an edge, believing that burning muti
at football 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 believes in muti, but thinks he may have
previously been a victim of someone else's burning concoction.
"I
once lost in a competition were 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 football team.
"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.
Angunsto
Honwano, a 22-year-old street vendor from Belfour, south of
Johannesburg, is also 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."
Muti
also has a dark side, however. Muti killings, in which a person's body
parts are used to supposedly make the medicine stronger, are still all
too common on the continent.
Some estimates say there are about
300 muti killings each year in South Africa, and very few of them get
reported.
In 2001, the body of a young African boy was found in
the Thames near London's Tower Bridge, and experts identified it to be a
muti-related killing.
But the dark side aside, Lushaba said muti
can help South Africa beat France and reach the next round of the World
Cup — as long as the players believe in it.
"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."
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