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Zulu Shaman: Dreams, Prophecies, and Mysteries
Offers a rare view into the world of a Zulu shaman
• Includes 14 Zulu myths as told by a traditional Zulu story keeper
• Reveals Zulu shamanic practices, including healing techniques, dreamwork, oracles, prophecy, and interactions with star beings
In this rare window into Zulu mysticism, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa breaks the bonds of traditional silence to share his personal experiences as a sangoma —a Zulu shaman. Set against the backdrop of post-colonial South Africa, Zulu Shaman relays the first-person accounts of an African healer and reveals the cosmology of the Zulu.
Mutwa begins with the compelling story of his personal journey as an English-trained Christian schoolteacher who receives a calling to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps as a shaman and keeper of folklore. He then tells the stories of his ancestors, including creation myths; how evil came to the world; the adventures of the trickster god Kintu; and Zulu relations with the “fiery visitors,” whom he likens to extraterrestrials. In an attempt to preserve the knowledge of his ancestors and encourage his vision of a world united in peace and harmony, Mutwa also shares previously guarded secrets of Zulu healing and spiritual including the curing power of the sangoma and the psychic powers of his people.
• Includes 14 Zulu myths as told by a traditional Zulu story keeper
• Reveals Zulu shamanic practices, including healing techniques, dreamwork, oracles, prophecy, and interactions with star beings
In this rare window into Zulu mysticism, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa breaks the bonds of traditional silence to share his personal experiences as a sangoma —a Zulu shaman. Set against the backdrop of post-colonial South Africa, Zulu Shaman relays the first-person accounts of an African healer and reveals the cosmology of the Zulu.
Mutwa begins with the compelling story of his personal journey as an English-trained Christian schoolteacher who receives a calling to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps as a shaman and keeper of folklore. He then tells the stories of his ancestors, including creation myths; how evil came to the world; the adventures of the trickster god Kintu; and Zulu relations with the “fiery visitors,” whom he likens to extraterrestrials. In an attempt to preserve the knowledge of his ancestors and encourage his vision of a world united in peace and harmony, Mutwa also shares previously guarded secrets of Zulu healing and spiritual including the curing power of the sangoma and the psychic powers of his people.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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946 people want to read
About the author
Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa
12 books165 followersCredo Mutwa began his life in Zululand on July 21 – 1921. He has heard about his origins and ancestral history from his father, because of the influence on his life for the most part of it. Followed by the great influenza outbreak, Credo’s father had to reallocate to save whatever was left of his family. His wife and several children had already died in South Africa.
It was 1920, just one year before Credo’s birth, when his father met a young Zulu girl. She wasn’t Christian and still practiced the religion of the old zulu tribes, and that’s where the problems started. Credo’s father had to convince his wife to embrace Christianity as her new religion - Otherwise the white missionaries would never approve of the marriage.
However, on Credo’s mother side, the family wasn’t inclined on letting their daughter go and get married to a Christian man. Her father had just been involved in the wars with the English and was of the view that Christians were barbaric thieves who stole Africa at gunpoint. Mutwa sometimes recalls his grandfather as he used to say, “I cannot allow my child to become a Christian. These Christians are a race of thieves, of liars, and murderers, who stole our country from us at sword point and at gunpoint. I would rather die than see a Christ worshipping Christian within the stockade of my village. Never!"
Little did he know that the couple was so much intensely in love that the Zulu girl was already impregnated with a child, who was later named as Credo Mutwa. Since the couple’s sides never agreed to them getting married, they did not have a choice except to part ways. The father vanished for the time being and the Zulu girl was made to return to her native village, where she faced a cold response.
The Zulu’s found it a great shame and dishonor for any child to be born out of wedlock. Hence, Credo’s mother had to live in a nearby village at her aunts, where she gave birth to him later on. After a couple of years, the father allowed his daughter to return, for he loved her dearly. But Credo was always despised, which is why he was sent to one of his father’s younger brothers who came all the way from the Natal South Coast to meet the child.
“Remove this disgrace from my home, Christian fellow!” the grandfather said to Mutwa’s uncle, “And tell your brother that if I ever set eyes on him, I will make him suffer bitterly for what he did to my daughter. I will seize him and kill him very slowly indeed. Tell him that.”
At the age of 14, Mutwa was sent to school. He couldn’t attend classes earlier because of his father’s nature of job; it took them from one town to another. From 1935 to 1937, Credo and his family had to move to different places, due to their father’s ongoing building profession. He settled down in the Transvaal for a long time, which is where Credo pursued his education properly.
