New York Based Cameroonian Documentary Filmmaker Boniface Ndemping Wewe Condemns Witchcraft in Documentary that Examines and Lauds Genuine Witchdoctors

"Witchdoctors: A Day in the Other Africa" acknowledges some of the ills of Africa while debunking the myth of Afro-pessimism by highlighting some indigenous/traditional occupations including African medicine that constitute the social nexus of the society and its daily life for generations. It is a work on Africa by a native and presents facts without bias but strives to educate and inspire.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) March 5, 2007 -- From Brooklyn, New York, Cameroon (West Central Africa), to Kwazulu-Natal (South Africa), African documentary filmmaker, Boniface Ndemping Wewe, aka The Ngonyama "Lion" of Brooklyn, and his co-narrator Barbara Temfack Wewe peruse some of the ills (ritual murders and body part extraction for different macabre purposes, rape of little girls as an erroneous cure for AIDS) and stereotypes about contemporary Africa.

"Witchdoctors: A Day in the Other Africa" highlights indigenous professions from Palm Wine Tapping in Santa, Cameroon, Thumb Piano (Ndenge Playing in Bali, Cameroon), Zulu Singing (Isicamiya) by the Hlahlindlela High School choir to the witchdoctor (Sangoma) profession in South Africa. In Kwangcolosi Village in the Valley of 1000 Hills, South Africa, under the leadership of the head witchdoctor (Ma Nokusho Bhengu), you would acquaint yourself with the criteria of becoming a Sangoma, sample medications MUTI) and their cures, the Initiation of a young Sangoma and esoteric dances tweaked with hallucinating growls when the ancestors are invoked. A traditional African Blessing and prayer to the ancestors concludes your day.

The tape also features Prince Dr. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, former Home Affairs Minister and Uncle of the reigning monarch, King Zwelithini, who speaks about the concept of Ubuntu (African Humanism). Prominent Zulu elders, Dr. Siphiwe Mkhize (Minister of Agriculture at the South African Embassy-Washington DC) and Mr. Sikhulu Shange-a Harlem based businessman and proprietor of the Record Shack, served as consultants.

ISBN: 0-9671238-6-0    Running Time: 45 Min; Co.
Ordering/Contact:
African Artistic Ventures
1920 Pacific Street #3
Brooklyn, New York, 11233
Telephone:(718) 953-6811
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Email: Wewendemping-at-Yahoo.com
Website: WWW.Africanvideos.Org
Available in VHS and DVD formats

A preliminary review by FANLIGHT PRODUCTIONS qualifies the work as: "An interesting and thorough approach to such an important topic."

Excerpt from a newspaper article on Ma Bhengu- Senior Sangoma (witchdoctor) and principal cast member in the video:

"Persuading Africans To Take Their Herbs With Some Antivirals
U.S.-Backed Program Pushes Doctors, Healers to Treat AIDS Patients Together":

Nokusho Bhengu was 35 years old when, she says, her dead father appeared to her in the form of a mustachioed snake and told her to leave her children and study to become a medium and healer.

"If you resist," Mrs. Bhengu says the snake warned her, "it will go badly for you." She did as she was told.

Now, 39 years later, when the sick arrive at her doorstep, she puts on a headdress made of desiccated goat gall bladders, burns incense, communes with the ancestors and then prescribes home-brewed remedies made from leaves, grasses, roots and sticks. Among other things, she says, the ancestral concoctions help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS, including weight loss and skin lesions.

Word of Mrs. Bhengu's skill has spread far and wide, from her home village of KwaNgcolosi , throughout the Valley of a Thousand Hills, into the nearby port city of Durban and, most recently, to Washington, where the Bush administration has enlisted her in its multibillion-dollar fight against AIDS.

"I have a lot of respect for what [traditional healers do," says F. Gray Handley, health attache at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria. "It makes good sense to figure out if there's a way to incorporate them into effective therapeutic programs".

by Michael M. Phillips
Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2006

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