Abeba sits on her bed, looking towards the sky.

Healing with faith

A breast cancer patient trusts in God and a traditional Ethiopian healer.

by CARA WILWERDING| Photojournalist

Tekle Gebriel was cloaked in white.

He draped himself in a crisp shawl with colorful diamonds lining the edge, eased on shiny white dress shoes and pulled a cream-colored stocking cap over his head. He carried a tall staff inscribed with the Stars of David. It was 7 a.m. Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Walking up a dusty cobblestone road, Tekle began his weekly trek to Eguzuabguer Ab Orthodox Christian Church. Homeless men, women and children lined the roadside. Unlike many churchgoers who walk this same path, Tekle engaged these people. He stopped and gave each person one Ethiopian birr, about one nickel.

“Half of them are blind, so they can’t see,” Tekle said. “Second, those whose hands or legs are paralyzed can’t work. … Giving to them is the ultimate justification after death, and it is a must to help or give.”

The traditional Ethiopian healer bowed his head as he prayed to God for the well-being of his patients, eyes closed in reverence.

“A person must have faith. When I am praying, I am not praying for one person. I pray for everybody and for every sick person.”

“A person must have faith. When I am praying, I am not praying for one person. I pray for everybody and for every sick person,” he said. Three or four people clad in white, including Tekle, sat outside the stone temple, reading or praying.

Tekle believes in God and believes in the power of traditional, non-Western medicine. He believes he can cure even the most serious diseases, and Tekle’s patients believe in him.

One of his patients, Abeba Meaza, is a breast cancer patient.

“I love my children and serve them,” Abeba said. She often walks with the young children.

Four years ago the 60-year-old housewife, mother and grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer at a modern hospital. Rather than resorting to expensive and drastic chemotherapy and surgery, she turned to traditional medicine, a practice grounded in faith and religion.

Abeba smiles contentedly.

“What I want is for God to forgive me and to cleanse me. I want him to cure me of this disease,” Abeba said.

Dr. Theodros Agonafir, a general practitioner at St. Gabriel General Hospital said it is quite common for people in Ethiopia to turn to traditional rather than western medicine.

“In our country, they go to the traditional medicine because the modern medicine is not accessible as easily, maybe expensive. So the traditional medicine is much less expensive, easily accessible,” Dr. Theodros stated.

This is where Tekle’s work as a traditional healer comes in.

“When she came in, it (the cancer) was in a bad condition. Extremely bad,” he said.

When she was diagnosed, the doctor told her he would have to surgically remove her breast. However, after seeing friends die from post-surgery infections, Abeba refused. She started to visit Tekle every couple of days to reapply topical medicine and change dressings, hoping a cure was in sight.

Tekle gathers some plants from his garden in order to make traditional medicine.

Tekle’s work does not stop when he goes home. With help from family and employees, he grows plants to produce medicines, ointments, and salves. Like everything else in Tekle’s life, this process is a religious process.

“I ask God to bless the medicines when they are being produced and given,” Tekle said. “When these medicines are produced, it is with faith. We pray even when the plants are being cut from the land. The thing that makes me very happy is when a person comes here with pain and stress, and when I treat them and they get cured and go home…That is when I cry and thank my Lord.”

Tekle is not the only one who relies on God. Modern doctors using Western medical practices told Abeba that a complete cure is not possible, especially without chemotherapy or surgery. But that does not shake Abeba’s faith.

“Everything happens because of him. What one cannot do, God can do. If they are doctors or specialists, or if they go to the moon or the sun, nothing happens without God.”

“Everything happens because of him,” Abeba said. “What one cannot do, God can do. If they are doctors or specialists, or if they go to the moon or the sun, nothing happens without God.”

Back at home, Abeba sat wrapped in a white blanket. The sun was shining brightly outside. Resting on a bed with a faded quilt cover, she gazed out the open window, looking towards the sky. •

Edited and designed by Sarah Lagerlund.