One of the ugliest animals in the African bush is the inkonkoni, the wildebeest. African people believe that the wildebeest leads the antelope-like animals that are thought to possess great magical powers. Ugly as it may be, the wildebeest is regarded with great reverence as there is the belief that the long hairs on its tail have magical powers to exorcize evil spirits and to heal people suffering from nervous conditions.
African people hold the wildebeest in such reverence that its Zulu name, inkonkoni, is also used to denote a champion or a leader in any field. The wisest and greatest traditional healer in any community is always called ‘the inkonkoni’. The best football player in any township, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, is always nicknamed ‘inkonkoni’, in tribute to his football skills.
Africans remove the tail from a dead wildebeest and secure it to a short, thick wooden handle, making an instrument which is wrongly called a fly-switch.
However, it is not made to swat flies, but to spray magical preparations – mixtures of water and powdered bark or herbs – which are believed to possess the power to expel demons from people and huts.
When an initiate healer explodes into hysterical fits, the teacher uses a switch to strike a number of carefully calculated blows on the pupil’s back. The purpose of the blows is not to cause pain but to stimulate nerves along the initiate´s spine to his or her benefit.
Some of the great African leaders carried switches in public, to indicate theat they were spiritual as well as political and temporal leaders, in control of the physical bodies and souls of the people they ruled.
Only those people who have been initiated into the deepest of African mystique and mystery are allowed to carry switches. If an impostor carries a wildebeest´s tail, he does so at the risk of having an awful curse placed on him.
A poltergeist makes a nuisance of itself in an African kraal, the sangoma who has been summoned to deal with it burns wildebeest neck-hairs in a fire, specially lit for the purpose inside the hut. The hairs are believed to be very effective in getting rid of even the most stubborn poltergeist.
(Source: Isilwane, the animal (Credo Mutwa))
Sininho´s World 
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