Celebrity n’anga speaks

Freedom Mupanedemo

These days the idea of consulting a n’anga when one is plagued with life problems is viewed as heathen. With Christianity on the fore and many now turning to God for divine intervention on personal problems, it would seem n’angas are fast losing relevance. But not for a Harare n’anga who has become a celebrity allegedly through her feats, ability and “power” to force thieves to return the stolen loot to their victims.Gogo Nganga (72) of Mufakose high-density suburb has of late become the talk of Harare with people from all walks of life mostly victims of theft and burglary flocking to her house to consult.

Recently this writer visited Gogo Nganga’s house for a one-on-one with this much talked about elderly woman.

As I enter one of the rooms after she granted the interview, Gogo Nganga looks drained as she stretches her weary legs while trying to find comfort on the hard floor of a crowded and equally terrifying room full of her paraphernalia – logs, sticks, roots, tree barks, dried tree leaves, tortoise shells, snail shells, empty bottles, all completing a pack of her tools of the trade.

The opposite room resembles a pub. Its door is shut but the noise from people shouting on top of their voices is overwhelming!

“I am very tired and busy but we can have the interview now, never mind that noise, they are my clients in session. Most of them would have lost their property or money to thieves so that room has mirrors on the walls. I give them a bit of some concoction to drink before they get into that room so that they can see the persons who stole from them. There are words they must speak and by so doing, persons who have stolen from them appear in the mirror,” explains Gogo Nganga, who is of Zambian origin.

She says there are two methods that she uses when dealing with a client intending to recover stolen property or money.

“The first method is that the victim just narrates to me his or her story, how the money or property was stolen. If you want to see how the money was stolen you pay $10 and you get into a room where there are mirrors and you will see the thief pouncing in the mirror.

“If you don’t want to go through this you just pay $30 and I give you a small stick to take home. The thief will look for you and give you your property or money back,” she narrates.

Gogo Nganga says for one to see the culprit on the mirror, she prepares a concoction that the client sips before being led into a room where a video of what transpired on the fateful day will be played.

“Those people you hear making noise right now are speaking to the culprits through a video. What happens is that the concoction I give to clients makes you see your suspect. In the room you face your own mirror and then start shouting out words like ‘who stole my money, come out’; you will begin to see the person who stole from you in the video,” says Gogo Nganga assertively.

She says there are people who steal using juju and it takes a bit of time for such people to appear on the said video.

“You need to be aggressive, constantly saying whatever you want to the person who stole from you as you face the mirror and you will begin to see the person. It takes longer because they would have used juju and it will be like a clash,” she said.

She says those who don’t want to spend time seeing and speaking to the culprits through the mirror just walk in, she performs some rituals on a small stick which she then gives to the client to take home.

“With the stick, you will have to wait up to two weeks and the person who would have stolen from you will look for you and return the loot. If that loot was sold you can negotiate a refund,” she says.

Gogo Nganga says those with missing relatives have been helped through the “video method”.

“If your relative was abducted or murdered you will see everything in the mirror, how he or she was abducted and killed. Only last week there were people from Beatrice who came here after their relative went missing for a month. They came and saw how he was murdered by his assailants and where the body was dumped,” she confides.

Some of her clients interviewed soon after the video session confirmed having an encounter with the culprits.

“I actually saw the person sneaking into my bedroom before getting away with my money which was in my wardrobe. The video was very clear that I even identified the person. The next thing is I am going to confront the person and if he denies I will come back to gogo,” says Ms Lydia Matenga, who had travelled from Chitungwiza.

She claims the thief sneaked into her bedroom and got away with $250 when she was away.

Another client, Rabson Chibaya, says the video replay showed him two people searching him before taking away a wallet with cash.

“I was dead drunk on the fateful day and I only realised my wallet was missing the following morning.

“I couldn’t identify the culprits in the video. Unfortunately I don’t have cash with me here so I will go back and look for $30 which is required by Gogo so that she can give me the stick so that these thieves can bring back my money and other particulars,” he says.

But another client who declined to be named said she couldn’t see anything in the video.

“I did not see anything. There were showers only, maybe I must try the stick,” she said.

Some of the testimonies from clients are kept in a counter book that Gogo Nganga allows members of the public to go through and judge for themselves.

“Remember there are many people who want their privacy who just come to get help and go without writing in this book. But I have books full of testimonies. You can go though one of the books and see how people have been helped here,” says Gogo Nganga as she languidly hands over one of the books to this writer.

She says she can also help people with various ailments including issues to do with impotence in marriages.

But how did Gogo Nganga become a n’anga?

She says she started healing people for various aliments at the age of 12 when she was still in Zambia with her parents.

They were later to come to the then Rhodesia and settled in Mazowe.

Born Efilda Major of a Zambian father and Malawian mother, Gogo Nganga says she grew up in Mazowe with her father, a renowned n’anga at the time employed at Mazowe Citrus as a general hand.

“My father always wanted me to take over his legacy after his death. He would take me into the bush to look for herbs and would take his time telling me the types of herbs used for different aliments.

“I was later to move to Harare where I started working as a maid so my father died before I could muster the art. But as soon as he died, I started having him in dreams.

“His spirit leads me into the bush when searching for herbs. Normally when I go into the bush I am possessed and my father’s spirit leads me to the place where I should get a particular herb,” she narrates.

Now she owns a five-roomed house in Mufakose and has a fleet of commuter omnibuses plying the City-Mufakose route, all courtesy of her job as a traditional healer.

Gogo Nganga says she is proud of her job and to be helping people with different problems.

“I own a house, I have kombis and I have my private car out of this job. I am proud of it because I am not fake, I deliver. There are many testimonies from people and I have people who come from abroad seeking my services,” she claims.

While everyone seems to have thrown away the traditional way of life in exchange for Christianity, Mbuya Nganga seems stuck in African culture.

For her, being a n’anga means a lot and her hope is to mentor her nephew who she closely works with so that he takes over and continues the legacy when she finally departs mother earth to meet her maker. – Zimpapers Syndication.