Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, born on 21 July 1921 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is a Zulu Sangoma (traditional healer) and High Sanusi. He is well known and respected for his work in nature conservation, and as an author of ground breaking books on African mythology and spiritual beliefs. Some of his work has led to him being seen as an outcast by fellow Sangoma’s or traditional healers, and even the larger African community in South Africa.
EARLY LIFE
His father was a widower with three surviving children when he met his mother. His father was a builder and a Christian and his mother was a young Zulu girl. Caught between Catholic missionaries on one hand, and a stubborn old Zulu warrior, Credo’s maternal grandfather, his parents had no choice but to separate. Credo Mutwa was born out of wedlock which caused a great scandal in the village and his mother was thrown out by her father. Later she was taken in by one of her aunts.
He was subsequently raised by his father’s brother and was taken to the South Coast of Natal, near the northern bank of the Umkumazi River. He did not attend school until he was 14 years old. In 1935 his father found a building job in the old Transvaal province and the whole family relocated to where he was building. In 1937 he experienced a great shock and trauma when he was seized and sodomized by a gang of mineworkers outside a mine compound. After this he was ill for a long time.
Where Christian doctors had failed, his grandfather, a man whom his father despised as a heathen and demon worshipper, helped him back to health. At this point Credo began to question many of the things about his people the missionaries would have them believe. “Were we Africans really a race of primitives who possessed no knowledge at all before the white man came to Africa?” he asked himself. His grandfather instilled in him the belief that his illness was a sacred sign that he was to become a shaman, a healer. He underwent initiation from one of his grandfather’s daughters, young sangoma named Myrna.
Quote: Credo Mutwa: “I wish to appeal to the world. First, I am not a quack or a charlatan or a sensationalist. I am an old man who has seen much. I wish the world to know that there is a faint ray of hope that emanates from South Africa.”
This section contains a short autobiography of Credo Mutwa. It was originally published on a website which does not exist any more. As far as I can tell this is true in the sense of his philosophy and his vision.
EARLY LIFE
His father was a widower with three surviving children when he met his mother. His father was a builder and a Christian and his mother was a young Zulu girl. Caught between Catholic missionaries on one hand, and a stubborn old Zulu warrior, Credo’s maternal grandfather, his parents had no choice but to separate. Credo Mutwa was born out of wedlock which caused a great scandal in the village and his mother was thrown out by her father. Later she was taken in by one of her aunts.
He was subsequently raised by his father’s brother and was taken to the South Coast of Natal, near the northern bank of the Umkumazi River. He did not attend school until he was 14 years old. In 1935 his father found a building job in the old Transvaal province and the whole family relocated to where he was building. In 1937 he experienced a great shock and trauma when he was seized and sodomized by a gang of mineworkers outside a mine compound. After this he was ill for a long time.
Where Christian doctors had failed, his grandfather, a man whom his father despised as a heathen and demon worshipper, helped him back to health. At this point Credo began to question many of the things about his people the missionaries would have them believe. “Were we Africans really a race of primitives who possessed no knowledge at all before the white man came to Africa?” he asked himself. His grandfather instilled in him the belief that his illness was a sacred sign that he was to become a shaman, a healer. He underwent initiation from one of his grandfather’s daughters, young sangoma named Myrna.
Quote: Credo Mutwa: “I wish to appeal to the world. First, I am not a quack or a charlatan or a sensationalist. I am an old man who has seen much. I wish the world to know that there is a faint ray of hope that emanates from South Africa.”
This section contains a short autobiography of Credo Mutwa. It was originally published on a website which does not exist any more. As far as I can tell this is true in the sense of his philosophy and his vision.
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