Levi the herbal healer

AT FIRST glance, the little cedar wood structure looks like an ordinary craft shop... but then an aroma tickles your nostrils and draws you closer even if it is for just a little taste of what is cooking. There, nestled in a shaded section on the beach in therapeutic Castara, northeast Tobago, is where you will discover one of Tobago’s best-kept secrets, the Boboshanti Herbal Steam Therapy Retreat and Massage Centre. It is here that Levi “Boboshanti” Joseph, the “grandmaster” of herbal remedies, concocts his bush teas and performs his miracles. “The herbs have a healing power. Basically, the herbs that I use are for colds, stress and skin disorders. I have also healed people with sinus conditions, respiratory ailments, skin complications and pain in the joints and muscles. I’ve treated over 200 people and I have never had negative feedback or any problems,” boasted the acclaimed “Priest of Good Soul” of his six years in the business.

Boboshanti remembers growing up in an era where herbs were used to cure any ailment and aims to revive the dying culture of herbal remedies, which he believes are far more effective than any conventional cure. “What really triggered me off was when I was in Jamaica, where I lived for a while in the Blue Mountains with the Maroons, and I was sick. They gave me this same herbal steam treatment and it healed me. So I kept it and improved on it a little and brought it to a marketable state.” Boboshanti, who studied Agriculture at the University of Texas, USA, explained how he came into the business. For his steam bath, he uses a magical blend of 13 herbs, all found in the rainforest, “to clear your body of toxins and infections to create peace, vitality and a wonderful feeling of personal rebirth and well being.” He firmly believes that when the body is clean, unwanted energy is also eliminated from the mind and the spirit, leaving a potent sense of wellbeing.

The baths begin at $250 and are taken privately in a little steam room where the individual sits for at least an hour while the steam being let off by the brewing herbs (concealed somewhere) cleanses the pores as its aroma relaxes the mind. He explained that his clientele consisted mainly of tourists as there was a belief in the local population that the baths were taken in a hot tub with herbs floating around. He added that the stigma attached to the Boboshanti movement did not help his business either. “More of the tourists patronise the business because they are more familiar with the steam and these new therapies. They are always willing to try new things, but the local people are skeptical. The tourists seem to trust the rastas in terms of these types of remedies because they know that we do not go to doctors for illness and that all the little ailments that plague the body, we have all the remedies for them.”

Boboshanti does not intend to change the name of his business as it reflects his religion and his spirituality. Apart from making house calls, he also operates a treatment centre in London where he spends at least half of the year. Why London? “Well everybody suggested that that is the land of the herbal therapies and if I launched there I would be able to get some sort of recognition. But I haven’t made any inroads in that market yet because it is a very competitive market,” he noted. Instead, he plans to concentrate more on the local market and the expansion of his little business on the beach. “Within the next two weeks I will be breaking this structure down and expanding because of the type of promotion that I am embarking on. Promotion is getting out there and people are becoming more aware of it so I have to make it more convenient and take it to the next level. Right now I’m trying to attract the Trinidad market to take advantage of this therapy and hopefully I will eventually open a centre in Trinidad.”