SECRET "CURES."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue LXI, 12 July 1930, Page 15 (Supplement)

SECRET "CURES."

WITCH DOCTORS' MYSTERY HYMN. BADGES FOR MEMBERS. The law of South Africa has —on paper — put the witch doctor out of practice, but this strange product i:f Darkest Africa still exists in large numbers. A conference which has been held at Kroonstad, in the Orange Free State, shows that they have a status amongsi the natives of which they arc extremely jealous. They made demands (among themselves* of course) for "recognition," and condemned those of their calling who are not members of the African Dingaka (Doctors) Association. The.objects of this "association" are to protect the interests of the witch doctors, to secure proper recognition for them, and to encourage educational undertakings on their behalf. The conference was held in the Ethiopian Church, and each delegate wore a green badge bearing the native words. "Arise and help thyself." An "anthem," the words of which were known only to the members, was sung. Mr. Thipe D. Ditchego, the president, while acknowledging that witch doctors to-day were "known by all kinds of bad names," claimed that they did not] practiso witchcraft, but merely cxerciseu o-ifts of healing from God." _ ° Fees, he added, were necessarily high. "Usually," he said, "a fee of 1/'<J to 2/6 was charged for 'throwing the bonei,* and before any medicine could be given a witch doctor had to charge about £\ for loosening the knot of his medicine The actual healing fee often amounted to £5. The association is drawing up a scale of charges for the whole union. Mr Ditchego claimed that they war.: the only people who had been successful in curing fainting fits. The method adopted by the old doctor, he said, was to catch alive a young hare and to pull out some of its hair before setting it free. The hair, when mixed with herbs ami nibbed on the body, was a genuine! remedy, and cured the disease! ,