Marital problems, greedy relatives, difficulties with the law? Wilson Mugwegweni can put an end to your troubles, writes Sam Zulu
He is so respected and feared that people in his village pay him protection money, criminals have fled his district and the Zambian national soccer team probably owe their international reputation to his ministrations. Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda’s son even came to him when he got into difficulties with the law for allegedly gunning down a woman.
Wilson Mugwegweni is Zambia’s “king of herbs”. He treats ailments ranging from impotence to greedy relatives. Soccer players, Cabinet ministers and businesspeople flock to his home in Nyangwena, Chongwe, for muti to help them succeed and prosper.
Hitchhikers in the area are never stranded for long – motorists fear dire consequences if they offend the large Mugwegweni clan and are quick to stop and offer assistance.
And while healers and sangomas are common throughout the subcontinent, Mugwegweni stands out because he thinks big. So big that to cater for the galaxy of rich and famous clients and tourists, Mugwegweni now intends building a red-bricked hospital, posh restaurants and an assortment of boutiques and craft shops at his village.
Most of Mugwegweni’s clients purchase muti ranging from purgatives to love potions; roots to cure impotence, hasten job promotions, invigorate athletes, punish enemies or track down wizards and witches.
So large is the influx of Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, white investors (mostly South Africans who have come in their thousands), divorcees, outraged widows, jilted lovers, misappropriators of public funds and fortune-seekers, that their vehicles often jam the country roads to Nyangwena.
Zambia’s most talented soccer players, including national goalkeeper James Phiri, Kenneth and Moridon Malitoli, Johnston Bwalya and Kings Musabula, have sought Mugwegweni’s assistance.
“Hardly a week passes without us receiving either a senior government minister or someone who has just inherited wealth from deceased relatives,” says Mugwegweni’s son, Vincent.
Christopher Tembo recently came to Mugwegweni for assistance with a court case. He had been embroiled in a legal battle with his relatives since 1984, after he inherited a grocery shop from an uncle.
Mugwegweni guaranteed him “outright success” in the court case, and a few days later the high court found in Tembo’s favour, although he was instructed to share the profits of the business with his relatives.
Vincent Mugwegweni (21) does most of the dispensing of the herbs and other remedies. He is one of 18 brothers and 15 sisters and has assisted his father since he was nine years old.
“I’ve been my father’s personal assistant since 1996, and I know all kinds of medicines, including the cure for Aids or HIV.”
But medicines must be paid for. Mugwegweni demands a monthly fee of R800 from his village to protect it from wizards. Individuals seeking the same protection pay R400.
People seeking court acquittals in simple cases like assault pay R150, and job-seekers pay R75. Women wanting to meet prospective husbands or vice versa part with R70.
“Due to the endless crowds which come to our village there are times when our medical establishment makes up to R10 000 a day, but some of our earnings pay salaries to various employees like hewers of firewood [the village lacks electricity], drawers of water and shepherds,” says Vincent Mugwegweni.
“We attend to foreign and local customers from various walks of life. But, the most important Zambian we have so far gotten out of trouble is a son of Kaunda, who shot dead a Lusaka girl. We received eight bulls when the case ended amicably years ago.”
Exactly how dangerous is Wilson Mugwegweni?
“My father is greatly feared by everyone because, though friendly and affable, he reacts horribly if or when wronged,” Vincent Mugwegweni warns. “We had thieves in this area many years ago, but after our muti had killed the culprits, nobody would dare rob us again.
“We no longer bother to guard our 140 head of cattle, cars, tractors, pigs, chickens, guinea fowl, turkeys, pigeons, rabbits and other livestock which roam this village, because Mugwegweni’s property must be left alone.
“You touch, you die, and there are no two ways about it. No one even attempts to commit adultery with the married women of this village, nor can men divorce our girls after marrying them because the consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate.”
Many Zambians recall the bizarre case of June 1989, when two buses belonging to the government-owned United Bus Company of Zambia were stolen at gunpoint.
“The Mugungaile brothers of Chongwe were allegedly caught red-handed by the police as they dismantled and burnt the buses somewhere in the bushes of the Kanakantapa Resettlement Scheme, some 40km from Lusaka,” Vincent Mugwegweni recalls.
“But after the detained suspects paid us 50 000 kwacha (now equivalent to about R140), most of the key witnesses were nowhere to be seen, police investigators died from mysterious illnesses and the case was thrown out of court.
“The suspects were given bus spare parts worth millions of kwacha which had been held as exhibits, and by 1992 the case was dead and buried.”
Wilson Mugwegweni was born in 1930 in Zimbabwe’s Matebele Resettlement Zone. Here he met freedom fighter Joshua Nkomo.
As one of Nkomo’s political refugees who fled British rule and sought asylum in Zambia, known then as Northern Rhodesia, Mugwegweni was among the Zimbabweans who composed Shosholoza and other freedom songs.
Fluent in South African Zulu, Xhosa, Zimbabwean Ndebele, Shona, English and Zambian languages like Nguni, Nsenga, Tonga, Lenje, Soli and Nyanja, Mugwegweni has six wives, 33 children and 30 grandchildren, who consume almost 14 000kg of home-grown maize every year.