Everyone’s going to Babu!”
You may not have heard of a man called Ambilikile Masapila but literally everyone in Tanzania is talking about him. On the streets, in the newspapers, and in the churches, it seems that everyone has something to say about Ambilikile Masapila, including the New York Times.
Ambilikile Masapila (the man called Babu, or “grandfather”) is a retired Lutheran pastor who claims to have received visions from God in 2009 and 2010 in which God showed him how to make a drink that he claims heals AIDS, diabetes, asthma, sexually transmitted diseases, high blood pressure, cancer, epilepsy, among other things. There are literally thousands who have scrambled to his rural village on the Tanzania-Kenya border, a trip that takes days because of the poor roads. Multiple reports claim that there is a line of cars, pickup trucks, and buses between 25 and 50 kilometers (15-30 miles) long, full of people waiting to get to Babu and drink a cup of his dawa (“medicine” or “potion”).
The dawa itself is made out of a tree that have been considered an herbal remedy for certain diseases, but I am told that it is not believed to be “activated” until Masapila prays over it.
While the newspapers and government leaders here (most of whom have went to drink the Babu’s cup) have been very supportive of Masapila, I have been hearing numbers of personal accounts about how sick people have went looking for help by drinking this concoction and come back only to find out that their condition has gotten worse and then have died. There are many claims of how people have been healed by this wonder medicine, but there are many more accounts of how people have died after leaving medical treatment to put their faith in the cup of Babu. Unfortunately, these stories of deaths have been slow in coming out because of the shame that accompanies being told that a loved one didn’t have enough faith.
If you are interested in reading more, here is an article from The Citizen, a Tanzanian English newspaper.
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