A British man named Dan Paige who became a traditional healer in South Africa, has explained how he came to embrace a calling that initially surprised even him.
Paige said the turning point came after he met a woman in South Africa who told him personal details about his life and family that he could not understand how she knew. According to him, she then told him he had a calling to become a traditional healer.
What followed was an investigation into his family history, which revealed a connection to a coloured South African family. Paige said the discovery helped him understand where he believed the calling came from.
“There was a coloured family that I’m related to, which is where the calling stems from,” he explained.
He added that his mother and grandmother had also shown prophetic abilities during their lives.
But becoming a traditional healer has not been without questions, particularly because Paige is British and does not fit what some people traditionally expect a sangoma to look like.
Paige acknowledged the scepticism but said he made a deliberate effort to follow the traditional process without taking shortcuts.
“I didn’t do it in a European way or any way different to any other African going through ukuthwasa,” he said.
His family, along with a business partner of more than 20 years, supported him through the process.
Today, Paige’s practice focuses on people who believe they are affected by witchcraft. He said he has clients in Ghana, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic and England, with many of them reaching him through radio, podcasts and social media.
Paige also believes people seeking traditional healing should take time to establish whether a practitioner has received the necessary training and certification.
