Bruce Ndlovu
IN Bulawayo’s Central Business District, amid the clinking beer bottles and late-night chatter outside pubs and bottle stores, a woman carrying a bag of goodies has become something of a local legend.
Regular drinkers speak of her almost in mythical terms, claiming she travels the 160km from Gweru daily, selling an assortment of sexual enhancement products promising men a second lease of bedroom life.
From morning until late evening, she reportedly moves from one drinking spot to another, offering tiny bottles of liquid boosters marketed as the answer to fading libido and faltering sexual prowess.
For men who believe their best bedroom days are behind them, the promise is irresistible. A few sips, they hope, could turn back the clock and rekindle the spark in relationships.
Some customers allegedly have her number on speed dial, calling whenever they need their next dose of bedroom magic.
While the vendor’s reported daily commute may sound extraordinary, the demand for products promising sexual stamina, stronger erections and improved virility is anything but mythical.
Across Bulawayo, the market ranges from traditional herbal concoctions and liquid boosters to pills promising quick results. Discarded bottles and packaging bearing bold claims of enhanced sexual prowess offer glimpses into a trade fuelled by private anxieties many men would rather not discuss openly.
For some, it is about confidence and satisfying a partner. For others, it is the hope of overcoming erectile difficulties or addressing fertility concerns.
But beneath the promises of instant bedroom transformation lies a serious question: what exactly are men consuming, and could some of these supposed miracle remedies be putting their health at risk?
Musimboti founder and herbalist Morgan Zimunya believes demand for sexual performance enhancers may be growing, although the desire to improve sexual health is not new.
“I do think we are seeing an increase, but I don’t think the desire itself is new. Men have always cared about their sexual health, fertility and ability to satisfy their partners. What has changed is what the modern man is taking and how quickly he expects it to work,” he said.
Zimunya said pressure to perform, coupled with embarrassment about discussing sexual difficulties, make some men vulnerable to products marketed as quick fixes.
“Today a man is under pressure. Maybe he is struggling in the bedroom, maybe they have been trying to have a child, and sometimes he is too embarrassed even to talk about it. So when somebody gives him a drink or a pill and says, ‘Take this, in 30 minutes you will be fine,’ naturally he is tempted. That is where I think we have created a dangerous market for quick fixes,” he said.
Citing World Health Organisation estimates, Zimunya noted that infertility affects about one in six people worldwide during their lifetime, with male factors involved in roughly half of infertile couples.
His major concern is that some men may unknowingly consume pharmaceutical ingredients hidden in products marketed as natural remedies.
“What worries us as herbalists is when pharmaceutical substances such as sildenafil — the active ingredient in Viagra — are secretly put into products that are then sold to people as herbal or natural medicine,” he said.
“This is not just something we are imagining; regulators in other countries have repeatedly found sexual-enhancement products advertised as ‘natural’ which actually contained undeclared sildenafil.”
Sildenafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction but is not suitable for everyone. It can interact dangerously with certain medicines, particularly nitrate drugs. Consumers taking products with undeclared ingredients may therefore expose themselves to risks without knowing what they have swallowed.
Zimunya said the answer was better regulation and research, rather than dismissing traditional African medicine.
“At the same time, we mustn’t behave as though African men only discovered medicine for sexual health when Viagra arrived. Our fathers and grandfathers had their own medicines. These plants and formulations have been passed from generation to generation,” he said.
“The strange thing is that today we sometimes look down on that knowledge and call it backward or even associate it with witchcraft, yet WHO itself estimates that around 80 percent of people in Africa rely on traditional medicine for at least some of their primary health needs.”
He said indigenous remedies should be properly researched and regulated to distinguish genuine traditional medicine from products adulterated with pharmaceuticals.
“For me, that is the conversation we should be having. A plant is not evil because our ancestors understood how to use it. We need to research our medicines properly, regulate them properly and separate genuine traditional medicine from people who simply lace a product with pharmaceuticals and call it herbal,” he said.
Zimunya stressed that defending traditional medicine did not mean rejecting conventional treatment.
“I’m also not saying prescribed Viagra has no place in medicine. It does. My concern is misuse, taking unknown products and treating every sexual problem as something that just needs a quick erection. Sexual health is bigger than that — it involves fertility, circulation, general health, confidence and relationships,” he said.
“So yes, I believe consumption has increased, but the need has always been there. What Africa should not lose in the process is the knowledge that was already here.”
Another herbalist, Khulu Hluphekile Ndebele, also defended traditional remedies, particularly among young men seeking to draw on knowledge passed down through generations.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with some of our young men seeking herbs from elders like us. This is something that their ancestors did as well, and that knowledge was also passed down to us,” he said.
Ndebele argued that exercise and gym workouts should not be viewed as replacements for traditional remedies used by communities for generations.
“Yes, they can go to the gym and work out, but that is not a substitute for things that have always worked for us as a people. Isigubhu sikababa has always been present in many homes, and possessing it is not a sign of weakness,” he said.
“These are naturally available herbs that we should not hesitate to use because they have never brought harm to anyone.”
As the market for bedroom boosters continues to attract men seeking confidence, stamina and solutions to intimate problems, the challenge remains separating genuine remedies from exaggerated promises — and ensuring that the pursuit of bedroom magic does not come at the expense of men’s health.
