Chronicle Editor
Flora Fadzai Sibanda, [email protected]
“Please do not kill us, we are not medicine, we do not tell the future.”
These are the words that were beamed on a lecture room wall with pictures of vultures around the room.
In the room were traditional healers who were in total disagreement with these words.
The traditional healers were attending a vulture and belief-based use workshop organised by the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) in partnership with Birdlife Organisation.
Vultures are an endangered species and over the years, specialists have raised concerns over how the bird is slowly becoming extinct.
In Africa, there are 11 vulture species.
One of the traditional healers in attendance, Mr Muziwandile Ndlovu, who is a member of the Mhlahlo International Traditional Healers Association, raised his hand and stood up.
He first acknowledged his ancestors, letting them know he was about to speak.
“Ma idlozi lifuna inqe, akulanto engingayenza. Abantu abangasithethisi thina abesintu ngoba bazasixabanisa ledlozi (If the ancestor living within you wants a vulture, there’s nothing you can do other than give it what it wants . People should stop insulting us as traditional healers saying we should not be using them),” he says.
Mr Ndlovu said he didn’t understand why scientists want them to abandon their ways and be blamed for the extinction of vultures.
“There are some ancestors that want to work with vultures and you can’t look for any substitute because the ancestor will refuse. However, our ancestors are not selfish so one ancestor will not want to use a full vulture. My ancestor might want just the head of a vulture while someone else’s might want a nail, hair or even just the eye,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He said because of this, it is impossible for people to say vultures are at risk of extinction as a result of traditional healers and their beliefs.
Mr Ndlovu added that permits are expensive, that is why healers end up not getting permits to hunt for vultures.
Another traditional healer only identified as Khulu Ngwenya said vultures are now becoming extinct because all the land has been given to people and they no longer have space to roam around.
He said vultures used to eat cows which would have died on their own as people would leave them but because of technology and the coming in of animal science and health regulations, cows which die on their own are now burnt.
“So, if these cows are killed, what do we expect our animals to eat. That’s why they end up running away and move to other parts of the world because we’re no longer taking care of them so why should they take care of us.
“Also, it is not the vulture that has powers, it’s the trees that we get and make medicine with so in as much as the vulture is very important, we don’t kill it every year as one part of the vulture can be used over and over again for more than 10 years so blaming traditional healers is rather bad,” said the healer.
Vulture conservation officer for Birdlife Organisation Mr Leroy Moyo said they have realised that vultures are slowly becoming extinct and one of the reasons is the traditional myths around vultures and the powers they are said to possess.
Mr Moyo said they have, however, seen great improvement in the way traditional healers are now appreciating vultures and the importance of protecting them.
“When we first started these engagements, it was really difficult because traditional healers didn’t want to hear anything about these vultures and they were adamant that they would not stop using them but now they’re willing to work with us as they engage more and are willing to get permits,” said Mr Moyo.
As the beaming continues, a kettle of vultures with their wings spread flies high in the sky, evidently scouting for something to eat.
One of them spots a rotten cow on the ground, almost six kilometres away and leads the rest to feast on the beast.
Within 10 minutes, the beast has been eaten and there is nothing to show it once existed.
That is the main job of vultures — to eat away dead meat and clean the ecosystem.
They are part of the protected species in the country.
They are also important for stopping the spread of diseases within the ecosystem as they eat animals that are dead and might have been killed by diseases.
However, it is traditionally believed that vultures possess powers which traditional healers use when healing people.
For this reason, traditional healers often hunt for vultures and keep their body parts at their homes. —@flora_sibanda
Online Reporter