Climate/Environment

BirdLife Zim educates healers on muti trade

MARTIN MULEYA

MUTARE CITY-BirdLife Zimbabwe has embarked on a whirlwind tour of Manicaland, Midlands and Masvingo provinces educating healers on the use and conservation of vultures or their parts in traditional medicine.

Addressing traditional healers, faith healers and journalists at a joint one day workshop that was held at a local hotel in Mutare, BirdLife Zimbabwe, preventing extinctions program manager, Leeroy Moyo underscored that vultures were among the most threatened species in the country. He emphasized that these birds are an integral part of the ecosystem, playing a vital role in cleaning up the environment.

“We are here in Mutare meeting with traditional healers and journalists. With traditional healers we are focusing on vultures, trying to educate them (traditional healers) on the importance of vultures in the ecosystem and why it is important to have a synergy between them and BirdLife Zimbabwe.

“Across Africa 29% of vulture related deaths are due to the use of the vultures in muti trade. Our mission is to elaborate why it is important for traditional healers to come up with substitutes than killing vultures for their traditional practices.

“Another aspect is we are looking at the law. Some do not know that vultures are a specially protected animals under the sixth schedule of Parks and Wildlife Act,” explained Moyo.

Traditional Medical Practitioners Council (TMPC), chief licencing officer, Jenny Mawuzhendi reiterated that traditional healers who are into the practice of killing vultures for muti trade purposes were fake healers who are bent on making a fortune from desperate sick patients.

Mawuzhendi urged traditional healers that there were other alternatives that they could make use of instead of killing vultures willy-nilly.

“We have traditional healers and faith healers who are fortune tellers, after using muti trade from killing vultures. Such people are very good at fortune telling but know nothing about healing a sick person using traditional medicines. We have other things we can use instead of using vultures,” urged Mawuzhendi.

A traditional healer, Tichaona Kariteni concurred with Mawuzhendi’s sentiments adding that many of his colleagues were after seeking fame, fortune and popularity.

“We have some of us who are so obsessed with seeking fame. These people have gone out of their way to even kill vultures. But as far as we are concerned as traditional healers we have not yet witnessed one of us who is killing vultures for muti trade,” he said.

Tawanda Mukungatu, a faith healer from Mutare weighed in saying prophesying is not about telling the national identity of a person but when you use muti trade to enhance prophecy then one cease to be a true faith healer.

“We must use the medicines prescribed by our ancestors. No prophecy can tell what is inside a person’s stomach. A true prophecy of the Holy Spirit is all about telling the real problem as has been explained by a traditional healer because these things exist in the air already. My job would just be to underscore a point but when I use a vulture to enhance my prophecy then that prophecy becomes misleading,” said Mukungatu.

Vultures are birds of prey that mainly feed on flesh of a dead animals.

Birds are one of the visible ecological indicators of a health environment, because they are sensitive to habitat changes. There are about 9 856 living bird species in the world while Zimbabwe has more than 860 bird species living in water, forests and wetlands.

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