{"id":7716,"date":"2013-07-24T14:16:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T14:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7716"},"modified":"2013-07-24T14:16:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T14:16:34","slug":"witchdoctors-perform-ritual-for-mandela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7716","title":{"rendered":"Witchdoctors perform ritual for Mandela"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_4697\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4697\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/sangoma-traditional-ritual.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4697\" alt=\"Xhosa sangomas in Mgwali village, Eastern Cape of South Africa performing a cultural dance.\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/sangoma-traditional-ritual-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/sangoma-traditional-ritual-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/sangoma-traditional-ritual.jpg 634w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4697\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xhosa sangomas in Mgwali village, Eastern Cape of South Africa performing a cultural dance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A group of Gauteng traditional healers performed a ritual for former president Nelson Mandela on Wednesday, outside the Pretoria hospital where he has been treated for 47 days.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The healers burnt incense in a pot, knelt on the ground, sprinkled tobacco, sang and summoned the Madiba ancestors to heal Mandela.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Khubane Mashele, the chairwoman of the traditional healers&#8217; interim council in Gauteng, asked the spirits of those who had passed during the struggle to help heal the anti-apartheid icon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We summon the great kings and soldiers of the struggle to help us in calling the ancestors of Mandela, and help him heal because we still need him,&#8221; Mashele said in xiTsonga during the ritual.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier in the day, a group of traditional leaders from the North West arrived at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital to deliver messages of support and a bucket of flowers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kgosi Madoda Zibi, chairman of the house of North West traditional leaders, said they hoped to convey a message to the Mandela family.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We have been mandated by the North West traditional leaders to come and express our well-wishes,&#8221; Zibi said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We just want to thank him for his contribution to the liberation of his country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zibi and his delegation were told to place the flowers and a card at the wall outside the facility&#8217;s Celliers Street entrance, where messages of support had been left since Mandela was hospitalised on June 8 with a recurring lung infection. &#8211; Sapa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of Gauteng traditional healers performed a ritual for former president Nelson Mandela on Wednesday, outside the Pretoria hospital where he has been treated for 47 days. The healers burnt incense in a pot, knelt on the ground, sprinkled tobacco, sang and summoned the Madiba ancestors to heal Mandela. Khubane Mashele, the chairwoman of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7716\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Witchdoctors perform ritual for Mandela&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2242,327,139,877,3500,4217],"class_list":["post-7716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-health","tag-mandela","tag-pretoria","tag-sangoma","tag-traditional-healer","tag-witchdoctors"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/sangoma-traditional-ritual.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7717,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716\/revisions\/7717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}