British banking consultant retrains as witch doctor

A British banking consultant has retrained as a witch doctor after a gruelling three months' initiation in the South African bush. Thomas Heathfield, 32, whose family hail from Maidenhead in Berkshire, renounced sleep for three days, rose at 2.30am to dance for the tribal ancestors and vomited up goats' bloods as part of his training to become a "sangoma".

He slept out in the bush, wore traditional robes and was sent to hunt for the animal body parts hidden by locals in the remote village of Mangweni, close to the Mozambican border in Mpumalanga province. He had to learn enough of the local siSwati language to understand his instructors, who also gave him a new name, Gogo Mndawe.



He was banned from all contact with family and friends until last Sunday, when his parents Ally and Brian Heathfield flew out to South Africa to attend his graduation ceremony. He said he first learned about sangomas from a local friend and spent many years studying the practice before giving up his job advising banks on risk and information security in February to train as one himself.

"It's not something you just decide to do – it chooses you rather than the other way round and it's such a massive process that you don't enter into it lightly," he said. While still undecided about how he will use his new-found skills, he intends to settle in Cape Town and buy a house.