The Loliondo miracle cure, which may be aptly captured by the expression Loliondo-mania, has electrified the sensibilities, anxieties, curiosity, hopes and expectations of people in, and beyond Tanzania.
Predictably, it has triggered a debate pitting those who associate it with superstition against those who assign a scientific credit to it, albeit coupled with a divine touch.
On the whole, however, the pendulum seems titled in favour of those who believe that the herbal mugariga concoction administered by retired Lutheran Pastor Ambilikile Masapila is potent, going by testimonies of outright or partial cure, as well as considerable relief by patients of diseases that include the still vaccine-and-cure defiant HIV/Aids.
It is inconceivable that those claiming medical salvation or relief can be part of a fictitious theatrical show, for, who can sacrifice or volunteer ones poor health to be manipulated as a tool for amusing or fooling the rest of mankind? And at what cost in return? We submit that, people can, in their thousands, as has happened and may do so in future, be ensnared in such wajinga ndio waliwao (fools paradise) traps as the Deci pyramid scheme, due to the itch for rapid financial fortunes.
That ensnarement cannot conceivably be replicated in the health of individuals and their beloved ones, by manifesting it through trooping or escorted in droves to the until-recently sleepy Samunge village some 400 kilometres from Arusha, including terminally ill patients de-hooked from drips in hospital beds.
The cure seekers include academically highly advanced, widely travelled, scientifically and technologically vastly exposed politicians, corporate executives, public sector technocrats, business sector wheeler-dealers and socially high-profile opinion leaders, who cannot even remotely be associated with primitive beliefs paradoxically, some medical doctors have not only shunted modern medicine aside and partaken of Reverend Masapilas mugariga dose, but have expressed amazement over persons they knew had been HIV-positive but had subsequently tested negative! Springing from Loliondo-mania however, are aspects like mismanaged medical service, horrible sanitation, political opportunism, religious bigotry and wild dreams, which we must critically ponder.
Relatively simple ailments like coughing and diarrhea can be fixed by simple medication, but torture many people due to poverty that shuts them from the mainstream medical service; or, the woefully under-facilitated public dispensaries and hospitals. Periodic outbreaks of cholera jolt authorities into short-lived sanitation improvement campaign; after which poor sanitation reigns. Should the solution lie in the mugariga dose; for millions of people; and for how long ?
Only a few philanthropists and charitable institutions assist medically critically needy persons ; otherwise hundreds die for lack of money to finance relatively simple surgical operations.
The sudden upsurge of generosity by politicians to finance trips for their constituents to and from Loliondo is opportunism par excellence; pure and simple! Responses to Loliondo-mania should reflect as pan-territorial a character as witnessed, in, say, mobilisations over the Dowans saga. The Me-and-my-constituents and we-and-our-MP approach punches holes in the wananchi servants projections of the sectionalist politicians.
The move by certain clerics to demonise Reverend Masapila over his alleged divine-propelled medication can only be characterised as sheer envy by self-ascribed messiahs, whose messianic powers are doubted, or an outright hoax.
We at The Guardian on Sunday are advocating sobriety in probing, assessing , and drawing lessons from Loliondo-mania. The positive aspects should be appreciated, exaggerations should be ignored, spiritualism shouldnt be ignored, and false hopes shouldnt be trumpeted.
A judicious blend should be struck between the essentially complementary traditional and modern medicine, without undermining other considerations. Preying on peoples ignorance and poverty for political gain or social glory is deplorable, sinful in the eyes of God, and thus damnable.
SOURCE: EDITORIAL - GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY