Alternative Lives

AlternAtive lives John and his A Xhosa ceremonial Born in apartheid woman plays tools South Africa, John her drum Lockley left a medical career and spent 10 years training as a shaman in a quest to heal the divisions of John with his Blond, blue-eyed the country’s past spiritual teacher, John isn’t your mum Gwevu usual sangoma Four Xhosa boys gather outside a hut in eastern Cape, south Africa a special pass. The police and because they’re considered sacred, this connection. My work in the army enforced this. ‘It’s my duty it was the same dream that Mum UK feels timely, because there’s an It wasn’t until 1997, three years Gwevu had experienced the night emerging ‘green’ consciousness after apartheid had ended, that as a sangoma before her teacher said she’d here, a sense of reconnection with I was first able to enter a Xhosa finished her apprenticeship. That’s the earth and nature, and with the The sangoma’s township. I was sent there as part to help people how she knew I was finally ready dream world. temperature and had contracted of a university-sponsored health to practise as a sangoma. There’s also a growing interest tick bite fever. I realised instinctively initiative to promote AIDS honour their own Post-apartheid, black South in exploring family lineage, which that it was the beginning of the awareness. During my visit I met Africans are, at last, able to enter you can see in the popularity of thwasa, a severe period of ill health a woman called Mum Gwevu, who ancestral spirits Western culture. In the same vein, such TV series as the BBC’s Who that’s part of shamanic initiation. instantly told me she’d foreseen my it should be OK for white South Do You Think You Are? People It can only be cured through arrival in a dream the night before. and reconnect Africans to enter indigenous want to feel connected with the apprentıce finding a shamanic teacher. She said she was told by uThixo, culture, too. We’re enriching each many lives that have enabled their I left the army and went to the Great Spirit, that she’d train with humanity’ other’s traditions through respect own existence. By uncovering university to study for a clinical a person from another culture to and understanding. the stories of those in our family he beat of the drums is hypnotic. Chalk-faced over the rest of the tribe, at 6ft 3in tall, with blond hair psychology degree, but the be a senior Xhosa sangoma, like Although I have a background tree, we can connect with our tribeswomen keep the rhythm, while and blue eyes, this is a new recruit with a difference. thwasa kept flaring up. For the her, and that she recognised me shout: ‘I sometimes have dreams in clinical psychology, I’ve left this ancestors in a very physical sense. sangomas – the shamans of the Xhosa people John lockley is one of the first white men in recent next 13 years I was plagued instinctively when we met. about white ancestors guiding me, behind to concentrate full-time on New scientific research suggests T of southern Africa – sing, dance and clap. history to become a fully initiated sangoma in the by severe illnesses including Incredibly, she went on to recite and John sometimes has dreams bringing Xhosa shamanic culture we’re all descended from one small in one of the poorest townships in south Africa’s Xhosa lineage – the tribe that gave us nelson Mandela glandular fever, dysentery and everything that had happened to of Xhosa ancestors guiding him.’ to the West. I give talks, workshops African tribe who crossed the Red eastern Cape, the Xhosa people are calling upon their and Archbishop Desmond tutu. Here, he tells the hepatitis A. Doctors were at a loss me since the thwasa began. She I lived with the tribe for extended and one-to-one sessions in the Sea and began to populate the ancestors to bless a newly initiated sangoma. towering story of his remarkable journey. to explain it. I lost a great deal told me the illness would subside periods during my apprenticeship UK and South Africa. I know it’s my rest of the world. It’s uplifting to of weight and became very when I’d been initiated. Mum of 10 years. My training involved duty as a sangoma to help people feel that in this sense we all have depressed. I had several near-death Gwevu also gave me the name assisting my teacher with mixing honour their ancestral spirits and Africa in our blood, we all have My name is John Keith Kelly with the light of the ancestors to lift African indigenous culture and experiences, too, including being Ucingolwendaba, which means and preparing medicinal herbs, to reconnect with Ubuntu (our ancient African ancestors, and Lockley. Kelly is my mother’s people’s spirit energy and heal. recognised him immediately as a washed out to sea. bridge, connector, or healer giving vumisa (future predictions) humanity and inner dignity). When we all long to sing the same song: maiden name, and in the Xhosa I was born in 1971, into a South sangoma. I was asking him to train I also continued to have dreams between peoples or cultures. and taking part in traditional we do this, there’s less of a desire Masembo, masembo… Remember, tradition it’s important to honour Africa divided by apartheid, to an me and teach me about suffering. that urged me to find a teacher, Mum Gwevu saw to it that I was ancestral Xhosa ceremonies, to destroy or put down others. remember… the old ways of the our maternal lineage as well Irish mother and a Zimbabwean He told me I’d have to suffer greatly but this seemed impossible. During accepted into the tribe, but there which involved trance dancing. I’ve been running my Ubuntu ancestors… as our fathers’ line. Sangoma is father. When I was born I had to truly understand. apartheid, black and white people was still animosity towards me in My apprenticeship ended when workshops since 2007 and use a Zulu word that means ‘people a band of lighter white skin around When I awoke the next morning, were segregated. Black people the first five years of my training one day I told my teacher about sacred ceremony, powerful rituals • For more information about John’s of the song’, as we go into trance my eyes. I found out much later I knew becoming a sangoma was lived in townships and white because I was white. Each time the a particularly strong dream I’d had. with plants, Xhosa songs and workshops and one-to-one sessions, through song and rhythm to that in Xhosa culture this is one my calling. I had a severely high people weren’t allowed in without problem arose my teacher used to Although I can’t reveal its details trance rhythms to encourage visit www.african-shaman.com ‘connect with the ancestral realm. of the signs that a person will be We also receive spiritual direction called to be a sangoma. With mum Gwevu and Carrying out healing through our dreams to heal and At 16 I began to have vivid her husband, tata sangomas in performing work on a remote farm ry.com training have a cleansing A guide the community. dreams that would manifest ’ r their faces ritual using B i painted white medicinal herbs L Sangomas are shamans, in reality. It was years before and shamanism predates the I understood what my dreams photo world’s major religions. It’s an were asking of me. ancient healing tradition that’s Then, in 1990, at 18 years old, cross-cultural. Many peoples, I was conscripted into the South photos including the Inuit and the Native African Army and trained as a Americans, draw on similar medic. I was helping to rehabilitate beliefs and practices. soldiers who were fighting in the y turner In the days of the British Empire, Border War between South sall sangomas were labelled ‘witch Africa and Angola when I had doctors’ by Christian missionaries. a particularly strong dream. In it This led to the misconception I was the apprentice of a Xhosa that we practise black magic, but man, draped in traditional animal Compiled BY authentic sangomas only work skins. I was familiar with South 34 June 2010 www.spiritanddestiny.co.uk www.spiritanddestiny.co.uk June 2010 35.

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