Mozambican traditional doctor Mbaimbai Hlati wants to create the SADC University of African Medicine (UAM) in Mozambique to spread traditional African knowledge and support its practitioners.

Mbaimbai Hlati founded SADC UAM in South Africa in 2012 - the world's first university of traditional medicine - and replicating it in Mozambique will be the realization of a dream, said the traditional doctor, interviewed by Limpopo TV.

"I've had this dream for many years and this will be a realization [for me]. There in South Africa the university already exists, and I thought that, because I'm Mozambican, it would be better to create a campus here in Mozambique, to help our fellow Mozambicans, traditional doctors, someone who wants to learn about traditional medicine," explained the founder and CEO of SADC UAM.

In South Africa, the university has already graduated several healers, including a Mozambican with a PhD.

According to Mbaimbai Hlati, the establishment of the university in Mozambique will take the practitioners of traditional medicine out of anonymity and allow them to be known, as well as deepen their knowledge of the various subjects in the area.

"It was a dream that I thought would be good to bring to Mozambique because I'm Mozambican and I'm grateful to the country's traditional doctors for welcoming the initiative. It's something of enormous value and gives me joy".

The initiative's mentor foresees improvements in the relationship between traditional medicine practitioners (curandeiros) and the community in which they live. But he also says that young people will no longer be ashamed of being healers.

"The university is going to change a lot of things because people don't understand the figure of the traditional doctor. Some people are afraid of the traditional doctor and others look at him as a sorcerer, as someone who knows how to kill. This university is coming to enlighten the community and young people in particular so that they are not afraid of the call to become healers because the university will give prestige to the profession," he said.

In addition, Mbaimbai Hlati said that the university teaches that healers should be clean and tidy people. "It's a way we've found to bring healers out of the darkness that has haunted them for so long."