Community Voices: Luswata ‘father of twins’
Herbalist, treats mental illness

Translating was Hariet Nsuburga, Health Educator in Mukono District and a District-Based Trainer (DBT) for Theta.

Hariet: This is his clinic where Luswata operates.  He mostly treats mental illness. He began in 1998 and has continued up to now. He and his associate have expanded to another site nearby where his patients are admitted.  His center is an herbal research center.

T: To begin with, in our country, we have spirits , The spirits are the ones that attacked him when he was young, and showed him the herbal medicines that he uses for treatment.  Other herbal treatments he learned from his colleagues.
Cait: What conditions does he commonly treat?
T:  The condition he mostly treats, and he very proud of it, is mental illness.
C: For example?
T: For example, if one is brought in seeing things which are not there, like god… that one, he diagnoses this condition as mental illenss.
C:  How does he treat someone who is seeing something that is not there?
T:  If one comes in in a condition in which he is violent he ties him and gives him a medicine that puts him to sleep.

So after a long time, when the patient is up, he begins other medications.  The first one is a sedative so he rests or sleeps.  When he sleeps, the brain also calms down.  He and his partner give medications, there are those for drinking, smoking, some to breathe in.  They also give the patient counseling, and keep him away from people who are shouting and would upset him.
C: Does Luswata find that the condition returns with those who see what is not there?
T: Those people come back to their normal senses and they discharge them without any problems.
C: What does he think the source of their problem is?
C: The cause might be one could be having many problems, and the worries put him off.  Even with HIV/AIDS, some break into mental illness. The spiritual powers can also capture someone and that may lead to mental illness as well.

C:  How did Luswata become a healer?
T: The spiritual powers attacked him when he was 19 and still in school.
C: And what were his symptoms at 19?
T:  He used to get visual problems when he was at school, he couldn’t see well when he was in class.  He would get severe headaches. He was taken to the hospital but without a diagnosis.  During his sleep he would get something pressing his chest.  He was told there is something wrong which needs to be addressed to be normal.
C: What is his understanding of what was pressing on his chest?
T:  During that time the parents used to take him to the health facility but there was no change, not until the spirits came and told him what to do.  That is how he began.  The spirits came and told the parents what he needed to do.
C: Did the spirits speak to the parents in a vision or a dream?
T:  The spirits normally came through the dreams and, at times, they could attack (a family member) and they would talk (through them).  It could be any family member.

C: Luswata has a picture on the wall of someone who was in a car accident.
If someone was in a very bad car accident and he came to him, what would be the symptoms he might expect and how would he treat them?
T:  Normally if he got such a case he doesn’t treat them, he refers them to the health facility. Why? Because they need to be put on a drip, or they need to check the head for some blood. He normally refers them to a health center.
C: What if they have nightmares about the accident, would he treat the nightmares?
T:  He treats them.
C: How?
T: There is a medicine they give through bathing, another one through drinking and the nightmares go away.
C: No spiritual work?
T:  If those nightmares really come through spiritual powers, when he gives medication through bathing they go away.
C:  So if someone is very fearful, would he would treat them with herbs but also sometimes with spiritual methods?
T: If one comes in with a lot of fears they might be coming through because of a lot of worries.  So the first thing he does is counsel that person, but if counseling fails, there is another medication he can give and then they become okay.

C:  How does the community view his work and how has it changed after working with Theta?
T: The community itself is proud of him because they come to him.  After the training he has benefited a lot.  Before that he could not refer the cases he could not manage himself, but now he does so.  Secondly, there is a very great improvement in cleanness, hygenically, as you can see now.  Before the training, even in herbal processing and storage, he was just keeping his herbs anyhow like that, in containers.  But now, there is a very great change in storage.

The patient with her aunt who is her caregiver.  The aunt will stay with the patient while the girl is being treated at the center which may be many weeks.

C: What were her symptoms when she came?
T:  This client was seeing things in the house that were attacking her. She was so talkative.  She is now coming back to her normal status.  Whatever he asks her, now she can answer rightly.

We met several other patients of Luswata and his associate.  He stated that he treats primarily with the use of herbal mediines and counseling,  While he does not emphasize spiritual healing in his practice it is from the spirits that he has been shown  much of what he first learned about herbal medicine. As well, he continues to keep a fire to call the spirits outside his clinic.  Luswata was a warm and kind man, the proud father of twins.

While Luswata speaks of using herbs and counseling in his mental health practice, he clearly has a profound relationship with the ancestor spirits that originally taught him about herbal medicines and continues to call upon the spirits at the fire outside his clinic.