Excerpts

From Volume 3: Kalahari Bushman Healers

Motaope Saboabue

Motaope means "once again" and Saboabue means "he who speaks again." I live in Zutshwa and am the elder brother to Mabolelo who lives in the next village. I work with my nose and I will tell you all about my medicine and healing. There is a tribe of people called the Makokou. They believe that they go out into the bush and return as lions. I know medicine like the palms of my hands because I danced with the Makokou Bushmen. I am very happy to tell you what I know because this will make my knowledge travel further into the world. I am now very old and I wish that my knowledge be told and recognized for the power that it holds.

Most of my knowledge about medicine came from God, but my father and grandfather initiated me as a healer and also taught me many things. They taught me the traditional medicines from plants. However, the quality of divining outside the physical realm came upon me from God. He filled me with special knowledge. When this occurred, I suddenly had the ability to see sickness inside people and to heal them. This happened quickly for me and it did not require a long period of training.

Many years ago when I was a boy, I went to the Masetleng Pan. I was very sick and while I was lying there, I had a dream. I dreamed that I had to go back to my mother, who was also sick, and make small incisions on her skin. I was then shown how to suck out the sickness through her blood. I got up, went to her, and did this. She became well and my sickness also went away.

I then had another dream that pointed me to another man. I was again given specific instructions and when I followed them, he, too, was healed. This continued and everyone was very happy.

Now I can heal anytime I want. I don't need a dream to tell me what to do. If people don't pay me with gifts for my services, I find that I get sick. It is important for everyone to respect the practice of healing.

At any time, even when I am sitting and resting, the spirits tell me what is going on. They tell me when someone is sick and where I must go and what I must do to make them well.

Usually I feel the patient with my hands because the power of healing comes through my hands. My grandfather was a powerful healer with his hands. When he died, all of his power was given to me. He is the spirit who talks to me today. My grandfather comes to me and tells me how to heal people the way he did.

During the dance I can see everything that is happening to the people. I see what will happen before it happens so I go immediately and give them the help they need.

If I lie down in the evening, the spirit may tell me to hold a healing dance. Perhaps it is because someone has a sickness. When the dance takes place, I can tell who this person is by touching their neck. A certain vibration in my hands tells me that they need to be healed.

When I was ten years old, I started shaking. The spirit makes us shake, especially the legs. They start trembling and the shaking expels the bad and removes the illness that is inside you. The shaking, once it starts, stays with you for the rest of your life.

If I get tired during a healing dance, I may lie down and shiver. This makes my heart happy. It makes me get up and dance again. If I am not in a dance and I'm tired, I may still start to shiver. I can then get up and shake off the pain and the fatigue.

The shivering and the shaking also have something to do with the illness of the other person. If I am near a sick person, I often shake more. I use my hands to shrug off their ailment. Then the shivering subsides.

My spirit doesn't leave me when I pass out during the dance. I'm never disoriented and my spirit always stays inside. It's only the biggest spirit that can take you up. It takes me up to a sacred place where I am filled up again with spiritual strength. And then the biggest spirit brings me down.

When it happens, it feels like water rushing into me. It feels like the spirit is throwing water on my feet and face. This is why sometimes I throw water on people when I heal. When the biggest spirit comes to me, I feel like some spiritual water has been brought for me to drink. It slowly goes from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. It feels hot inside my body.

When I am working on a serious case, my whole body shakes. It feels like I have no bones. When I place my heart against another person's heart, it helps me in transferring my power to them. The more contact we have between our bodies, the easier it is for me to transfer the power.

When I feel that there is nothing wrong with a person, I say, "Don't worry, you are not sick and you don't need any energy." If I put my hands on someone, whether they are sick or not, there is always a flow of power. But if they are not sick, they don't need me to continue giving it to them.

When I teach someone I give them full power. That is why there are many healers in this community. I have given them full power. They are then able to work with my grandfather's spirit because I have given them his spirit.

If someone else uses my grandfather's spirit and powers in a dance and I am not present, I will know about it. My grandfather's spirit tells me what is taking place.

When a student receives my full powers, the student will be able to do the same things that I can do. My spirit will always be with them as will the spirit of my grandfather. When I shake my students and give them my spirit, it is the same experience as when I shake those who are sick.

I do not drink any medicine to enhance the spirits. I only use medicine to relieve people's pains. Although I do not need any medicine for my power, I recognize that others may need it.

This medicine was given to my brother and I when we were learning our knowledge. It's not used every day, but taken from time to time to fill you up with power. It works on the blood stream, allowing more strength to flow through you.

Twele

I still dance, but I don't have as much power as I used to in the past. I have many children now and they take some of my power. My hands get hot in the dance when I touch others. When I dance and the people sing loudly, the power comes into my feet. It is the power from the music and the seriousness of the occasion that makes me very hot. It comes up into my head, and I feel it as a kind of steam that makes my head feel larger. A light then comes over the dance. My body also becomes lighter in weight and I feel like I am floating over the ground — floating as high as the height of our people.

