IT IS said that when the ancestors call you to become a sangoma, there is no turning away.
This holds true for everyone, even if you are a mlungu!
Olivia Owen from Honeydew in Joburg had her initiation ceremony in Vosloorus extension 28, Ekurhuleni, on Saturday.
The ceremony started in the indumba, where Olivia screamed loudly to the ancestors as though they were far away.
Then she came outside accompanied by another trainee, Jacky Makola, to meet their gobela, Joyce Masilela.
Joyce was waiting with two buckets – one filled with muthi and the other with pure warm water.
A goat was placed on Olivia’s shoulders before it was slaughtered by gobela Joyce, who then told the white woman to drink its blood!
After drinking it, Olivia vomited to remove the blood from her system.
During the ceremony other sangomas played drum- beats to raise Olivia’s ancestral spirits.
“My idlozi, known as Vuyani Nkabinde, was in my body throughout the process,” Olivia told the People’s Paper afterwards.
“Even when I was drinking the blood, I could not feel it and I did what I was supposed to do,” she said.
Olivia, who is the co-founder of a mining company, said she had been plagued by illness for more than 30 years and doctors were unable to cure her.
“One day I had a dream in which I saw a big snake. Then I saw a black man who told me I should train to be a sangoma,” she told Daily Sun.
She said the man told her his name was Vuyani Nkabinde from KZN and that he used to work for her forefathers. Gobela Joyce (48) said she had never trained a mlungu before. “I was puzzled when she arrived last month but I had to do my job.”
