These modern-day medicine men are using mystical powers to defy western treatments

Nana Kwaku Bonsam

Preferring to use the titles traditional priest and healer rather than fetish because he feels it has a negative connotation, Nana Kwaku Bonsam aids with many spiritual and medical ailments, he claims. Ironically, his last name, Bonsam translates to the word devil in the Akan language, Twi.

Bonsam was born Stephen Osei Mensah in the Ashanti region of Ghana, in a small town called Afrancho.  He currently resides in Kumasi.

Bonsam claims he received his “powers” after a man he helped on his way home from work gifted him with a braided horsetail.

“Renowned as a healer, Mr. Kwaku Bonsam claims to treat everything from curses to impotence. But he is best known for his ambitious efforts to modernize the indigenous West African religion dominant before Christian missionaries began arriving in great numbers in the mid-19th century,” as stated by The New York Times.

Bonsam, however, says he cannot cure leprosy.

Apart from his daily duties, Bonsam runs a school, several shrines and a cattle farm.