mwana-wevhu: My grandma in Gwangwawa (Zimbabwe) wearing korekore n’anga (spiritual healer) att

mwana-wevhu:

My grandma in Gwangwawa (Zimbabwe) wearing korekore n’anga (spiritual healer) attire, 1999. She is the medium to a mudzimu (ancestor spirit) called chifurefure, which means butterfly. My uncle says, “on amai’s neck those are beads or chuma, used for decorative purposes or indicator that one is a spirit medium, then those are bengles or ndarira, they are a decorative attire which show the wealth of a person just like rings also they indicate tribe of an individual and that some of the ndariria are only put on by spirit mediums. This is also true of the fuko [waist fabric]. The tsvimbo (stick with special power) is called mwangato. The basket or tumbdu is used to store special items of a spirit (vadzimu). The spirit medium keeps this basket which contains jewellery and special African medicine or and herbs”