I don't see a string hanging from the sky, but I see a light that makes me float. The experience is very wonderful and it feels good. The people know when I am seeing the light. They know it is a special gift.

I saw the light for the first time when I was a young boy. I was sitting in the dance and the light just came and I started to feel things. It didn't startle me, it just felt natural.

The healing dance is still strong today in the community. It is strong when we are well fed and in love. We have a hard time finding enough good food. We aren't allowed to hunt anymore, and it is very difficult to live.

Mantag, the old man, is no longer alive. He died several years ago. He was always the strongest healer. He could pull out an illness from another person. Mantag was strong enough to give his power to others. There are others who have this power, but they haven't given me their power. I only feel power in the dance. It doesn't come to me at any other time.

The special things that happen to me in the dance simply happen. For example, the light that I see just comes. I cannot explain it. These things cannot be explained.

The children today dance. Therefore, the future of the healing dance is assured. We will always dance. The dance is how we pray to our God. We dance today as we did in the old days.

We have special songs for dancing. Spedu is the name of our healing song. Another song is called Xhwaxhwata and another song is called Digam, the special song for the lion. When we start to sing this song, we fall down until the lions come. This lion is not the lion that others know. It is a Bushman lion. The Bushman lion is very special. The normal lion is black while the Bushman lion is brown. Our lion is around us today. When we sing our special song, this special Bushman lion comes to us. The people who change into lions are called Batlhuo xbaxwaukwe. They live far away.

Tshiyama

I know all about the Bushmen's healing ways and am happy to tell you whatever you want to know. I am an old man now and my power is not as strong as it was when I was young, but I still have much knowledge.

I was born in the village of Gope. There I grew up and it is my true home. Life for my parents was extremely hard. There was no food. I had to walk all day to find roots for us to eat. These roots were named thobukwe and moko. They kept my family alive.

My father knew about medicines and healing. My grandfather was one of the best medicine men among the Bushmen. He taught my father. My grandfather made all the medicines and he could suck diseases from people. When my grandfather touched someone, he could tell what was wrong with them. He would then cut that person to suck out the illness. My grandfather and father didn't dance. They did other medicines. Both my father and grandfather taught me their ways of healing.

When I was a young man I was taught to use my hands to heal. In the beginning my grandfather would sit down and the spirit would come and tell him if someone was sick. That's how he knew what was wrong. He also taught me to touch a dead person in order to find out what killed them.

The spirits of my grandfather and father are now in me. I can talk with them at any time — morning, afternoon, or evening. When my father and grandfather told me about my ancestors, I learned that the father of my grandfather was also a healer as was his father. From the very beginning, my ancestors were healers.

Today when I talk with them, they worry about what to do with the presents I receive from healing others. My grandfather and his father want me to share the gifts with them. My father tells them that I receive very little so it is hard to share. These ancestors come while I am healing and ask me to share the gifts I receive. They complain and it pains my heart.

It is now possible for me to walk into the bush and find a medicine that will help anyone who is sick. My power is still strong. When I'm in the bush sitting down to pray and sing the spirit of my father and grandfather come to me. They show me which roots to dig up and what to do with them to help others.

When my grandfather and father taught me, they said, "You must know that with all of these powers we give you, you must pray to the Big God, Gawa, to ask for help to be true." When my father and grandfather were alive, they told me to go to the bush and pray to the Big God for power to Wnd and make a medicine that will help a sick person.

When I touch a sick person, I feel something in my fingers. It feels like a thorn in my fingers and then the sickness goes to my heart and hurts me. Then my father or grandfather says to me, "Yes we can fix it." They tell me what medicines to find.

After I touch a person, I feel pain, but after my grandfather and father speak to me, the pain goes away. Some of the medicines they tell me to find in the bush are old medicines they used when they were alive. At other times, however, they will tell me about a new medicine. So I keep learning about medicines from their spirits.

If someone comes to me and says, "Teach me to be a doctor," I am free to teach them. Most people are afraid when they start to learn so they quit trying to learn. But if they stay with me, I will give them all of my power.

When I teach you to become a doctor, I throw a pain into you. I also send a pain from a dead person into you. Then I cut several places on your back and place medicine powder over the cuts. The pain immediately goes away. I continue to throw pains into you and take them away as a way of teaching you to heal.

I might even throw a pain into you and make you die. Then I bring you back to life. You learn to find your power this way. When the pain is thrown into you, you fall down. When I remove the pain, you wake up and feel normal. My father and grandfather gave me the power to do this. Also, the spirit of the Big God can come to me and make things happen.

As a medicine man, I shouldn't carelessly tell people what I am. A person who is sick must come to me privately and ask for help. Then I do my doctoring. This is how I live my life.

