‘Mam’ Paul lives on
During her life faith healer Elizabeth Paul had such a profound impact in the Transkei that nearly 50 years after her death, pilgrims continue streaming to her home village in Tsolo to pay homage and in the hope of finding blessings and healing, writes
ALMOST 50 years after her death, the tiny sanctuary in Tsolo where Indaba Zosindiso faith healer Elizabeth Paul would pray continues to draw a multitude of believers seeking divine intervention for everything from career success to physical ailments, including infertility.
This year when the Tsolo-based Indaba Zosindiso prayer movement held their annual commemoration of her life as many as 20 000 devotees came streaming in on buses from across the country, a special guest among them (although not on a bus) was Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale.
Members of the popular Indaba Zosindiso interdenominational prayer movement, which Paul founded, believe her prayers of healing continue to have power to this day and on entering the sanctuary where she had a life-altering religious epiphany they too will receive an impartation of spiritual fulfilment and hope.
So who was this intriguing figure, this woman who the Mail & Guardian in 1985 said was regarded as “something of a saint in . . . [some] black townships where her faded photographs hang in many homes”?
The story of “Mam”, as she was affectionately known by her followers, is an amazing one.
Born Elizabeth Spalding in Zandukwana, Tsolo, in 1906 to a black mother and a white father, she married James Paul, a coloured man.
The couple were childless – something that greatly saddened her. A staunch Anglican and member of the Tsolo Anglican Church, her daily prayer was to bear a child for her husband.
“But even with her biological clock ticking, she stopped asking for a child and instead asked that God would grant her eternal happiness in heaven,” said Nothando Bizana, one of the committee members of the prayer movement.
One day Paul dreamt she was being told her children would be countless in number – a message she initially misunderstood, according to Bizana.
Around the same time, also while in her sleep, Paul claimed to have heard a voice telling her she would get visitors on Sunday May 14 1950 – the day of the Pentecost.
As a result of the dream, on the day of Pentecost she prepared her home in general and her special prayer room in particular, in anticipation of the visitors.
Bizana says a little while later, while in the eightcornered room Paul used as a special prayer room, she was overcome by what she believed was the power of God – the Holy Spirit as made manifest at the original Pentecost.
Paul believed it was this who were hungry and thirsty, and nothing more.
Despite the different theories , amarhewu continues to be popular and is sold in 2-litre and 5-litre containers.
Her grave is clean and is constantly visited by her followers. Some leave their written wishes on wreaths with the hope Paul will assist them.
Her followers have many testimonies and Nokulunga Mtshizana, 55, a school teacher is one of them. She had been a follower of Paul since 1989. “In 2000 I prayed to have a house of my own since I had been renting a room in Mbuqe Park. I could not afford a house. In 2001, God of Indaba Zosindiso replied to me and I just happened to have enough money to buy a three-bedroomed house in town [in Mthatha]. Now I proudly own a home, and I continue to go to Tsolo,” said Mtshizana.
Thotyelwa Qabaka, 48, said three years after her marriage she could not conceive and she and her husband, who was working in the mines in Rustenburg, started to panic.
“In 1991 we both attended prayers at Tsolo and prayed to have children. When he was away at work I would go alone and continue praying. In 1999 I conceived and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Now we have three children, a daughter and two sons,” she said.
Ndodana Mavela of Qumbu said he had been to Paul’s prayer movement for some ailments.
“I got better. When I was there I also prayed my livestock would grow in number. I had 11 sheep and seven cattle. Now I proudly own 80 sheep and 18 head of cattle,” said Mavela.
Those praying for growth of their livestock bring a small amount of manure with them and those praying for their children to pass at school bring books and pens.