Most people who live near Mines are becoming Traditional healers.

Thokozile Mntambo

 THIRTEEN-year-old -old Inathi Gwengu started having vivid dreams in grade 4. That was in 2019. In those dreams, she would be standing beside a river wearing blue and white beats and red clothes. She would have this dream over and over. At school during the day, she has visions where she sees her mother calling her into a river.

When her mother, Khanyiswa Gwengu saw what was happening to her, she recognized it as the same thing that had happened to herself and many others in their family. A sangoma calling. After consulting with ancestors, Gwengu felt her suspicions confirmed, her daughter was to be a sangoma. 

By this time, Inathi’s schoolwork was suffering greatly. Between the dreams and visions, she also had constant toothaches that made it difficult for her to concentrate on schoolwork. She was barely getting through and even had to repeat grade 6.

Gwengu feared that this was a punishment from ancestors who wanted her daughter to become a sangoma. She had been initiated as a healer while she was still at school.

 She did not want her daughter to drop out of school. As she was also called to become a sangoma in 2005 while she was at school, she would not focus in class and suddenly she would dream and see herself in a bush. She would see her mother calling her to come and do a traditional dance with her called ukugida. This also disturbed her, and she dropped out of school in grade eleven to follow her ancestral calling and to fulfill her mother’s wishes. “I had no choice but to find closure with my ancestors, “ said Gwengu

She also could not ignore her daughter’s pain. In 2021,16 December. She decided to send her to initiation school, ephehlweni. Things did not go as planned and it was hard for Gwengu to leave her little girl at Ephehlweni ( initiation school), away from home, away from school.

Being a sangoma herself, she decided to initiate her daughter. On the 25th of March 2022, Khanyiswa became her mother’s initiate, this meant she could stay at home, follow her ancestral calling, and go to school. She says, she had a dream that she must go to the “Intabamhlophe” tailing mine dump and when she gets on top of the tailing she must light red and white candles and pray with her daughter. 

She also uses the soil from the tailing to bathe and they also used to walk barefoot when they go to the tailing every morning from 5 am. Gwengu says she believes that she connects with her ancestors on the tailing because it is quiet and it is not only her who prays there, many people pray on the tailing because they can connect with the higher power.

Her Daughter Khanyisa is doing grade 9 at Thulani Secondary and suffers from eczema and asthma. She was admitted to Leratong Hospital and could not go back to school last year. She is repeating the same grade this year.

As activists we must do more campaigns to teach people in our community about the dangers of the tailing mine dump, we must get the Department of Health and the Department of Mineral Resources to come together to help activists on the ground spread the information about the dangers of mine tailings around our community before it’s too late.