Xixae Xau

In the past, Bushmen would turn into lions. Sometimes this would happen during the dance. While this person danced, he would become a lion. I personally knew some of these lion people.

Unless you are a traditional doctor, it is hard for you to see whether a lion is a regular lion or a Bushman lion. There are many Bushmen doctors around the Kalahari. Many doctors want to challenge other doctors. This is why it is good to be able to turn into a lion and see whether another medicine man is trying to challenge you or your community.

If a doctor from another village was coming to kill someone, they would turn into lions and go and kill that doctor before he could do any harm to our people. If we wanted food, they would turn themselves into a lion and then hunt for meat.

I know one man in Dobe who still turns into a lion. He can change into many different kinds of animals. But if you ask him, he probably will say that he can't do this. It is a very secretive thing. All healers use a spirit which does the healing. Also, when people turn themselves into a lion, it is a special spirit that makes this happen. During ancient times it was good to turn into a lion. It helped you to kill those people who wanted to kill you.

I knew several old men who could turn themselves into lions. Their names were Xuma Xwii and Tshao Kgao. There was another man, but I can't remember his name. They were from this village. They protected us from outside doctors who wanted to hurt us. Today the doctors around here don't challenge each other so we don't need the same kind of protection.

These men were very powerful doctors. They were more powerful than the medicine people who dance today. They started to heal when they were young boys so when they were old they were very powerful. They made a very loud sound when they healed — a sound louder than what is heard today. When they healed in the dance they shook very hard

They learned how to become lions from their fathers and their fathers learned from the Big God. Part of the secret is the way they dance. It is the dance that makes this happen. In the dance their father passed this spirit into them, and then they were able to dance themselves into becoming lions.

It makes me happy to be filled with the spirit. The spirit also comes to me outside the dance. When the spirit comes, it enters the base of my spine, and it makes my belly tight and hot. And then I shake. The shaking goes into my entire body. I then see the light come on me, and it directs me to work on others. The light also can take me to other places. It looks like a string of light. I just float with the string, and then I am taken into the sky. There I meet all my ancestors and the Big God.

I would like everyone in the world to know how the Bushmen heal each other and how they receive their spirits. I believe that all people can learn to heal this way. If I give you my spirit, you can go home and transmit it to others. This is good for everyone. The Bushmen spirit is our most important gift. It can teach you to heal and teach you how to be happy.

Nxuka Soria

Even though some people here don't stick to the culture, my family and I are keeping the Bushmen culture. The spirit was given to me by the old blind man, Xixae Dxao. I only get into the spirit during the drum song.

If a medicine woman is strong enough, she can transmit power to someone else. At present there are no women who can do this, although there were some who could do it in the past. Xhwaa Xokga was able to do this. She was a very powerful woman who could heal very sick people. She was as strong in the spirit as any medicine man.

If you are not scared of the spirit being inside you, you can be very strong. It doesn't matter whether you are a man or a woman. The spirit and the medicine are the same for both men and women. However, there are no stories about women becoming lions or other animals. I know that this has happened to some of the more powerful medicine men.

In the drum dance, the spirit taps my lower back and then it shoots up my spinal cord to the top of my head. It makes me shake all over. I then see the light, and it takes me to the person who is sick.

The spirit was so strong in me that it scared me. I don't allow it to take me any more. Today I only sing at the dances. The spirit scares all the women in our community, and we only sing and clap at the dance. We are healed by the dance, but we tend to stay away from having the spirit entering our bodies.

Most of the men are braver than the women. That is why there are more men who hold the spirit. In the case of Xhwa she stayed with a family of doctors. It was her father that transmitted the spirit to her. When she transmitted the spirit to you, her hands would grab your belly and shake the spirit into you.

There was also a blind medicine woman named Xuka Dxao. She was the leader of medicine women. She was a good doctor and was very powerful. She was one of the bravest women we ever knew. This helped her hold the spirit. When she was in the dance, she held the people tight and shouted loudly. I don't know whether women will be brave like that in the future.

When we women sing around the fire, some of us get the spirit and shake as we sing. If a woman gets the spirit in the dance, the men come over to help her calm down. They calm the spirit down by stroking her chest. because she is scared.

If a person falls down in the dance, they get up and dance again. They may fall down again later, over and over, throughout the night.

At the beginning of the dance, the women may tease the men and tell jokes. This doesn't always happen and it doesn't mean anything when it takes place, it just happens naturally.

The men are more serious about the dance than the women. They go there to get the spirit while the women go for more social reasons. When the men get the spirit they touch everyone. We usually don't feel anything when they touch us, but we believe they are healing us. If we have the spirit inside us, they tell us and if it gets too powerful they help calm it down. When Xixae transmitted his spirit to me, I didn't know beforehand that he was going to do it. It surprised me, and I was a little scared.