More Muti

Here are a few more photos from the Muti shop we visited earlier this week. I wonder what's in the jars?

Muti has occasionally received negative press for allegations of a darker side. There have been cases in recent years where people - particularly children and albinos - have been supposedly killed for their body parts, which some believe will bestow power and success. While I'll admit the shop had a completely different vibe from the Walgreens or Boots pharmacies I'm more familiar with, from what little I saw, muti seems to be more about dried roots and impala horns than anything more sinister.

Muti shop

Muti is a traditional form of medicine in Southern Africa. Many people believe that natural materials such as plants and animal parts hold healing powers and devise treatments and interventions for everything from the flu to an ailing career. We visited a muti shop in the Johannesburg CBD the other day, and the shopkeepers graciously let me take photos to my heart's content. Made for some wild photos, and an interesting afternoon!