Counselling and other therapy did not work. How did I know this traditional healer might be able to treat the son’s deep depression? It is because my own son eight years earlier had dropped out of college as a sophomore because of depression. The Traditional Healer in Lusaka with Prof. After a month, they returned to Illinois where her son continued to cook and drink the herbal porridge for another month. Her son laughed, joked, played, and talked every day in the Zambian language with his aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, and many others. During the process her son was able to eat delicious nshima meals with good ndiyo, umunani or relishes which the whole family ate together three times per day as is the traditional Zambian meal eating custom. She and her son soon after travelled north of the country to the Copper belt where they stayed with close relatives and other extended family members as he underwent treatment. Her son had to drink this porridge 3 times a day for 3 months. The mother was to use the herb from the soaked roots to boil a thin maize or corn meal porridge. The traditional healer prescribed several types of treatment for the depression which included a pile of roots. This was an urgent matter and there was no time to waste. As soon as they landed at the Lusaka Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, they booked a taxi and headed straight to the traditional healers’ house. The wife boarded the plane for Zambia with their son. I gave them the name and cell phone number of the reputable traditional healer who lives in the Chawama compound South of Zambia’s Capital City of Lusaka. I advised my friend that they should immediately fly back home to Zambia in Africa. His depression was so severe that he would be in bed all day and not come out of his bedroom. Once out of the hospital, the son was back home and deeply depressed. During a race-related fracas at the party, his son was severely beaten and had to be taken to hospital. His 19 year old son was attending college and went to a party near campus with a group of friends.

In 2008 I got a frantic call from a close Zambian friend who lives in Chicago with his wife and two children in a typical middle class neighborhood. Lost Connections -Family of many generations Kukaya Village

Lost connections book summary