Mariam Sweya and Mbula Sukuma healers,  by Mark H.C. Bessire

Both in their thirties, these two young traditional doctors have had no problem finding a niche in the need for general practioners in the 1990's even during the increased presence of modern medicine. In fact, there may even be a backlash against modern medicine as its potential is negated by a poor delivery system and inadequate facilities. Mbula lives a fair distance from the Musoma road near Lake Victoria and Sweya lives off the Musoma road near Igoma and not far from Mwanza. They are both financially successful and Mbula has two wives and four children and Sweya is one of two wives and has many children. Even though she is one of two wives, she certainly is the leader of her compound and her husband, a muslim, payed a very large bride price for the honor of marriage and thus access to her medical business.

Mariam Sweya has a very lucrative practice with a sign post on the major Musoma-Mwanza road that advertises her location, Mwanza post office box, and includes a half moon and sickle indicating her expertise in majini. The basic shape of her compund is round, but it is not entirely enclosed and although she lives in a traditional round Sukuma home she is building two large modern rectangle houses with aluminium roofs in the rear of the compound. She has two specific structures that are used for her work, one is a nyumba ya njiba, which is the oldest of Sukuma styles, a round structure with reeds piled up to create walls and a roof. The other an Igaga, is a healing house which is also round but supported by timbers, has a higher roof and has two entrances instead of one. The interior walls of the Igaga are painted with red ocher spots relating to Masai medicines and her part Masai heritage and white spots that signify gwa sato or python feces. Inside medicines, herbs and a majini ngoma (drum) hang from the ceiling, a shigiti with calabashes and blue glass trading beeds are in the ground, a cracked pot layed into the ground has a fizzy potion and beside it are two other broken pots, one that is supposed to always have money in it to insure a prosperous future.

On one visit during a divination she used the Igaga and sat on her isumbi (stool) which had red ochre spots, a strip of lion skin, and an ndegi. During the divination she utilized many of her shitongelejo such as her sing'wanda (fly whisk), a isamalaja (a beaded headband) and shook an nzege (gourd raddle) to communicate with her ancestors to diagnose any problems and to help unleash the potential of the patients future. On another occasion she had the patient take some millet, spit in it and then place it under their pillow the night before they come back to visit her. She explained that this enabled her to see into the patients dreaming and help her understand the needs of the patient. When working in the older styled dwelling she was surrounded by even more shitongelejo and used a basket with millet that had cowry shells which she tossed in the air and then by reading the formation they landed in, told the patient what each position signified in terms of the patients divination.

Sweya has many photographs of her clients which include local dignitaries, Danish from Bujora looking for dance medicine (including scarification), and a very large prominent group of Muslim elders taking part in a very complex ritual. Mbula also has many photographs of events, clients, and friends who have visited his compound. These two young bafumu have been able to bridge the wide and difficult gulf between a more modern style of life and it's needs with the traditions of their ancestors, culture, profession and the responsibilities they demand. Mbula can treat a patient that is possessed one moment because her ancestors are furious that her husband has not finished paying bride wealth and soon after play tapes on his boombox of him singing in a room full of collages from magazines and newspapers from around the world. Rather than turning their back on the traditional or the contemporary they have reconciled the past with the future, in a manner that for many in Usukuma has been impossible due to the demands of a fast changing culture and economy, that is always unpredictable and increasingly stressful. Possibly, Mbula and Mariam Sweya have the gift of healing and were able to adapt that ability to the post-independence era by placing themselves in a niche that attracts patients/clients who also have a foot in the past and future and who desire or are searching for good health and a strong identity that can withstand the demands of the ancestors and contemporary life together in the lake region of Tanzania.