1937 was also a year of shock and trauma because a gang of mine workers, who sodomized the young boy outside of a mine compound. Young Mutwa was left scared and didn’t come out of the covers for a few weeks. Thinking that he might be “sick”, the family took him to various white doctors for examination but to no avail.
It was then that it was decided for Mutwa to be taken back to the Zulu village whence he came from. The same grandfather lovingly took the boy in and cared for him as if he was one of their own. Where the white doctors failed, Mutwa’s grandfather distinctively succeeded. From then onwards, different questions started plaguing Credo Mutwa’s mind:
Were our ancestors really the savages that quiet missionaries would have us believe they were?
Were we Africans really a race of primitives who possessed no knowledge at all before the white man came to Africa?
Other queries had also made their way to this young individual’s mind and soul, which convinced him to become a shaman healer. At the hands of a young Songoma, known as Myrna, Cre
It was 1920, just one year before Credo’s birth, when his father met a young Zulu girl. She wasn’t Christian and still practiced the religion of the old zulu tribes, and that’s where the problems started. Credo’s father had to convince his wife to embrace Christianity as her new religion - Otherwise the white missionaries would never approve of the marriage.
However, on Credo’s mother side, the family wasn’t inclined on letting their daughter go and get married to a Christian man. Her father had just been involved in the wars with the English and was of the view that Christians were barbaric thieves who stole Africa at gunpoint. Mutwa sometimes recalls his grandfather as he used to say, “I cannot allow my child to become a Christian. These Christians are a race of thieves, of liars, and murderers, who stole our country from us at sword point and at gunpoint. I would rather die than see a Christ worshipping Christian within the stockade of my village. Never!"
Little did he know that the couple was so much intensely in love that the Zulu girl was already impregnated with a child, who was later named as Credo Mutwa. Since the couple’s sides never agreed to them getting married, they did not have a choice except to part ways. The father vanished for the time being and the Zulu girl was made to return to her native village, where she faced a cold response.
The Zulu’s found it a great shame and dishonor for any child to be born out of wedlock. Hence, Credo’s mother had to live in a nearby village at her aunts, where she gave birth to him later on. After a couple of years, the father allowed his daughter to return, for he loved her dearly. But Credo was always despised, which is why he was sent to one of his father’s younger brothers who came all the way from the Natal South Coast to meet the child.
“Remove this disgrace from my home, Christian fellow!” the grandfather said to Mutwa’s uncle, “And tell your brother that if I ever set eyes on him, I will make him suffer bitterly for what he did to my daughter. I will seize him and kill him very slowly indeed. Tell him that.”
At the age of 14, Mutwa was sent to school. He couldn’t attend classes earlier because of his father’s nature of job; it took them from one town to another. From 1935 to 1937, Credo and his family had to move to different places, due to their father’s ongoing building profession. He settled down in the Transvaal for a long time, which is where Credo pursued his education properly.
1937 was also a year of shock and trauma because a gang of mine workers, who sodomized the young boy outside of a mine compound. Young Mutwa was left scared and didn’t come out of the covers for a few weeks. Thinking that he might be “sick”, the family took him to various white doctors for examination but to no avail.
It was then that it was decided for Mutwa to be taken back to the Zulu village whence he came from. The same grandfather lovingly took the boy in and cared for him as if he was one of their own. Where the white doctors failed, Mutwa’s grandfather distinctively succeeded. From then onwards, different questions started plaguing Credo Mutwa’s mind:
Were our ancestors really the savages that quiet missionaries would have us believe they were?
Were we Africans really a race of primitives who possessed no knowledge at all before the white man came to Africa?
Other queries had also made their way to this young individual’s mind and soul, which convinced him to become a shaman healer. At the hands of a young Songoma, known as Myrna, Cre
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 31, 2020
This book was lent to me by a friend who is heavily into other religions and mysticism. I surprised that this book took me down a religious path. First, the fact that a shaman is a keeper of folklore, knowledge of medicine and tribal history. There is a difference between a witchdoctor, who heels and who later becomes a sangoma and a sorcerer, who casts spells.
Credo arrived at his calling in a lengthy manner and in manner that seems no different than some of the so-called Christian faith healers.
It seems that every faith has its theory of creation and who God is. The Zulus have theirs as do other tribes of Africa. Bhuddism, Hindi, Shintu and Islam, all believe in higher beings. The author has told many stories passed through folklore. Many of these stories are about the battles between good and evil.
