The Mysteries Of Isinuka, A ‘Miracle Spring’ That Cures Everything

For many years, scores of people have been descending upon a remote spring in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, to seek treatment for various ailments. Locals and visitors, whether poor or rich, illiterate or educate, flock to Isinuka, a sulphur spring with mud baths located in a densely forested region a few kilometers from Port St Johns.

They believe that the site has magical healing powers. The name Isinuka means “place with a smell” mostly due to the smell of the sulphur in the water. People drink the spring water to treat several illnesses, including to cure skin ailments and repair muscle sprains, according to Daily Dispatch. Some are also all for the mud baths for spiritual healing. People essentially smear their bodies with the mud.

Many even go to the site with plastic containers to leave with some spring water to continue treatment at home. “Peo­ple be­lieve Is­inuka heals back­ache, headaches, stom­ach as well as skin ail­ments and a host of other con­di­tions. There is no sci­en­tific proof of this, it’s just a gen­eral be­lief. Scores of peo­ple claim to have been helped by Is­inuka,” Port St Johns’ mayor Mnyamezeli Mangqo told the Daily Dispatch in 2013.