In downtown Johannesburg, on a market strewn with the skins and limbs of pythons, elephants and other wild animals, exists a potion that could power players at the upcoming World Cup to run faster, kick harder and defend stronger.
The magic is contained inside an old Mellow-Wood brandy bottle filled one-third with the yellow fat of an African squirrel.
Speaking in Zulu through a translator, Thabang Khubeka, a traditional healer or nyanga, who sells remedies for everything from unemployment to bad luck in love at the Faraday market, says he advises footballers to rub a little of the grease on their feet. “A squirrel moves very fast. Like Wayne Rooney. To be like him, you need to use this oil,” says Khubeka.
From Senegal to Soweto, where the World Cup opens on June 11, players and coaches at all levels of the game seek the advice of spiritualists or traditional healers, who act as mediums between the physical world and the world of the spirits or ancestors, on how to get a leg-up on their opponents.
Tate Aaron, a well-known healer in Cameroon’s south-western city of Buea, has treated top teams in the home of the Indomitable Lions, one of six African teams competing at the World Cup. “These will make you strong, and weaken any player of the other team who wants to challenge you,” says the 67-year-old healer, whose father was also a famous healer.
Squirrel fat, which is mixed with the roots of a tree and costs about 600 rand ($78) for a course of treatment, is recommended both for footballers and people taking a court case — “because both have to dodge the defence”.
Football’s ruling body Fifa has generally steered clear of comment on traditional medicine. — DPA