Ambilikile Masapile’s Loliondo Brew Cures Anything: God Heals Tanzania
ANYONE who can reach Ambilikile Masapile, 76, a retired pastor Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, can get a cup of his magical brew that can cure many ailments. You just need to reach Loliondo village to be cured.
The news report is Biblical in tone:
The multitudes crossing river Engaresero in northern Tanzania is akin to the annual wildebeest migration at River Mara. The only difference is that the people in their thousands have no time to hang around the banks, waiting for the courageous one to cross over first because each second is precious…
The talk if of queues 20km long to reach Masapile. They want to drink the brew he makes from the sap of the “highly poisonous arrow tree” locally known as Mugariga.
How poisonous is it?
Birds drop dead on sucking nectar from the flowers.
Says Masapile:
“In 1991, I had a dream which directed me to start using some herbal concoctions to treat my arthritis and cure other people’s chronic ailments. It was a directive from God Himself. In the dream, I saw a woman who looked very ill and a voice told me to treat her using the herbal mixture which by then had proven to be quite an effective remedy in treating my own ailments…
“It is God who has shown me how to do it and if anyone questions, they can see for themselves that it works. All those who have come here have been healed.”
Says one man:
“I have not drank it, but there is no doubt that it can cure all deadly human ailments, that is a fact.”
The great and good come to wonder:
Among those who visited Masapile during our tour is former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, his predecessor, Frederick Sumaye and Opposition Party leader Augustine Mrema, who openly smiled at the TV camera as they gulped Masapile’s concoction.
Masapile’s concoction seems to be winning the approval of even the church. The head of the Northern and Central Diocese of the Lutheran Church, Bishop Thomas Laizer maintained that a number of church officials got healed from their ailments but did not mention what type of diseases.
But it works, right?
The Arusha Regional Medical Officer Dr Salash Toure said though Masapile has been issuing his magical cure since August 2010, there has been no case of someone with HIV turning up at any of the region’s health centres wanting to test whether they have been cured.
And the concoction is free? Well, no. It costs TSh500.
Says Masapile:
“God wants everybody to get cured regardless of their financial status.”
Who gets the cash?
He says he will donate the proceeds to the church and use others to pay his assistants. And like the Biblical Prophet Elisha, he refuses all types of gifts and advises the modern day ‘Naamans’ to take their presents to needy persons once they get back to their homes.
What about others in the industy?
The drink may be cheap but getting to the remote Sonjo plains can cost one an arm and leg. Motorists have also been enjoying the windfall, charging desperate ‘miracle seekers’ an average of about TSh150,000 (Sh9,000) to take them to Loliondo.
Meanwhile, to feel better we in the West make do with Prozac…
Posted: 31st, March 2011 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
