Fezile Pretorius: The white sangoma shattering stereotypes

Everything about Fezile Pretorius flies in the face of conventional stereotypes. He’s a white sangoma and, while it’s still relatively unusual, his hue has nothing to do with his convictions.

Thirty-six-year-old Khyle Pretorius had a calling. He answered it reluctantly and became Fezile. Loosely translated, his given, tribal name means accomplishment and revolution. And Fezile’s journey has been one of overcoming his own demons, to expel the burdens of others. 

Eighteen years ago, Fezile’s life pivoted. He was in a bad place, narcotics, and troubles with the law saw a young, wild and reckless man completely rudderless. “I was in a bad state,” said Fezile. “I was addicted to drugs, and not behaving properly,” he shared. It was then that his family and a community of traditional healers intervened, offering him a choice: to embrace his calling or continue down a destructive path. “They said, ‘You have a gift, and it will continue to disturb you if you don’t deal with it,'” they told him. This intervention of sorts led him to a small village, where he underwent a rigorous training process to become a sangoma. It was 2008. “I’ve never looked back,” he said.

Becoming a sangoma was his destiny

This was not the first time that traditional healing crossed Fezile’s path. It was almost as if he had been singled out as a young lad already. As a young boy, he began having unsettling dreams. They were vivid and not typical childhood nightmares; they involved strange encounters with underwater creatures and mystical beings, he said.

By the age of 13, a chance encounter with a sangoma, at an esoteric fair his dad took him to, revealed that these visions were more than mere figments of imagination. At the time, the traditional healer told him that he was chosen to walk a spiritual path. She told me I had the calling, but at first, I wanted to ignore it. I just wanted to do my own thing,” he said. It took another five years, a few troubled ones, to lead him to the hard stop and turn that changed his life.

The methods used by sangomas often draw scepticism, particularly from those unfamiliar with African traditional practices. “There are different types of medicines,” he said. “Some work biologically, like herbs used in allopathic medicine. Others are psychosomatic, affecting the subconscious. And then there’s a third type, which we can’t fully explain, it’s something beyond current scientific understanding,” he said. During his eighteen years he has experienced magical encounters, humans in trance that seem to accomplish the supernatural, and he has seen the power of psychology, its healing manifest. Nature’s gift of herbs, medicine that science is only beginning to rediscover.

‘We encourage people to find new paths’

His training lasted several months, after which Fezile spent almost a decade in rural areas further honing his craft. It was a solo journey, after which he began consulting to clients. “I’ve seen everyone from poor people who don’t have anything to high placed corporates asking me to put medicine in their shoes before meetings,” he said. His practice involves a range of services, from counselling troubled children to training aspiring healers. Despite the breadth of his work, he said it demands a strict ethical code. He refuses to engage in practices that he believes are unethical or harmful. “We don’t cure the uncurable; we don’t force love. We encourage people to move on and find new paths,” he explained.

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“Sangomas today are a varied bunch,” he noted. “In the past, there were distinct roles like diviners and herbalists, but now everything is mixed. We see a blend of traditional practices with elements of Christianity and other beliefs blended in,” he said. This integration has led to practices tailored to the cultural backgrounds and spiritual needs of his clients. “For instance, if a client’s family has a history of reading tea leaves, that becomes part of their specific spiritual practice, and a point of reference in consulting” he explained.

Fezile paused practising for several years to further his own development. “There was a period when I stopped seeing the public altogether because it was taking a toll on my personal life,” he said. He’s only recently returned to facing clients and presently consults from spiritual store Heavenly Healing in Benoni.

The bones tell a story, says Fizile

Divination is a significant aspect of traditional healing. “Reading bones is about interpreting patterns, much like reading a map. Each bone or object has a specific meaning, and together they tell a story,” he said. This skill, he noted, is a combination of learned knowledge and intuitive insight, requiring both memory of the various fixed meanings of bones and objects, and their position in a reading. “It’s like reading a newspaper,” he explained. “It tells a story.”

Being a sangoma, and white, is not easy, he said. Stereotypes are hard to shake. “I’ve experienced racism, harassment, and even violence,” he shared. These challenges, however, have not deterred him from his path. Instead, they have reinforced his commitment to his practice and to helping others. “It’s not just about the money; it’s about wanting to help people,” he said.