I will say this about the attempted suppression of Zulu beliefs by European nations, Credo said the same thing that Winnie Mandela did --- Europeans arrived in South Africa with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other.
Credo arrived at his calling in a lengthy manner and in manner that seems no different than some of the so-called Christian faith healers.
It seems that every faith has its theory of creation and who God is. The Zulus have theirs as do other tribes of Africa. Bhuddism, Hindi, Shintu and Islam, all believe in higher beings. The author has told many stories passed through folklore. Many of these stories are about the battles between good and evil.
I will say this about the attempted suppression of Zulu beliefs by European nations, Credo said the same thing that Winnie Mandela did --- Europeans arrived in South Africa with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other.
September 26, 2016
This booked seemed so familiar, i felt at home while reading it and I have never been to the continent of Africa in this lifetime.
I thank everyone that was a part of making this book a reality and I am so grateful that Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa released his fear and shared his reality and folklore with the world. This is one book I will treasure.
I thank everyone that was a part of making this book a reality and I am so grateful that Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa released his fear and shared his reality and folklore with the world. This is one book I will treasure.
October 15, 2016
Ngiyakubonga baba Mutwa ngokusipha isipho sogwalo lolu.
November 16, 2022
Zulu Shaman is one of the easier books to find by the lovely and brilliant Credo Mutwa. Though not nearly as esteemed as his work Indaba, My Children, it is still a good example of his story telling and magnetism.
March 3, 2021
This is a book I will always refer to in my life. I have read twice already> There are just too many gems about our history told by us for us. It's a book I want to pass onto my children.
August 1, 2016
Volim mitove, volim priče naroda koje je bijeli čovjek ugnjetavao i njihove istine proglasio lažima, takvima da su i sami povjerovali da su to laži. Sada desetljećima i stoljećima nakon toga, njihovi šamani progovaraju o stvarima koje je znanost dokazala, a oni su ih znali i bez znanstvenih dokaza. Fascinira me činjenica da su im šamani pripremljeni za dolazak bića iz svemira, da su upoznati kroz povijest o njihovim dolascima, te da poznaju i nekoliko različitih skupina bića iz svemira. Zaista, svijet afričkog čovjeka tek trebamo upoznati.
April 9, 2021
Best book I've read in years. Spoke to my soul. More people should know the Truth and embrace the songs of the stars.
March 28, 2022
Great reading until page 157, then it degrades unfortunately.
September 13, 2022
I have loved Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa - his storytelling, his wisdom, his incredible art and his powerful insight into life and healing as a sanusi.
For all those who are looking for a lighter entry into the monumental 'Indaba, My Children', 'Zulu Shaman' is short, condensed and written in a more intimate, conversational style. Some of the stories are pulled directly from 'Indaba', while others are newer additions.
Mutwa, one of the greatest storytellers in South Africa, re-tells these lost tales. He stuns you with the incredible, intricate creation myths of the Bantu people - more palpable and exciting than the latest fantasy novels. He leaves you in awe and wonder with every tale.
To be a shaman is to be a storyteller, and to have the responsibility of shaping the narrative of history, of humanity, and the ways we understand ourselves in relation to this world. Mutwa's power is really felt throughout this book.
For all those who are looking for a lighter entry into the monumental 'Indaba, My Children', 'Zulu Shaman' is short, condensed and written in a more intimate, conversational style. Some of the stories are pulled directly from 'Indaba', while others are newer additions.
Mutwa, one of the greatest storytellers in South Africa, re-tells these lost tales. He stuns you with the incredible, intricate creation myths of the Bantu people - more palpable and exciting than the latest fantasy novels. He leaves you in awe and wonder with every tale.
To be a shaman is to be a storyteller, and to have the responsibility of shaping the narrative of history, of humanity, and the ways we understand ourselves in relation to this world. Mutwa's power is really felt throughout this book.
February 9, 2019
I loved the stories and myths that are retold, the shamanistic journey the author went through, the similarities across the world of many words and phrases but then it takes a turn into prophecies and other types of fantasy spiritual discussion which I did enjoy.
January 2, 2020
Zulu'lar hakkında daha fazla şey öğrenmek isterdim ama daha kısa tutulmuş bence orta kararın bile altında kalmış 🤷🏻♀️
April 23, 2020
Great read
Read
January 31, 2021Nicebook
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2023
What a great book
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews