The Sunday Mail
Sekuru Kamwelo Banda — the popular Harare-based traditional healer, herbalist and spiritualist — has a burning desire to one day travel to Vatican City and meet Pope Francis, from whom he said he draws inspiration.
Pope Francis is the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, and his position as ex officio Bishop of Rome makes him the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination.
Sekuru Banda has forged a working relationship with people from diverse religious and cultural beliefs.
“Although I am a Muslim and traditional healer, I have great respect for other for religions. I draw a lot of inspiration from Pope Francis and several other Christian leaders. I am on a learning curve and in the event that I meet him, I am expecting to learn a lot from him,” Sekuru Banda said.
He talked about his daily experiences with the Christian community.
“Research has shown that the majority of Zimbabweans are Christians. When I treat people, I don’t look at their religious beliefs. Our clinic, just like Harare Hospital for example, caters for everyone since I treat people as people and not basing on their religious beliefs,” said Sekuru Banda, who was speaking on the sidelines of a training session that he recently conducted in Victoria Falls and Livingstone, Zambia.
During the session, Dr Banda taught 200 herbalists, medical doctors and scientists drawn from several European countries some aspects of African culture and traditional healing.
According to Sekuru Banda, the group that he taught were drawn from people of different religious beliefs.
Apart from some aspects of African traditional medicine, the group also learnt about such spiritual aspects as evil spirits.
“It is known that the Western world is struggling to contain such diseases as diabetes, various types of cancers, arthritis, heart diseases and asthma, among others. African traditional medicine can easily cure such ailments. Medical doctors cannot chase away evil spirits,” added Sekuru Banda.
When casting out evil spirits, Sekuru Banda said: “I do everything myself. There is no need for beer brewing ceremonies. What a client simply does is to present the problem.”
As part of efforts to learn other religious and cultural beliefs, Sekuru Banda visited Israel last year and visited some of the most important religious sites in Jerusalem.
He also briefly stayed and exchanged notes with Kwaku Nana Bonsam, the well-known Ghanaian traditional healer and fetish priest.
Fetish priests serve as mediators between the spirit world and the living.
