July 25, 2003
By Thomas Thale
FOR almost three decades they have plied their trade and peddled their goods in the open, under a bridge - exposed to the elements. But now, with the imminent completion of the R45-million Faraday Market, the famous traditional healers of Faraday are set to move into new, modern premises.
The construction will be completed by the end of August, says Paul Arnott-Job, project manager who was seconded from the Johannesburg Development Agency.
Then the buildings will be handed over to the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC), which manages markets on behalf of the city, paving the way for traders to move into the market shortly thereafter. The Faraday Muti Market will be the second market in the city dedicated to the ancient art of traditional healing, after the Mai Mai muti market.
The facility itself is an impressive, modern structure, with amenities to cater for taxis, traders, commuters, healers and their patients. A number of artists were commissioned to do mosaic work on pavements and buildings, according to Arnott-Job.
Over 280 muti traders will be accommodated in the market, according to Nhlanhla Ndovela, operations manager of the MTC. The rank alongside can accommodate over 250 taxis.
Designed by Albonico & Sack, MMA Architects and Urban Designers, the market will have taxi and bus ranks, a specialised market for herb dealers, stalls for informal traders, consulting rooms for traditional healers and retail spaces for micro and medium-sized enterprises. A compactor and a special skip will be provided for the disposal of medical waste, adds Ndovela.
The idea behind the Faraday project is to develop a precinct which "responds to the shifting urban-rural boundaries, celebrate the transient commuter culture and capture the memory and historical significance of the Faraday station area by reinforcing the spirit of the place", says Monica Albonico, spokesperson for Albonico & Sack.
Block A of the building will be the administration block, block B and block E will be used by muti traders and traditional healers, Block D will be reserved for informal traders whilst block C will have more formal shops.
But it is the double story B block of the market that catches the eye. The block boasts a muti trading area on the ground floor and consulting rooms on the top floor. Mphethi Morojele, spokesman for MMA, says specialist sangomas, inyangas and prophets will use the consulting rooms. The doorway to the consulting rooms is just 1,6 metres high, forcing a patient to stoop on entering the room. Morojele says this is an attempt to recreate a traditional way of entering a healer's hut, lending the consulting rooms an ambience of a ceremonial space. "When you enter the room, you already submit yourself to the healer inside. The gesture of stooping is an act of submission, symbolising reverence for the healer," Morojele says.
The walls of the consulting rooms are used not only as partitions, but also as storage spaces, with cubicles that can be used by healers to store their medicine. The consulting rooms come complete with bathrooms, which will be used not only as ablution facilities, but also during healing procedures. The zinc bowl will be used for regurgitation and the bath for ceremonial cleansing, says Ndovela.
Josie Adler, community organiser of the Interfaith Community Development Association (ICDA), which was tasked with liasing with the local community about the project, says the new facility will go a long way towards formalising traditional healing as an industry.
"Muti traders are still migrant based people whose business has been subsistence. They will be taking enormous steps towards formalising their business. As hawkers, they only trade on some days of the week, but if they have to pay monthly rental they will be forced to work more consistently."
Adler says the market will help accelerate the process of urbanising the healers, most of who retain strong ties to the countryside. She adds that not all the traders will survive the transition from informal to regulated trading, but the market offers enormous opportunity for those who are enterprising.
For Ndovela, the completion of the market marks yet another milestone in the city's campaign, spearheaded by the MTC, to provide markets for informal traders and facilities for public transport in the city. The MTC embarked on a project to build markets for mini-bus taxis and informal traders as part of its efforts to formalise and manage the two sectors and arrest urban sprawl.
Ndovela says the market is expected to develop into a major tourist attraction. "We have provided parking space for buses ferrying tourists and locals will be used as tour guides." According to Ndovela, street traders currently operating from Eloff Street and Commissioner Street are to be relocated to the new market.
The Faraday Market also has a big open area to be used for the Friday market. Friday is the day when supplies are brought in from areas such as Lesotho and KwaZulu Natal to be sold to dealers in bulk.
"In designing these markets, we had to balance the needs of healers for appropriate healing spaces with the issue of affordability," explains Morojele. "We ended up providing relatively small areas which cost less and can accommodate as many healers as possible."
For now though, the healers and herb traders, have to make do with their open-air market, which is always bustling with activity. Mud huts and shacks used as consulting rooms stand alongside makeshift stalls along Stephenson Street, in the south east of the inner city, just off Eloff Street Extension.
The shadow cast by the bridge over the traders lends an eerie feel to the kilometre stretch of road. Neatly arranged on the ground are various concoctions and potions. Skulls, feathers, roots, bucks, beads and seashells share space with various carcasses - porcupines, baboons, birds, snakes and monkeys - all imbued with the power to cure ailments of a physical and even spiritual nature. Women and kids sit around braziers to keep warm as they sell their wares. Men are at work, chopping and grinding roots and bucks, converting them into potent medicine.
"For a long time we have been exposed to the cold, now we will have a decent place to work from," says a jubilant Dumangeze Mvubu, a local induna and inyanga (healer) who has practiced from the market since the 1970s. With its close proximity to the taxi rank, the makeshift market has been good to Mvubu. Practicing from the market, he has amassed enough money to put his children through tertiary education. "One of my sons now has an MBA," he says with pride.
Mvubu, who stays in Phoenix House, a block of flats just across the road, counts among his patients' people of all races and social classes, some from as far afield as Cameroon. "But whites don't want to chatha (enema) and to gcaba (ritual marking)," he says with a chuckle. But unlike his white patients, who consult in daylight, Mvubu complains that blacks generally visit his practice under the cover of darkness.
Most of Mvubu's patients are people living with Aids. "I've helped many of them. Their skin gets dry. Aids is like intwala (lice), it eats away your vitamins." Mvubu's standard prescription for these patients is isfutho (steaming). He also claims to treat symptoms of opportunistic infections, but makes it clear to his patients that Aids itself is incurable. "After treatment, a few get completely cured, but many recover for a while and then suffer a relapse," Mvubu says.
Mvubu asserts that he can cure all illnesses and even ward off bad luck. "I first establish what kind of bad luck afflicts a patient. Some people attend funerals and don't get cleansed afterwards. This might give rise to serious complications for people who have sangoma blood." But Mvubu has a way of handling such cases. "First they must phalaza (regurgitate) and then bath in a special mixture of blood, gall and other concoctions."
He welcomes the Faraday market development. "We are excited about it. We like progress." But he expresses a serious concern, one shared by many dealers in the market, that "the rental they want to charge is too high. We just can't afford it". Ndovela says rent at the market will range from R300 to R800.
The move to the new premises promises to be a rite of passage for the medicine men, seeing them come of age and grow in stature in the eyes of their clients.
