BABOON MEDICINE

Baboon Medicine

2004



In the mid to late fifties, seeing baboons in Hermanus was a treat and cause for great excitement. Sure, they lived and foraged in our mountains but seldom came into residential gardens on the lower slopes. Aunty Dulcie Roxburgh-Smith owned a large property at the end of Contour Road in Fernkloof. She once mentioned that baboons periodically came down to raid her vegetable garden and my father asked her to call him when they were there, so he could let me come and watch them cavort around. It was so exciting when we got a call and leaped into the car and off to Aunty Dulcie and the baboons.
When they became pesky and a nuisance, the municipality put out large cage traps, which as a youngster fascinated me. As a child’s curiosity goes, I wanted to know what happened to the body once they had shot it. As today, that is not a subject that was spoken openly about, but I was told that the dead baboons went ‘home with the municipal workers’. One of my father’s staff, also told me that the flesh was ‘good’ and they ate them. I didn’t believe him, and reckoned he was teasing me.
It is strange how seemingly insignificant incidents in a childs life is never forgotten and over the years I have often wondered about this and how anyone could eat an animal so similar in many way to humans. I thought it a little akin to cannibalism.
In our present ‘rainbow nation’ in South Africa, we have learned not to be judgmental of other cultures that are not Western in outlook and behavior. However this subject continued to intrigue me when I returned to South Africa and took up residence on the slopes of the mountains in Hermanus, where we are raided on a regular basis by troops of baboons. They break into our houses, frolic on our rooftops, swing from the gutters, terrorize and tease the dogs, open windows and raid the kitchen, to the extent of opening provision cupboards, refrigerators and oven doors. Real crafty critters. There have been incidents of older baboons pushing their youngsters through fanlight windows too small for an adult to gain access.
In 2004 there was some building work being done a few miles out of town. On two occasions contractors traveling to work with black staff sitting on the back of the truck, were asked to stop so as to pick up some ‘roadkill’ baboons. Meat, glorious fresh meat and a great delicacy. The animals were duly cut up on site and tossed on an open fire and lightly cooked. The hands, head and tail apparently being carefully removed and attached to the skin which was wrapped in a neat bundle. This gruesome little bundle was sold to the ‘sangoma’, the equivalent of a shaman or medicine man, who has the power to remove bad spirits and cure all manner of family ailments.
The second incident I heard of, was a baboon having been shot, perhaps illegally, and dumped on an open area not far from my home. The local Nature Conservation authorities were called to remove the body, but before they arrived, or so the rumor goes, local building laborers had seen it, and quickly removed the hands and tail. A third baboon was recently found shot, again not far from my home and this one had its hands, tail and feet removed.
I became intensely interested in knowing what was done with the appendages as we have all seen photos and read international reports on the ‘bushmeat trade’ in Africa and how endangered the chimpanzees and gorillas have become, in many cases due to this illegal trade in primate meat.
With Western origins it would be presumptuous to wade in and ask questions of the locals and their beliefs, so I have sat tight and thought about this issue. Fortuitously an elderly black gentleman happened to be working on my property recently and sat gazing up the mountain, puffing on a cigarette butt and asked if I often saw baboons. “Ah”, I said, “Umfene, yes there are many about”. And so he started telling me how much he liked them and how good they tasted, indeed a great delicacy. He said that only men were allowed to eat the flesh of baboons. His eyes looked far away and he started to relate their magical medicinal qualities held in their hands and tail. I asked him how it worked and he said that when a person ‘has lost something’, one must go to the sangoma who will cast his magical items on the ground and whisk the baboon tail over them and thus ‘what you have lost will be found again’. He told me that the right hand was very valuable and was always sold because money from these ‘things’ was ‘very good’ and most people are too poor to keep them. The right hand with its great power, put up in the house or above a door will cause all ‘bad spirits in the house to go and lightning will never strike the house’.
I have not yet discovered the significance of the feet, and would dearly love to know more about this matter and how these beliefs came about. Did these traditions filter down with migrating tribes hundreds of years ago?
It has been mentioned that these appendages find their way into Cape Town, and from there, who knows? It is illegal to trade in any baboon parts and they are protected animals. However, with the issuance of a permit, baboons may be shot on private land.
I believe that there are a fair number of foreign hunters who do indeed find it necessary to shoot these intelligent primates for display in their trophy rooms back home. I cannot for the life me understand why anyone would take joy in such a killing. A search of web sites (using ‘baboon hunting’ in the search engine) reveals dozens of safari outfits in southern Africa who have baboons on their list of available trophies. It costs a mere $25 to shoot a baboon.

Penn 2004