Mercy Manci
{{Short description|South African activist}}{{Infobox person
| birth_date = 28 September 1955
| birth_place = Hlwahlwazi, Eastern Cape, South Africa
| occupation = sangoma and HIV activist
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Mercy Manci (born 28 September 1955) is a Xhosa sangoma and HIV activist from South Africa.{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Susan Schuster|title=Called to Heal: African Shamanic Healers|year=2000|publisher=Lotus Press|location=Twin Lakes, WI|isbn=978-0-914955-91-7|pages=106–125|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDQ1qpkvKmMC}} She has participated and presented at conferences in a.o. Cameroon, Nigeria, and Italy.{{cite web|last=Mills|first=Michael|title=Religious Leaders and Activists Converge on Rome|url=http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/pressroom/pressrelease/770.html|work=Press release|publisher=IGLHRC|accessdate=10 January 2012|archive-date=6 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306231035/http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/pressroom/pressrelease/770.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last=Vubem|first=Fred|title=Traditional Healers Drilled on HIV/AIDS|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200801090651.html|accessdate=10 January 2012|newspaper=Cameroon Tribune|date=9 January 2008}}{{cite book|title=Report of the International Conference on Traditional Medicine in HIV/AIDS and Malaria|year=2000|publisher=InterCEDD|location=Nsukka, Nigeria}}
Early life
Mercy Manci was born in the small village of Hlwahlwazi, Eastern Cape, South Africa in 1955.{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Susan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47758748 |title=Called to heal |date=2000 |publisher=Lotus Press |isbn=9780914955917 |edition=1st U.S. |location=Twin Lakes, WI |pages=109 |oclc=47758748}} She was the firstborn of a nine children. At birth she was covered with a white substance, which her mother called a "net", which indicated that she was a special child. She was raised by her grandmother, because her mother was a domestic worker in Durban. Her grandmother was a traditional healer and as a child Mercy would help her prepare muti.
When she was teenager, she was "grabbed" by another family to marry one of their sons, in order to avoid lengthy lobola negotiations. As she was no longer a virgin, she could not return to her mother, and the marriage became official when the family paid four cows. She has one daughter from this marriage.
While she lived in the Ciskei, and her husband went to work in the mines, she studied nursing through correspondence at Damelin. However, when her husband came home, he burned her books and destroyed the typewriter she bought. Eventually, after he discovered that she was taking contraceptives behind his back, something that was taboo at that time, their marriage ended and he sent her back to her family. Instead of returning to her family's home, she went to Johannesburg and found a job as a Doctor's assistant.
While she was living in Johannesburg, she fell sick and began to dream strangely. Eventually a traditional healer would confirm that she need to answer a calling to become a sangoma.
Activism
Manci founded Nyangazeziswe, meaning Healers of the Nation, an organisation dealing with African traditional healing and HIV. She focussed on giving workshops for other traditional healers in the Eastern Cape, but also internationally, teaching them how to use condoms and how HIV is transmitted.{{cite news|last=Maier|first=Karl|title=Traditional healers fight Aids: Millions of lives in Africa depend on the success of a campaign to teach preventative measures|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/traditional-healers-fight-aids-millions-of-lives-in-africa-depend-on-the-success-of-a-campaign-to-teach-preventative-measures-1489630.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/traditional-healers-fight-aids-millions-of-lives-in-africa-depend-on-the-success-of-a-campaign-to-teach-preventative-measures-1489630.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=10 January 2012|newspaper=The Independent|date=5 June 1995}}
In 2000, Mercy Manci appeared in an episode of Siyayinqoba Beat It! a television program about HIV, developed and produced by the Community Media Trust in South Africa.{{cite web|title=Mercy Manci|url=http://www.beatit.co.za/archive-people/mercy-manci|publisher=Community Media Trust|accessdate=10 January 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130421202708/http://www.beatit.co.za/archive-people/mercy-manci|archivedate=21 April 2013}}
References
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Category:People from the Eastern Cape
Category:South African animists
Category:South African activists
Category:South African women human rights activists
Category:South African HIV/AIDS activists
Category:20th-century South African women
Category:20th-century South African people