VLAKPLAAS, South Africa, Dec 16 (AFP) - Some 600 South African traditional leaders, wearing animal skins and beating drums, gathered on national reconciliation day Sunday for a healing ceremony at Vlakplaas, once the secret base of apartheid-era hit squads infamous for torture and executions.
"I feel this place has now been transformed and belongs to the whole nation. This (ceremony) has started to heal the wounds," writer and member of parliament Wally Serote told AFP after the powerful ritual in which the leaders called on the country's ancestors to heal the site.
Amid the beat of drums and the blowing whistles, traditional healers decorated in skins, beads and embroidered cloaks also called on ancestors in many different languages for help finding a cure for AIDS and ending violent crime.
The invocation was the culmination of a three-day gathering, which involved the ritual sacrifice of animals on the farm.
Serote said it was unprecedented to have 600 traditional healers from all nine provinces together in one place.
South African security police in the 1980s used the former farm, hidden in green hills west of Pretoria, as the headquarters for death squads targeting anti-apartheid activists.
From Vlakplaas they deployed "Askaris", captured fighters from the liberation movements who were turned against their former comrades, on deadly missions.
In November 1989 an Askari on death row, Almond Nofemela, exposed Vlakplaas.
He also testified that another Askari who had threatened to go public about Vlakplaas was murdered and buried on the farm by his white bosses.
A commission of inquiry into police hits squads in June 1990 and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard further horrifying details of its operations.
But Sunday marks a new beginning for the farm, to be turned into a national centre of indigenous knowledge, Serote and traditional healers at the ceremony said.
"I foresee a great change for this area," said Sazi Mhlongo, chairman of the forum of traditional leaders. "When we leave, we leave this as a holy place to be blessed with success, kindness and peace."
The traditional leaders used the occasion to "deny the myth ... that HIV/AIDS can be cured by having sex with infants, children, virgins and the elderly", a belief that is seen as contributing to a recent spate of child rapes.
In their prayers, they called on their ancestors to help them "cure HIV/AIDS and all other diseases that are considered incurable".
They also condemned witchcraft and the murder of people for body parts.
"Let the killing of innocent people for their body parts come to an end. We as traditional healers denounce these acts as those of evil.
"Bring an end to criminal acts that are committed all over the nation ... (an end) to senseless killings," they chanted.
The traditional healers, widely consulted and respected, intend to use the centre at Vlakplaas for developing and protecting their knowledge.
011216
AF0112A9
Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2001 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission.. http://www.afp.com/
ÆGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2001 - ÆGiS. ÆGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on ÆGIS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of ÆGIS and the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
