Where New Age and African Religion Meet in South Africa: the case of Credo Mutwa

Abstract

A recent development among New Agers in South Africa and abroad is an interest in African traditional religion. In South Africa these two divergent groupings meet in the work of the traditional healer, Credo Mutwa. This article explores the life and teachings of Mutwa who is renowned as ‘High Sanusi of the Zulu people’ as well as keeper of ancient wisdom, writer, poet, sculptor, painter, and authority in the fields of, among others, Zulu folklore, nature conservation, astrology and extraterrestrial life. Points of convergence and divergence among New Age thought and spirituality, African Traditional Religion and the unique interpretations of Credo Mutwa are examined. It is suggested that New Agers who focus on the glamour of the ecstatic experience of the ‘sangoma’ (isangoma, traditional healer/diviner) in exploring African traditional religion are depriving themselves of much of what African traditional religion and culture have to offer in terms of spiritual development. In this regard, some concluding remarks are offered on the fruitfulness of the concept of ubuntu (‘humanness’).