My name is Peter Michael von Maltitz. I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1948 and completed my schooling there. I received a B.Sc. in Natural Sciences (Agriculture) from the University of Stellenbosch followed by an honours degree in Plant Pathology. During my university years I developed an interest in Hatha Yoga which I then taught to fellow students. I also read a great deal of Theosophy, this led to an interest in Anthroposophy and thus to Bio-Dynamic farming.

After completing my university studies I extended my interest in European herbs and Bio-Dynamics while working in Switzerland and then spent a year at the Goetheanum in Dornach. There I worked in the laboratory studying compost preparations. I also took part in discussions on plant metamorphosis and Goetheanistic thinking. Then I returned to South Africa where I married. We lived on a remote farm where we raised three children. When the children were ill we started using herbs and tissue salts as remedies, following some unhappy experiences with allopathic medicine.

I have always been driven by a desire to relieve pain and in 1980 discovered that I could give relief by using my "hot hands".

To understand this process and develop it I experimented continually and reading anything I could find on the subject, for example "Healing in the Gospels" by Michael Heydenreich.

In 1996 I registered as a spiritual healer and took part in a course in Homeopathy with the Homeopaths Berkley Digby and Dr David Lilley. Studies in African traditional healing with Philip Kubukeli from Khayelitsha, Cape Town followed. During my training in traditional healing I received the name "Zanemvula" (He comes with the rain) because it rained whenever we performed a ceremony for my ancestors. My final graduation as a fully fledged sangoma took place at a 3-day ceremony during September 1999 on my home farm, Jantjieskraal in the Kouga mountains.

How I Became a Sangoma

After registering as a spiritual healer in 1996 I took part in a meeting of healers of various disciplines at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Town. There I met sangoma TDr. Philip Kubukeli. I had become interested in understanding the culture of traditional healing, particularly with reference to understanding the culture of some of the workers in the Tulbagh valley where I was farming at the time. I realized that the only respectful way to gain this knowledge was train with the healers within the cultural framework which safeguards this knowledge.

I was delighted when, after the meeting, TDr. Kubukeli phoned to say that he had dreamed that I should be trained as a traditional healer. He then took me to one of his sisters (also a spiritual healer) in Cala, Eastern Cape for a second opinion as I was the first white person his ancestors had told him to train. Fortunately I saw her in a dream before we arrived there and could describe her to him. The visit convinced him that I was already spiritually fairly well developed and only needed my inner senses cleared in order to communicate properly with my ancestors and see into the spiritual world clearly.

I would not have been able to achieve this without the support of my late wife Ursula. I also thank her and her daughter Kirsty who initially helped to edit my ideas into readable English.