BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa |
BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) – A black bull bellows and snorts in its death throes, sacrificed with a ceremonial spear in an age-old African cleansing ritual to ward off evil spirits and appease the souls of ancestors.
South African President Jacob Zuma led the purification ceremony at the weekend at the site where the ruling party he leads, the African National Congress (ANC), was born 100 years ago. The birth launched decades of exile, protest and armed struggle that finally ended apartheid white-minority rule In 1994, when elections ushered in a multi-racial democracy.
“It’s important that it be cleansed,” said Baba Ndungane, a Zulu “sangoma” or traditional healer, speaking near the Waaihoek Wesleyan Church.
The brick, tin-roofed building where a century ago Africa’s oldest liberation movement was formed in a black township in the city of Bloemfontein is now dwarfed by the looming towers of a disused power station.
Ndungane, in a beaded headband and a leopard-print robe, said the area needed
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