MOTHONG AFRICAN HERITAGE INITIATIVE: Celebrated as a Home for Humanity in South Africa

ABOUT MOTHONG AFRICAN HERITAGE INITIATIVE:
Source: Ancient Wisdom Africa Webpage
https://ancientwisdom.africa/mothong-...

Nestled on the Magaliesberg Mountain range, overlooking the township of Mamelodi in Pretoria, is the Mothong African Heritage (Mothong) initiative. Proud, picturesque, serene and regal, it remains a shining beacon and true to the ancestral instructions that were given to its founder, Traditional Dr Ephraim Cebisa Mabena at the turn of the millennium.

Manifesting Transformation through a Dream
Mothong African Heritage is a former dump site-turned-into-sacred-sanctuary. The project was initiated in 2001 by Traditional Health Practitioner Mabena, a traditional healer, botanist and proud resident of Mamelodi Township.

Guided by his ancestral spirits, he was directed to a piece of land that was, up to that point, an informal dumpsite, a crime den, a cesspool of murder and rape, a chop-shop for stolen cars, as well as a hideaway for the community’s drug abusers.

In the 1970s and 1980s – during the height of apartheid – the mountain had served as a hiding place for political activists on the run from the authorities. It later gained notoriety as a place of torture when the security police began to use it as an interrogation site for captured activists. Because of its panoramic view of Mamelodi – a hotbed of resistance against the oppression, it further became an observation point for the security forces to monitor activists and events in the township.

By the 1990s it became a wasteland, and at this time he had a series of dreams in which one of his ancestors told him to rescue this piece of land, clean up the rubbish and build a house of healing. While he initially ignored the calling, the visions did not stop until finally, in 2001 he began what appeared to be an impossible task.

Risking life, limb and ridicule; using rudimentary tools and with the help of volunteers, TDr Mabena spent over two years witnessing the atrocities of human nature as he cleared the land of the elements of crime and degradation, subsequently transforming it into a nature conservation site of prized indigenous medicinal plants.

Once a broken, trauma-filled piece of land — a waste-yard where criminals dumped cash boxes looted during cash-in-transit heists, where rapists ravaged their helpless victims and murderers hid bodies — has been transformed and is now a place of learning and healing.

With the assistance of his wife, Mama Mabel Mabena – also a Traditional Health Practitioner, and neighbour Mamorake Moila, over 20 years it has become a friendly place for the community, an educational site, as well as a biodiversity site in partnership with a number of government and tertiary institutions. Mothong African Heritage has become a peaceful botanical garden and heritage site where culturally valuable and important plants are cultivated and protected.

Since its inception in 2001, Mothong has now developed as a research site with several educational and research agencies investigating indigenous plants whose properties are highly sought after by some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

True to its initial mandate as given by the healer’s ancestors, the site boasts being a leading African culture and heritage site. It holds promise for the creation of hundreds of jobs through a community-based pilot plant for the manufacturing of indigenous health and beauty products for international markets.

Over the years a number of stakeholders have supported the project in different ways. Some of these include the South African Department of Science and Technology (now Department of Science and Innovation), the Department of Health, City of Tshwane municipality, Department of Environmental Affairs, Agricultural Research Council, University of South Africa and Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Research examples include the University of Pretoria’s collaboration with Mothong on medicinal plant science, the Botanical Society of South Africa and National Herbarium documenting plant diversity in the UNESCO-recognized Magaliesberg biosphere, and the Department of Science and Technology’s project on cultivating medicinal plants. Additional partnerships involve botany and natural sciences students studying indigenous plants to aid in research on HIV, tuberculosis, and Covid-19.

JOIN US as the One Home Journey 7 years for 7 generations continues, from home to home, country to country, continent to continent.

Find out how:
JOIN ONE HOME JOURNEY
https://www.homeforhumanity.earth/joi...

ONE HOME UNIVEARTHSITY
https://www.homeforhumanity.earth/one...

EXEMPLARY HOMES FOR HUMANITY
https://www.homeforhumanity.earth/hom...

HOME FOR HUMANITY MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN FLOURISHING AND PLANETARY REGENERATION
www.HomeforHumanity.Earth