Traditional healers say foreigners and fly-by-nights give them a bad name

A prominent traditional healer at Walvis Bay urged the Ministry of Health and Social Services this week to speed up the law-making process for Namibia to have a Traditional Health Practitioners Act, as this would be the only way to put practical guidelines in place to manage the conduct of traditional healers.

Immanuel Katambo says too many people are calling themselves traditional healers, but are in actual fact greedy, cunning individuals whose only aim is to steal people’s money or even having access to females for the purposes of sexual abuse.
Katambo gathered a number of advertisements of several Namibian publications and explained many of these traditional healers are in fact a single person advertising under different names and different cell phone numbers.
“There is no such thing as a traditional healer who can make you rich overnight by taking a stash of your cash to keep it at his house overnight. These individuals are just looking for an opportunity to dis-appear with your hard-earned cash, as in all these cases the advertisements fail to provide a fixed address of the so called traditional healer”, explained Katambo.
The list goes on of what traditional doctors or healers promise you: from genital enlargements to fixing marital problems or disease. Katambo urged the public not to fall in the trap of scrupulous individuals who win your confidence as a traditional healer, only to turn out as a shark who wants to exploit the situation for greed or other unwanted reasons.
Katambo showed namib times an attendance list of a number of people who attended a meeting last year of an Association of Traditional Healers.
“If you look at this list you will see a number of alarming facts. Firstly, many traditional healers are non Namibians. Namibians are used to certain traditional customs, but people from our neighbouring countries with other customs and beliefs are targeting our people. They fall prey to scrupulous individuals who steal from them and exploit them.
Myself as a respected traditional healer who inherited this gift of healing from my late grandfather, want only Namibians to act as traditional healers in our own country”, explained Katambo. He uses only natural products from the land.
“We spoke to representatives of the Ministry of Health and Social Services who advised us to leave the matter for the time being and wait for the Traditional Health Practitioners Act”, explained Katambo.
Katambo further explained if there is an Act, regulations could put practical guidelines in place to register traditional healers. Criteria would include permanent addresses, proper identification and Namibian citizenship and boundaries as to what traditional healers do.
“I cannot make you rich overnight. God knows who must be rich or poor. It is not up to me and so is it also not up to me to cure you of Aids or make you physically prosperous with bigger genitals. Namibians must take the effort to properly understand what a traditional healer can do and cannot do”, explained Katambo.
“My cell phone number is 081 275 1679. Before you consult a traditional healer, call me first. We as Namibians have customs that come from our ancestors. Only Namibian traditional healers share these customs from our forebears”, according to Katambo. Adding he is connected to a network of respected Namibian traditional healers who can be traced by address and who are known and respected individuals. They can therefore assist in directing you to the right person in your region.